A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Business Administration in Corporate Management (MBA-CM) of Mzumbe University.
Today’s companies are striving to improve the performance of their purchasing functions, where cost of materials, savings through reduced materials rejected and quality of materials purchased as well as smooth inventory flow to facilitate continuous production are the main factors that determine performances of purchasing function. The objective was to assess the performance of purchasing function aimed to bring knowledge about performance of purchasing function in private firm in production sector. The study used interpretive philosophy where the design for this study was a case study. Quantitatively data collected were summarized to ensure that they are in the form suitable for addressing both research questions and the method of analysis used.
The study realized that measuring purchasing performance is important as the purchasing department plays an ever increasingly important role in the supply chain in an economic downturn. A reduction in the cost of raw material and services allows companies to competitively market the price of their finished goods in order to win business. It was realized that the performance of the purchasing function at Bakhresa Food Products Limited is measured using a variety of measurements. It was revealed that these measurements are relevant to the performance of its purchasing department. The study concludes that cost saving, vendor quality, delivery metrics, price effectiveness, transportation cost and inventory flow employees are the main factors used in evaluating the performance of its purchasing function. It was recommended that the company should improve its effort on obtaining the right information and right sizing their vendor list and vendor costs, Leverage their volume with their vendors and that purchasing and finance should form a team to identify current spending and where the greatest opportunities for improvement exist.