procurement system essay

Procurement Management Essay

Added value that effective procurement activities can have to a company or organisation.

An organisation requires human and physical resources for an effective business operation. Supply chain management is a strategic planning, control and monitoring of processes involved in the material delivery in a company for production of goods and services. Its main aim is to ensure that the end customer gets constant supply of final goods as per their expectations.

Procurement is part of supply chain management with the role of ensuring that a company gets materials from the most efficient supplier at an appropriate cost. It also ensures that materials and machinery for production are available in the right time at an appropriate quality and quantity.

With an effective procurement strategy, a company is bound to benefit. The role of procurement department extends from procuring for raw materials, machineries, office suppliers to developing an effective procurement process (Karp, 2005). This paper analyzes the benefits that effective Procurement activities can have on an organisation.

Procurement

Since the late 1990’s procurement has become an important concerns of different business both in service and product industries. Companies are deploying experts in supplies and purchasing in their efforts to ensure they benefit from an effective procurement logistics. In modern globalized economies, international trade has taken preference giving companies the freedom to procure from different parts of the world.

This calls for an extension of procurement department roles as it has to consider international logistic matters. It would be misleading to state that there is an effective procurement method that can be applied to all business set up and yield good results.

Each business is superior in its own ways and so do the procurement strategies and mechanisms. However, there are common procedures that must be taken for an effective procurement (Ketchen and Hult, 2006).

The diagram below shows a standards procurement system:

The above diagram shows basic steps involved in a procurement process, each process has its role in the entire process. In case of a failure in one area, then the entire system is likely not to be effective. It involves three major department or sections which are stakeholders they are technical division which is mostly involved in researching the market and prices of various materials.

The procurement and contracting department consumes information from the technical team and makes the final decision. The supplier is the heart of the process as he conclude the entire procedure. After a successful procurement, data is collected for future procurement decisions.

With the growth of the procurement sector, a number of procurement companies offering outsourcing services have emerged, the major decision that a company should make is whether it will manage the systems centrally or locally or it should outsource these services (Khoo, Bainbridge, Spedding and Taplin, 2001).

Whichever the option, a well managed procurement department and processes are beneficial to accompany in the following areas:

Quality maintenance and value management

The quality of a company’s products and services is subject to materials used in the production. If procured goods are of high quality, then the final products are likely to be of high quality. According to 4ps of marketing mix as developed in 1960 by a marketing expert called E J McCarthy, the quality of a company’s product determine the successes and competitiveness of a company’s product in local and international markets.

Maintaining an effective procurement department ensures that there are materials and other inputs required in production at the right time in an appropriate cost. When appealing for customers to buy ones brands, the quality of the products is of importance, quality is measured by the level of utility that a product gives to the buyer.

At any one time, the quality of product should be high enough that it can satisfy the expectation of customers. Centralisation and having a full department that thinks and gets to the market to collect purchasing data will go a long way in ensuring that a company gets goods at an appropriate cost. Market forces keep adjusting the prices of commodities due to demand and supply forces.

A robust procurement department will be in touch with changes in the market for better decisions. The success of Nokia phone can be attributed to its high quality products that keeps changing with the needs of the environment (Kouvelis, Chambers and Wang, 2006).

Green supplies and company success

Industrialisation, town development and increased population have brought about environmental damage; consumers are getting more interested in environmental conservation. They are increasingly becoming aware and concerned about conservation of the environment; they are more willing to trade with those companies that produce environmentally friendly products through environmentally friendly processes.

With an effective procurement department, is going to analyze the prevailing condition in the market and make decisions that are responsive to the needs of customers. Procurement department is responsible for developing a green supply chain management; it undertakes internal and external audits to ensure that products and processes are environmentally friendly.

It also ensures that goods are produced at minimal or no pollution and the final products do not pollute the environment. When well procured, a company can procure products that can be recycled for environmental conservation. Numerous advantages accrue to a company when it produces via environmentally friendly processes and products.

To have an environmentally friendly production, the process starts with procurement of machineries used in production and the materials to be used in production. A company that produces such goods enjoys an increased customer base and favour from environmental policies activities.

For example, the success of Starbucks have been attributed to its strong environmental conservation has lead to its success in its hospitality industry. The process adopted by the company emanates from procurement department where it ensures that a company gets good from farmers that using an appropriate technology (Larson and Halldorsson, 2004).

Procurement and building a strong brand name

It is the dream of every company to develop and retain a strong brand name. A company with a strong brand name benefit from customer loyalty, minimization of marketing risks, positive responses to changes in prices, and brand-extension. It is also a strong marketing and self-advertising tool.

To fight competition, a company needs to create a close attachment between customers and the company’s products. Products are the results of a manufacturing process that initially starts with procurement.

Consumers are willing to be loyal to those companies whose processes and products meet their need. When procuring, procuring team ensures that, they have the expectation of the customer in mind. This will ensure that the company has a continued supply of customers for an increased profitability.

Toyota Company has maintained the leadership in the automobile industry because of a strong brand name (Manul and Mentzer, 2008)

Procurement leads to good Supplier relation

For an effective production, a company needs to maintain good relation will all its stakeholders. To develop good business relationship with suppliers, procurement department plays an important role. It ensures that orders are procured in the right time and payments to suppliers effected as per the contract of supply.

When a company has good customer-supplier relation, it is likely to get goods at a better price and adequate and reliable market data from suppliers for strategic decision-making.

For example when prices of goods are likely to fall, suppliers may have the information, thus when there are good relations, they will pass the information to the company to control its purchase of raw material.

Information is power thus when there are adequate supplies information, a company is able to make decisions which are responsive to changes in the market. Starbucks has maintained a good relation with its suppliers has ensured the company has constant supply of goods and services.

Procurement assists in maintaining adequate working capital

Working capital is the operating finances at the disposal of a company at one particular point to be use finance different expenses. It is the through operating capital that a business can take advantage of opportunities. It is the difference between current assets and current liabilities; it assists in smooth operation of business. To have a positive working capital calls for management of debtors and creditors (Peltz, 2010).

Procurement department assists a company to maintain its creditors at a minimum rate; credit policy adopted in a company is crucial in maintaining a positive working capital. It is the role of the procurement department to ensure that it has a well-managed credit balance to meet the double goals of paying suppliers in time and maintaining a positive working capital (Hokkaido Electric Power Co., 2010)

With the assistance of procurement department, the company will be able to take advantage of opportunities in created by the market and mitigate against negative effects of suppliers power. The success of Apple Electronic Company is vested in it adequate working capital; it is able to take advantage of changing technological needs (Fugate, Mentzer and Stank, 2010).

Just in time supply mechanism

A procurement system assists a company to save on costs of warehousing; a system of efficiency and effectiveness in the procurement system leads to just in time supply mechanism. A just in time supply system ensure that a company gets materials at the right time for an effective production without necessarily holding stock of materials (Fugate, Mentzer and Stank, 2010).

To have an effective just in time supply system, the procurement department ensure that only goods required in production are procured for and they will be supplied in an effective time. It considers the lead-time of supplies; in times of boom, a company requires more materials that time of low production.

Despite having a just in time policy, the company will adjust effectively to changes in demand of materials. A just in time supply means that at any one point in time, the company is has adequate supply at a minimal costs.

The costs saved by a just in time system include, saving on warehousing costs, stock maintenance costs and handling costs. The reduced cost reduces the cost of production for a company thus, it can sell its products relatively cheaper than companies can in the same industry (Fred, 2008).

Formation of an integrated supply chain management

Procurement is a major department in the formation of a supply chain system. Supply chain system is a multi objective decision involving internal and external players procurement is the heart of the system.

With invention of computers, integrated supply chain and logistic systems has been developed; for an effective integrated system, the inputs of the procurement department. It provides the developers with information necessary to create lead-times, reorder level and quantity ordering levels. (Darnall, Jolley and Handfield, 2008).

An following diagram interpolates an integrated supply chain system;

It involves integrating all systems in an organisation for an effective collaboration among different departments. Certain lead-time and reorder levels are maintained to assist in making decision on the amount and timing of an order.

Procurement department maintains a pool of data and information regarding suppliers and the product they offer. They also have various credit policies operated by different suppliers thus making a decision on the right supplier at a particular point considering the internal liquidity and needs of good is facilitated.

In modern free market, more than one supplier offers different packages for the same goods can supply goods, an effective procuring department will scrutinize and place an order to the customer who supplies goods at an appropriate cost, quality and can be reliable. All this information is with the procurement department thus it assists in making the right decision on whom to procure (Creswell, 1998).

Procurement assists in international procurement contracts

International trade and globalisation has facilitated the purchase of materials from international market. Although the underlying principle is the same like that implemented in local purchasing, there are special factors that need to be put into considerations.

When buying internationally, customs logistic of importing and exporting country should be well understood to ensure that the company operates within the law and understands all costs involved in international procurement. It is the role of procuring department to ensure that it advices the company on such issues appropriately to facilitate the logistics (Cooper, Lambert and Pagh, 1997).

Some areas that it needs to advise as far as international procurement is concerned include custom laws, duties, rules of origin, trading blocs and any incentives offered by the government to facilitate such trade.

A company without an effective procurement system might make international procurements ignoring monitoring and control policies put in place by a country; alternatively, it may fail to benefit from trade facilitation policies set by national or international bodies. Mearsk limited is successful in international logistic company by understanding international customs laws (Burns, 2000).

Procurement and continuous flow of goods

For production to occur there is need for raw materials and machinery. To have a continuous supply of goods a company needs to have an effective procurement system. It will guarantee the company and ample supply of raw materials when they are needed in the production plants.

When a company has a smooth flow of goods to the market, customers gets confidence with the brand of products, this increases consumer loyalty and preferences.

When developing a strong brand, products should be available to customers when they need them, this can only be effected if procumbent department ensures that production plants are well fed with materials they require to meet the expectation of the customers (Balnaves and Caputi, 2002)

Procurement and waste management

Waste management has been a problem in industries; it can be controlled by using appropriate technology and materials in production. Procurement department undertakes the role of procuring for machinery of the right technology and materials that are likely to produce minimal wastes.

Sometimes a company has the option of using materials that can be recycled; procurement department has the role of ensuring the materials and machinery used emit minimal waste as a process of waste management (Hsu, Tan, Kannan, and Keong, 2009)

In rather an indirect way, procurement can order for goods form companies whose system of production are environmentally friendly. When this is done, then the company will be assisting in preserving and managing the environment.

Although the benefits from such an angle may not be immediate, they will be felt in the future. Honda Motor Company has benefited in the market because of its effective waste management system; this has assisted the company produce its products at a lower cost.

For an effective and continuous production, a company needs to maintain a reliable procurement department. It ensures that there is continuous supply of materials and machineries required for production, at an appropriate cost and of the right quality and quantity. When an effective procurement management is maintained, a company gains competitive advantage.

The effects of an effective procurement department is felt in the following areas waste management, green supplies, just in time supply, cost management , management of working capital and developing good suppliers-company relationship. It adds value to a company in form of financial gain, reputation and smooth flow of functions.

Balnaves, M. and Caputi, P., 2002. Introduction to Quantitative Research Methods: An Investigative Approach . London: Sage.

Burns, R.B., 2000. Introduction to Research Methods . London: Sage.

Cooper, M.C., Lambert, D.M. and Pagh, J., 1997. Supply Chain Management: More Than a New Name for Logistics. The International Journal of Logistics Management , 8(1), pp. 1–14.

Creswell, J., 1998. Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.

Darnall, N., Jolley, G. and Handfield, R., 2008. Environmental management systems and green supply chain management: complements for sustainability?. Business Strategy & the Environment, 17(1), pp. 30-45.

Fred, D., 2008. Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases . New Jersey: Pearson Education.

Fugate, B., Mentzer, J. and Stank, T.,2010. LOGISTICS PERFORMANCE: EFFICIENCY, EFFECTIVENESS, AND DIFFERENTIATION. Journal of Business Logistics , 31(1), pp. 43-62.

Hokkaido Electric Power Co., Inc., 2010. FLOW CHART OF STANDARD PROCUREMENT PROCEDURES . Web.

Hsu, C., Tan, K., Kannan, V. and Keong, G., 2009. Supply chain management practices as a mediator of the relationship between operations capability and firm performance. International Journal of Production Research , 47(3), pp. 835-855.

Karp, H. R.,2005. Green suppliers network: Strengthening and Greening the manufacturing supply base. Environmental Quality Management , 15(2),pp. 37-46.

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Khoo, H. H., Bainbridge, I., Spedding, T. A. and Taplin, D. R.,2001. Creating a Green Supply Chain. Greener Management International , 2(35), pp.. 71-78.

Kouvelis, P., Chambers, C. and Wang, H., 2006. Supply Chain Management Research and Production and Operations Management: Review, Trends, and Opportunities. Production & Operations Management , 15(3), pp 449-469.

Larson, P.D. and Halldorsson, A., 2004. Logistics versus supply chain management: an international survey . International Journal of Logistics: Research & Application , 7(1), pp 17-31.

Manuj, I. and Mentzer, J., 2008. GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN RISK MANAGEMENT. Journal of Business Logistics , 29(1), pp 133-155.

Peltz, E., 2010. Logistics: Supply Based or Distribution Based? Web.

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1 Introduction to Procurement

Note .  From ProPhotoStock, 2014. CC BY 3.0 .

Learning Objectives

• Define procurement and its purpose.
• Understand key procurement objectives.
• Explain procurement roles and activities.
• Analyze the key procurement procedures and processes.
• Evaluate the key steps carried out in managing the procurement process.

What do you know about the procurement process?

Procurement in the supply chain world.

The purpose of this book is to equip the learner with knowledge about the key aspects of procurement and supply management. The chapters are intended to provide an overview and definitions of supply management and procurement. Additionally, key policies, procedures, processes, and requirements for effective and efficient implementation are presented. The effective implementation of procurement activities is a critical function in the overall supply chain process. This chapter further describes the identification of requirements, identification, and qualification of suppliers, supplier bidding and negotiation, approval for purchases, and supplier performance monitoring and performance measurement.

Purchasing and Procurement

The terms procurement and purchasing are often used interchangeably; however, they have important similarities and differences between them. This certification track employs the following definitions for each term:

• Procurement : Procurement is the management of all processes involved in obtaining the goods and services necessary for manufacturing products and providing services to customers. Procurement focuses on sourcing activities, negotiation with suppliers, and the strategic selection of goods and services that enable an organization to maximize value from a select group of key supplier partners.
• Purchasing : Purchasing is a function within the procurement process that is largely transactional and associated with how goods and services are ordered. Purchasing involves receiving and processing purchase requisitions (requirements) and converting them to purchase orders (POs) (awards to suppliers).

A Procurement Example

Procurement professionals interact with a wide array of internal and external organizations; they work with suppliers, other functions in the supply chain, and other functions within the company, such as marketing and engineering. An example of a cereal manufacturing and supply chain process and the key role procurement plays to purchase grain and other raw materials, along with packaging and labelling products needed to make breakfast cereal, the finished product in this example. 

In addition, to the raw materials, the company also purchases paperboard from a paper manufacturer and labels from a label manufacturer. In turn, the paper manufacturer purchases trees to make the paper, and the label manufacturer purchases semi-finished stock to make the labels. After making the cereal and packaging it, the cereal manufacturer sends the cereal to the distributor, which then ships the product to the grocery store at which the end customers purchase their cereal. Throughout this sample supply chain, the purchasing of goods and services takes place between various entities.

The example shows how materials and products move from one entity to another while information (e.g., specification, quantities, and desired receiving date) also flows between the various entities. This information flow is important because it is needed to ensure the right products are delivered at the right place, at the right time, and at the right price.

The Importance of Procurement

The procurement function plays a critical role in supporting the ongoing functioning of a firm by ensuring a continuous flow of materials, products, and services to support the firm’s operations while continually seeking opportunities to reduce costs, minimize supply risk, and maintain expected quality levels. The importance of the procurement department can be seen by the key inputs it provides firms, including:

• The raw materials and intermediate goods and services needed in the production of goods and services.
• Finished goods and services required for resale or for operational purposes.
• Capital goods and consumables are needed for the business.

These inputs are critical to a business. The procurement department plays a key role in obtaining these inputs at appropriate levels of cost, quality, and on-time delivery to ensure the continuity of inputs from suppliers. As noted previously, the procurement function plays a vital role in the supply chain; the following list describes several major benefits of effectively managing procurement.

• Cost reduction : Procurement represents an excellent opportunity for saving money because organizations can spend up to 50% or more of their revenues on raw materials, work in process, finished goods, spare parts, services, and other goods needed to keep operations going. Significant savings can be achieved by applying effective procurement techniques.
• Quality improvement : Procurement directly impacts the quality of the overall products sold by companies, because it is responsible for purchasing raw materials and other unfinished or finished goods. The quality of raw and other materials used in producing goods almost always affects the quality of the end products.
• Product enhancement : Procurement can also improve products and process designs by helping introduce new technologies into companies’ product and service offerings. For example, procurement can work with internal and external engineering personnel and suppliers to improve product reliability and performance while also reducing costs.

The 5 Procurement Functions

The main objective of the procurement function is purchasing materials and services at the lowest total cost possible while ensuring the required quality levels and meeting the needs of internal and external customers. Much of this effort entails identifying and negotiating with suppliers to reduce the costs of purchased products and services; however, procurement departments must also consider other items that add to the total cost of procurement, including transportation costs, payment terms, return policies, and warranties.

The five key objectives for a procurement department are: supporting operational requirements, working with other functional groups, partnering with suppliers, supporting organizational goals and objectives, and developing sourcing strategies.

1) Supporting Operational Requirements

Procurement supports the day-to-day operational requirements of a firm by acquiring raw materials, components, subassemblies, finished goods, maintenance, repair items, and services.  Procurement aids supply chain elements like transportation and distribution centres (DCs) by ensuring that the end customers receive the replacement parts or finished products they need. Additionally, procurement supports the departments involved in developing new plants or products, installing and commissioning new machinery, and providing replacement parts by ensuring that parts, replacement parts, and machinery are available as needed in the required quantities, at the required quality, and at an appropriate cost.

2) Working with Other Functional Groups

Procurement plays a vital role in ensuring continuity of supply, reducing costs, sourcing from qualified suppliers, and ensuring that the quality of goods and services is maintained. However, procurement cannot accomplish these tasks without a close working relationship with several other functions within a firm, including top management, operations, engineering, marketing, quality assurance, and finance. Procurement works with top management to ensure that the procurement strategy is aligned with the overall organizational strategy and objectives. Procurement has a working relationship with the following functions within a firm shown in the list below.

• Make vs Buy
• Insight into Capacity, Materials, Service Needs
• Requirements in Quality, Cost, Cycle Times
• Insight into Specifications and Requirements
• Support in Value Analysis Exercises
• Insight into Evolving Technologies
• Insight into New Product Development
• Support in Total Cost Analysis
• Sales Forecasting
• Suppliers perform as expected
• Quality training
• Corrective action planning
• Supplier quality planning
• Material re-work costs
• The total cost of an item
• Making or buying products
• Capital acquisition decisions

3) Partnering with Suppliers

Partnerships and effective supplier management have become increasingly important to improve firms’ Supply Chain Management (SCM) competitiveness. For instance, forming partnerships, or strategic alliances, with suppliers allows them to focus on providing quality products and services. This comes about while working closely with key suppliers to develop long-term partnerships based on trust. Additionally, close buyer-supplier relationships offer numerous technical, financial, and strategic advantages, such as opportunities to work together to re-engineer products to lower costs while maintaining functionality. Many companies have adopted a strategy of using a smaller number of suppliers for key products and services rather than working with many suppliers. This strategy is adopted to allow companies to focus their efforts on improving performance and reducing costs with fewer, better suppliers.

Typically, a partnership with suppliers is required to ensure an adequate supply of quality materials overtime at an optimal total acquired cost. A strategic alliance is defined as a purposive relationship between two or more independent firms that involves exchanging, sharing, or co-developing resources and capabilities to achieve mutually relevant benefits (Kale & Singh, 2009). However, once formed, these strategic alliances must be developed through effective relationship management. For example, a company may provide warehouse layout and design services to multiple companies and may work together with a firm that provides the actual storage and handling equipment that support new warehouse designs.

Global competition has grown, and companies have developed supply chains that rely heavily on external suppliers. One well-known example is Apple, which outsources product and component manufacturing. This emphasis on concentrating on core competencies has seen a dramatic rise in outsourcing to, and reliance on, external suppliers to provide not only materials and products but also services (e.g., IT support and design services). As more emphasis is placed on the use of external suppliers, including global suppliers, procurement departments’ roles must also involve close support and management of these suppliers. The procurement function has a vital responsibility to meet the needs of both internal and external customers by choosing products and services with specific criteria. Products and services must come from the best sources of supply and be made to the correct specifications, have the desired levels of quality at a reasonable cost, and be made and delivered in the correct quantities. Products and services must be delivered at the right time and to the satisfaction of internal and external customers.

4) Supporting Organizational Goals and Objectives

In order for a company to grow and remain profitable, procurement can help increase revenues and reduce costs and expenses. Using effective procurement strategies, organizations can position themselves to be competitive on both the quality and pricing of their products and services. By helping to reduce the costs of materials and services, procurement thus improves corporate profit margins and return on assets. Additionally, procurement plays an essential role in ensuring the quality of the goods and services needed by an organization. Organizational goals and objectives can be described under four main categories: survival, growth, finances, and environment. However, procurement goals and objectives are typically expressed using other terms like quality and function, delivery, quantity, price, terms and conditions, and services. A critical first step in developing organizations’ strategies is to develop strategic goals, in which procurement plays a major role. The next step is to translate these goals into specific procurement objectives. According to Monczka, Trent, and Handfield (2005), procurement functions must ultimately support the strategic goals and objectives of the entire organization, including ensuring overall profitability and adequate return on investment for organizations’ shareholders.

5) Developing Sourcing Strategies

Many firms face the challenge of remaining competitive in the face of highly competitive world markets. A firm’s ability to effectively develop and execute strategic plans is a major factor in generating future earnings and can even be critical to the firm’s survival. Organizations must take in more than what they spend on operating costs over the long term if they want to grow and remain profitable. Increasing revenues, decreasing costs, or a mixture of both can accomplish this key goal. Procurement plays an important role in helping accomplish both objectives.

Through effective procurement strategies, organizations can be competitive in the quality and prices of their products and services. For example, reducing the costs of materials and services is an area in which procurement plays a vital role and thus helps to improve corporate profit margins. In many cases, procured goods and services provide a major area of opportunity for reducing costs and improving return on assets. Procurement departments must develop sourcing strategies to support the overall organizational strategy; they aim to ensure the survival and competitiveness of the whole organization. A sourcing strategy is the expression of the goals and objectives for selecting the best sources of supply and optimizing the procurement spend for an organization, which are tied to the overall corporate strategy. For example, a commodity sourcing strategy might develop a specific approach for a category or group of raw materials that maximize quality and minimize cost.

Procurement Roles and Activities

The procurement function seeks to obtain the highest quality of goods and services at the lowest possible costs at the right time and place. To achieve this goal, various roles and activities are performed at different levels of management within the procurement function. Procurement provides an ongoing analysis of price and cost trends. The cost of purchased goods often represents the most significant component of companies’ costs, so procurement functions must analyze the cost of sourcing products and services to ensure they are obtained at the lowest possible cost. Procurement roles and activities consist of the following functions:

• Procurement assists internal departments in defining and documenting material specifications to communicate to suppliers.
• Procurement estimates the future supply needs of organizations, which are then communicated to suppliers.
• Procurement ensures that sourced goods and services meet minimum quality standards in order to meet buyers’ expectations at an acceptable cost.
• Procurement regularly reports on material lead times and supplier performance.
• Procurement draws up contracts and negotiates mutually acceptable terms with suppliers. Procurement conducts market research to identify new suppliers to meet customers’ needs. Procurement expedites and authorized premiums for the delivery of shipments, where necessary, to ensure that production needs are met and deliver appropriate customer order fulfillment.
• Procurement finds and develops best-in-class suppliers. The success of procurement depends on its ability to align supply-based decisions with organizations’ strategic priorities and to identify or develop suppliers, analyze their capabilities, select the most appropriate options, and work with those suppliers to deliver continuous improvement.
• Procurement ensures the uninterrupted flow of materials, supplies, and services required to operate organizations. This prevents stock-outs or late deliveries of materials, components, and services (which can be extremely costly in terms of lost production), reduced revenue or profit, and a decline in customer goodwill.

Types of Buying Organizations

Organizations procure goods and services for different purposes. According to Fill and Fill (2005), here are the primary forms of organization that procure goods and services:

• Commercial organizations : Commercial organizations consist of industrial distributors, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), users, and retailers. They procure goods as raw materials, components, and finished products for resale. Additionally, the miscellaneous materials and services needed to support running an organization need to be procured. Support items may range from office supplies and real estate to lawn services and health insurance policies.
• Governments : Governments are the biggest procurement customers. They often use procurement to meet small business (e.g., women-owned, veteran-owned, Native American-owned, etc.) objectives, spending many billions annually as a result. Governments’ procurement budget is spent on a wide range of activities, from public hospitals and schools to the organization of the departments themselves.
• Institutions : These include private universities, hospitals, and schools. Institutions buy, for example, textbooks, classroom furniture, medical equipment, audiovisual equipment, and computers.
• Public organizations : Public organizations include railways and nuclear power plants that make purchases for operational and production purposes.

Types of Products and Services Purchased

Procurement personnel are responsible for purchasing many different products and services, depending on the nature of their industry and the nature of their organization. These are examples of different goods and services procurement is responsible for procuring:

• Raw materials : These include products that have not been processed or have undergone only a small degree of processing. They are the basic materials in the production process and become part of final manufactured products. Examples include mined minerals, coal, and cotton.
• Semi-finished goods : They are also known as manufactured products because they have been partially assembled; however, they need further assembly and processing before they can be sold. These products are visible in final products and include elements such as steel and rolled wire.
• Capital equipment : Capital items are usually the most expensive purchases; they include large pieces of equipment used in production processes, such as power generating equipment and buildings.
• Original Equipment Manufacture (OEMs’) component parts : OEMs are products that are purchased for resale or assembled into final products with no further processing. An example of an OEM is the alternator in a motor engine.
• Maintenance, repair, operating materials : Maintenance, repair, and operating materials (MROs) are not directly required for the production process but are important for the continued operation of organizations, such as office and cleaning supplies and other consumables.
• Finished goods : Finished goods require no further processing. They are bought for resale or for use within organizations, such as stock bought for resale by retail organizations.
• Accessory equipment : Accessory equipment includes products used to facilitate production, such as personal computers, hand tools, desktop printers, and toolboxes.
• Services : According to Dwyer and Tanner (2009), services include transportation, advertising, banking, and labour services.
• Major subcontracted items : These include high-cost items used in finished products, such as automobile engines and aircraft engines.

Procurement Process Overview

The procurement process contains steps ranging from working to understanding firms’ needs through ongoing evaluations of supplier performances. These steps are:

• Identifying the Need : A need or requirement may arise from any function but is most often developed through the demand planning process. A need may be raw materials for production purposes or office furniture for administrative departments. User functions sometimes fail to identify needs promptly, which can result in urgent requirements and create challenges for procurement personnel; these challenges can include the need to expedite the supply of goods and the additional costs associated with paying a premium to expedite orders.
• Describing the Product or Service Needed : Requirements are communicated to the procurement function along with the appropriate documents, such as a purchasing requisition. The information contained in the requisition includes the date, originating department, account to be charged, complete descriptions and quantities of materials or services required, date when materials or services are needed, special instructions for shipping or service delivery, and the name of the authorized person initiating the request. As part of the procurement process, procurement professionals work with the person initiating the request to confirm that material and service specifications have been captured correctly. In many cases, engineering drawings and other documents accompany the requisition to describe complex and non-standard items accurately.
• Searching for Potential Suppliers : When appropriate suppliers are not available from a pre-approved list, procurement personnel assume the responsibility for finding other potential suppliers. This search can take place using catalogues, websites, professional organizations, and personal contacts.
• Evaluating and Selecting Suppliers : The critical task of evaluating potential suppliers is accomplished by a multi-function team that conducts a site visit to evaluate a wide range of capabilities, including management, manufacturing planning, process control, quality, and overall workload assessments. While procurement takes the lead, other functions support the evaluation process to ensure a supplier can actually meet the anticipated requirements with smaller standard-item and procurement and catalogue items bought through a published price list, the procurement professional may be able to perform an effective evaluation without assistance.
• Request for Price and Request for Quote Processes : This stage occurs when purchase requisitions are received by purchasing personnel and they initiate a request for price or request for quote (RFQ). Requests for price are initiated and sent to suppliers to obtain pricing for simple, lower-cost items while RFQs involve more complex and expensive items and are sent to suppliers to solicit specifications, pricing, delivery, and other requested information.
• Order Placement : After the request for price and RFQ responses are received, purchasing can place a PO. However, the purchasing buyer and supplier may have completed a negotiating process that included a final agreement on price, delivery arrangements, product requirements, and quality requirements before the buyer actually issues a PO.
• Evaluating Performance : After a supplier has been awarded a PO, it is continually evaluated to determine if its products satisfy the order details stipulated in the PO. Suppliers that provide acceptable products may receive additional orders in the future, but poor supplier performance may lead to removal from the approval database and a lack of future POs. Some procurement departments use supplier scorecards to evaluate supplier performances on quality, delivery timeliness, cost containment, and responsiveness.

Key Takeaways

Procurement is the management of all processes involved in obtaining the goods and services necessary for manufacturing products and providing customer services. Procurement focuses on sourcing activities, negotiations with suppliers, and the strategic selection of goods and services that enable an organization to achieve the best value from a select group of key supplier partners. Procurement functions must have close working relationships with other functions, including production, engineering, and sales and marketing functions because those areas use the products and services that procurement obtains. Organizations of different types are involved in procuring goods and services for different purposes, including commercial and public organizations, governments, and institutions. Stages in the procurement process include receiving requirements for purchase, describing the materials needed, defining and approving suppliers, soliciting suppliers using requests for price and RFQs, placing POs, and evaluating supplier performance.

Review Questions

References .

Dwyer, F. R., & Tanner, F. T. (2009). Business marketing: Connecting strategy, relationships, and learning (4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Fill, C., & Fill, K. E. (2005). Business-to-business marketing: Relationships, systems and communications. Harlow, UK: Pearson Education Limited.

Fottrell, Q., & Scheck, J. (2009, January 8). Dell moving Irish operations to Poland. The Wall Street Journal . http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123141025524864021

Kale, P., & Singh, H. (2009). Managing strategic alliances: What do we know now, and where do we go from here? Academy of Management Perspectives.

Monczka, D., Trent, R., & Handfield, R. (2005). Purchasing and supply chain management (3rd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

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Creative Commons Attribution

This chapter contains material adapted from Supply Management and Procurement Certification Track . LINCS in Supply Chain Management Consortium. March 2017. Version: v2.26. www.LINCSeducation.org .

Procurement in the Supply Chain World Copyright © 2022 by Angela Reid-Regier and Bryan Snage is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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A Systematic Review of Implementation Challenges in Public E-Procurement

• Conference paper
• First Online: 01 April 2020
• Cite this conference paper

• Idah Mohungoo 14 ,
• Irwin Brown 14 &
• Salah Kabanda 14  

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 12067))

Included in the following conference series:

• Conference on e-Business, e-Services and e-Society

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Challenges faced in public e-procurement implementation are not well understood despite past studies focusing on the phenomenon. This paper, which is based on a systematic literature review of academic papers, seeks to synthesize and examine the key challenges impeding public e-procurement implementation. These challenges are categorized using the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework as follows (1) Technological challenges: e-procurement acceptance and usage, disruptive innovation characteristic of e-procurement, use of digital signatures, security and privacy of technology and technical aspects of e-procurement (2) Organizational challenges: stakeholders’ behavior, leaders’ behavior, shortcomings in leadership, lack of training and skilled personnel, resistance to change, organizational power and politics and the creation of public value underlying e-procurement (3) Environmental/Contextual challenges: regulatory framework for public procurement, Small-and-Medium-Size Enterprise issues, and context of the country. Key e-procurement implementation challenges are grounded in human and contextual issues. So we recommend more case studies on public e-procurement implementation in the future.

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• Public e-procurement
• Implementation challenges

1 Introduction

Public e-procurement, commonly referred to as e-GP, is an inter-organizational system (IOS) that is intended to facilitate Government-to-Business (G2B) and Government-Government (G2G) electronic communication, information exchange, and transaction support [ 53 ]. E-procurement, which is part of public procurement reform, is a powerful tool to reduce corruption in public procurement as it reinforces transparency, accountability, and integrity in procurement functions [ 38 ]. Several developed countries such as Singapore, Australia, the UK, the USA, and Japan have successfully implemented public e-procurement systems and are reaping its benefits [ 37 ]. However, in many countries, the implementation of public e-procurement systems is perceived as daunting [ 9 , 16 , 18 , 34 , 37 , 52 ] and it is not used to its full potential.

Sub-Saharan African countries, which on average have low scores on the corruption perception index [ 51 ], have expressed enthusiasm and interest in adopting e-procurement to help to curb corruption and make significant economic impacts. However, these countries face several e-procurement implementation challenges, which if not addressed, can firstly, delay the implementation process which has cost implications and; secondly, motivated leaders can lose interest and enthusiasm in driving implementation if there are too many challenges to be addressed.

Given that public e-procurement implementation is still problematic implies that implementation challenges of public e-procurement have not been well understood to date. To this end, this paper aims to provide an in-depth examination and synthesis from an information system (IS) perspective of the challenges to public e-procurement implementation using a sequentially-phased qualitative systematic literature review approach as informed by Okoli [ 39 ]. The research question, “ What are the implementation challenges to public e - procurement? ” will thus be addressed.

2 Conceptual Background

Public e-procurement implementation is a complex endeavour characterized by multiple Government-to-Business organizations (G2B), and private sector companies. These stakeholders have interests and power that can influence the outcome of the Inter-Organizational Information System (IOIS) implementation [ 9 ]. Under the assumption of information system (IS) as a socio-technical endeavour, the interplay between the implementation of e-procurement and the public-private sector context is deemed to be challenging [ 55 ]. These implementation challenges should be understood in order to formulate effective strategies to contain them. Furthermore, unlike e-procurement in the private sector context, public e-procurement is expected to reflect public values such as accountability and transparency.

Public e-procurement can be understood as a hybrid of e-government, information systems, and public administration. Thus, it is highly likely that e-procurement challenges are documented in papers published in these different domains. So far, there is a lack of an integrated approach to the synthesis of e-procurement implementation challenges; and when there is an attempt to do so, it is carried out in a rather fragmented manner. Researchers have seldom stepped outside a specific discipline in e-procurement literature reviews. For example, Patrucco [ 43 ] undertook a systematic literature review on public e-procurement, focusing only on papers published in the Journal of Public Procurement. While this provides an initial view of e-procurement, such studies fail to provide a holistic view of the phenomenon given that e-procurement spans works in e-government, information systems, and public administration. To address this shortcoming, this paper offers a systematic approach to synthesizing e-procurement implementation challenges by including publications from the three domains mentioned above. The Technology-Organizational-Environment (TOE) framework [ 50 ] which is popular in studies of adoption and implementation of innovations, will be used to present the e-procurement implementation challenges. The TOE framework [ 50 ] allows the identification of the main factors influencing the adoption and implementation of innovations within different organizational contexts and therefore serves a good starting point for structuring the study – specifically the identification of technological, organizational and environmental challenges constraining e-procurement implementation.

3 Research Methodology

3.1 research approach.

A sequentially-phased, qualitative systematic literature review approach informed by Okoli [ 39 ] is used in this paper. It is characterized by a sequence of activities starting with article search, followed by practical screening, a full reading of papers, synthesis, and analysis.

3.2 Data Collection

A Desktop search of relevant articles was systematically done using a timeline from 2001 to date. Based on Google Scholar, the earliest case studies on public e-procurement were published around the year 2001. Data collection was focused consistently around the aim of the research, and the keywords used were specific to the goal of the study, as shown in Fig.  1 , which depicts the different systematic passes used in the search and selection of relevant articles:

Search and selection of articles (after the fashion of Gunther et al. 2017)

The first pass : articles were searched and selected from top-rated journals in the streams of information systems, e-government, and public administration, e.g.:

Basket of eight leading Information Systems (IS) journals: European Journal of Information Systems, Information Systems Journal, Information Systems Research, Journal of Association of Information Systems, Journal of Management Information System, MIS Quarterly, Journal of Strategic Information Systems and Journal of Information Technology.

Given that in several developing countries including those in Africa, e-procurement implementation is an important issue, the top 3 IT4D journals, i.e., Electronic Journal of Information System in Developing Countries (EJISDC), IT for Development and IT for International Development were also searched.

IS conference proceedings focusing on emerging e-procurement implementation challenges that are found in research-in-progress in the respective afore-mentioned streams. The AIS top 4 conferences (ICIS, ECIS, PACIS, and AMCIS) were searched as well as IFIP conferences.

Leading top-rated e-government journals consulted were: International Journal of E-Government Research (IJEGR), Journal of E-Government, Journal of e-Governance, Government Information Quarterly

In public administration stream: the Journal of Public Administration and Public Administration Review were searched.

The second pass was a backward search after the initial search yielded few papers. The purpose of the second pass was to look for additional relevant conference papers and journal articles in other domains.

The third pass involved searching for adoption-focused e-procurement papers that were previously eliminated in the first-pass. This pass increased the likelihood of gathering additional secondary data on implementation challenges of e-procurement because some adoption-focused papers were case studies of post-acquisition of e-procurement software and thus were likely to contain facts on e-procurement implementation challenges.

3.3 Analysis

The data corpus, which now stood at 165 articles after the previous process, was subjected to a ‘Practical Screening’ phase to remove irrelevant articles [ 39 ] using a process of inclusion and exclusion criteria. This process required the principal researcher reading the article’s Title, Abstract, Introduction, and Conclusion, as explained in Table  1 . Following the screening, 45 papers were retained for full reading and 34 for the final analysis as shown in Table  2 . After this analysis process, relevant arguments that explain the implementation challenges faced in e-procurement implementation were extracted from the 34 papers. The key arguments were then subjected to thematic analysis in NVIVO. Emergent themes generated from common patterns in the data corpus are shown in Table  3 . These themes were then structured as per the TOE framework [ 50 ] for easier conceptualization.

4 Findings and Discussion

4.1 technological challenges.

Key technological challenges that deserve due attention given that they are tied with human and contextual issues are acceptance and usage issues, disruptive innovation, digital signature, and IT security issues. The remaining ones pertain to the technical aspects of e-procurement, and they are grouped as ‘other technological challenges’ in the discussion below.

Acceptance and Usage Issues.

The findings indicate that acceptance and usage is an important challenge for e-procurement. The reasons were vast, ranging from techno-centric issues to broader dimensions such as dissatisfaction with e-procurement systems that do not meet the needs of users with the consequence of emergence of multiple workarounds [ 37 ]; Lack of user-friendliness of e-procurement [ 5 , 34 ]; Complicated systems [ 5 , 20 ]; Inability to enlist sufficient suppliers in a timely manner to encourage IS use [ 53 ]; The use of technology which is in tension with cultural histories of IT usage, bureaucratic processes and business practices [ 55 ].

Disruptive Innovation.

E-procurement is viewed as a disruptive innovation [ 4 , 35 ] that can drive a radical transformation, thereby uprooting some institutionalized work practices. It may conflict with the slow-to-change culture of G2G stakeholders of e-procurement [ 36 ].

Digital Signature/Electronic Signature.

Costa, Arantes, and Tavarez [ 17 ] found that digital signature, which is mandatory for e-procurement, is complex to use and is costly, whereas Ojha and Pandey [ 40 ] found that the digital signature is a means of excessive security on e-procurement causing exclusion of some suppliers. Beyond these techno-centric aspects, the use of digital or electronic signatures can directly clash with the stakeholders’ values, beliefs, and customs associated with manuscript signatures [ 49 ].

IT Security issues.

Mc cue Roman [ 37 ] found that IT security and authenticity was the major challenge in e-procurement as stakeholders had concerns and demanded more re-assurance with regards to the robustness of the security aspect of the e-procurement platform in terms of IT security measures implemented for access control, backup and recovery [ 22 ].

Other Technological Challenges.

Other technological challenges include amongst others, system integration problems with legacy and suppliers’ systems, which is an important technical issue and is underpinned by the use of different enterprise software systems to handle each stage of the procurement cycle [ 2 , 34 ]; the presence of multi-platforms for tendering which confuse bidders [ 5 ]; excessively complicated systems and; different data formats [ 5 , 17 ].

4.2 Organizational Challenges

Organizational issues in e-procurement implementation are interlinked. Lack of a project champion and problems of change management are associated with shortcomings in leadership. Resistance to change is explained alongside other challenges, including departmentalism, major reform through ICT and organizational power and politics.

Stakeholders’ Issues.

Drawing from e-government studies, scholars advocated the importance of sustained engagement of stakeholders in e-government implementation to enhance IS acceptance [ 13 ]. The review findings indicate a lack of stakeholder engagement in e-procurement implementation [ 15 , 33 , 36 ]. Scholars advised implementers to convince stakeholders to get their buy-in to improve IS usage [ 15 , 34 , 52 ].

Leaders’ Behavior.

Williams-Elegbe [ 56 ] argues that public sector leaders often exhibit unethical behaviours which can hamper the implementation of e-procurement. Leaders’ behavior was associated with the failure of past e-government projects [ 25 , 28 ]. Some leaders played overt rationality whilst having buried agendas [ 18 ], and obfuscated the objectives behind e-government to achieve their interests [ 44 ].

Shortcomings in Leadership.

In some cases, public sector leaders are genuinely committed to achieving success in e-procurement implementation, but they may lack leadership skills [ 24 , 34 ] to address change management problems [ 1 , 24 ], and become good project champions which is a critical success factor in any e-government implementation [ 56 ].

Lack of Training and Skilled Personnel.

Inadequate staff training on e-procurement results in low e-procurement usage ([ 17 , 24 , 34 ]). Furthermore, lack of skilled ICT personnel on-site to deal with technical e-procurement issues, service-level agreements, and operationalization of the private-public partnership model of e-procurement implementation are serious impediments to e-procurement implementation ([ 30 , 40 , 46 ]).

Resistance to Change.

Resistance to change is a significant e-procurement implementation challenge with multiple underlying causes. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) resist to e-procurement because they require equitable access to government business [ 55 ]. Besides, the reforms driven through e-government projects often conflict with reforms prescribed in public policies which follow the New Public Management (NPM): Somasundaram [ 46 ] found that centralization ideas underlying e-procurement, conflicted with the decentralization ideology [ 46 ] which challenged the norms of Danish local authorities; while Barca and Cordella [ 6 ] found that e-procurement faces departmentalism challenges which are perceived as a strong cultural and organizational barrier [ 6 ]. Resistance to change is also grounded in organizational power and politics [ 2 ] that shadowed the benefits of e-procurement: purchase managers were unwilling to use e-procurement despite agreeing with the economic arguments of cost-saving, and reduction of direct procurement costs related to the new e-procurement platform [ 29 ].

Value-Driven Outcome.

Unlike the private sector, implementation of public e-procurement is expected to reflect public values of transparency, integrity, and accountability [ 6 , 37 , 53 ]. If the government expects e-procurement to enforce accountability and transparency for good governance, implementation will be called a success when stakeholders make sense of these public values and embrace them, which is indeed challenging to achieve.

4.3 Environmental Challenges

E-procurement implementation yielded different outcomes in different countries, with varying success in Italy, Australia and, Scotland [ 55 ] but failure in Turkey whereby expected results of increased competition and lower procurement prices were not achieved [ 27 ]. Regulatory frameworks, SME issues, and the country context are among the key environmental challenges that have been found as relevant in this review.

Regulatory Framework.

Public procurement regulatory frameworks may present significant challenges in e-procurement implementation [ 21 , 29 , 57 ], the most pertinent ones being the mandated use of e-procurement; and the laws governing the use of digital signatures which limits the participation of SMEs in government bids.

SME Issues.

The difficulties that SMEs face with respect to e-procurement and public procurement process are amongst others: exclusion of SMEs [ 17 , 54 ]; SME lack of investment in ICT infrastructure [ 3 , 27 ]; lack of financial capabilities and contract guarantees as needed by government procurement; insufficient competence in terms of standards and technical qualifications set by the market [ 41 ]. The business context of a country, therefore, poses a challenge to the success of e-procurement implementation especially if SMEs make a substantial contribution to the GDP. In Turkey, exclusion of SMEs negatively affected competition in the market and caused a rise in prices which ran contrary to the proclaimed expectations from public e-procurement implementation [ 27 ].

Country Context.

The federal-state dynamic, especially in big countries has been found to be a key challenge for e-procurement [ 46 ], whereby the best practices underlying the success of e-procurement in a specific state were not replicated to other states as it could compromise the degree of autonomy of the other states. Considering cultural challenges, some developing countries continue with corrupt practices despite e-procurement because corruption has become entrenched in the culture. Overt and covert corruption has become the norm in these countries [ 56 ]. It is challenging to achieve the expected objectives of e-procurement, i.e., transparency, accountability and curbing corruption.

Other Country-Related Challenges.

E-procurement which is a G2B e-government project and is based on e-commerce technology, faces similar country-context challenges of e-government implementation in developing countries such as poor ICT infrastructure, language barriers, impact of local customs, norms and national culture, lack of financial instruments such as debit/credit card to facilitate e-commerce [ 11 , 32 ]. These contextual challenges are beyond the scope of this review but are directly relevant to e-procurement.

The key e-procurement implementation challenges are interlinked, as presented under the TOE typology [ 50 ] in Fig.  2 . The arrows indicate the relationship between the key challenges identified and discussed in this study.

Inter-relationship of key e-procurement implementation challenges

5 Conclusion

This study aimed to synthesize and examine the implementation challenges to public e-procurement. A multi-disciplinary qualitative systematic literature review was done based on papers published in the e-government, information systems and public administration domains. The study identified (1) technological challenges of acceptance and usage, e-procurement as a disruptive innovation and technical issues with e-procurement; (2) organizational challenges of stakeholders’ issues, leadership, inadequate training, and skilled personnel, resistance to change and value-driven outcome and (3) key environmental factors of procurement regulatory framework, the country context and, the problems faced by SMEs. These findings enlighten practitioners and policy implementors with information on the possible hindrances to successful e-procurement implementation. Building upon this awareness, future studies can embark on explaining the causal mechanism of these challenges and how best to address them in a context-specific manner. This research work focused on e-procurement implementation challenges as a whole and excluded challenges pertaining to specific e-procurement processes such as e-tendering and e-reverse auction. The proposed framework in this paper can be used in future case studies to examine e-procurement implementation challenges under each focus area of the TOE [ 50 ] and their relationship.

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Mohungoo, I., Brown, I., Kabanda, S. (2020). A Systematic Review of Implementation Challenges in Public E-Procurement. In: Hattingh, M., Matthee, M., Smuts, H., Pappas, I., Dwivedi, Y.K., Mäntymäki, M. (eds) Responsible Design, Implementation and Use of Information and Communication Technology. I3E 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12067. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45002-1_5

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Procurement Essay

Procurement Of The Procurement Management Essay

The procurement management in companies and institutions are right-hand man to the company aims procurement department in any organization and the sector to several objectives of each in: Ensure the continuity of production: by buying and the provision of primary and basic materials of production processes, and on an ongoing basis without interruption and only caused a delay in the flow and thus delayed the arrival of the final product to customers. Ensure access to products and raw materials less

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Antecedents and Outcomes of E-Procurement Adoption: An Integrative Model

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Procurement As An Ecosystem: Becoming a Strategic Partner in the Digital Age

Sponsor content from WNS.

Imagine a strategic meeting is in progress inside your organization, focused on speeding up the market release of a product for competitive advantage. The chief procurement officer proposes an alternative to using a supplier-developed customized design and production process that will lock the company’s future product road map to a single supplier. His idea: use design-based bidding (DBB) so potential suppliers can propose a product design and manufacturing process that will build a custom design the company owns and that leverages generally available components.

The bids will be designed in collaboration with the company’s product engineering and management teams to help them achieve the required cost target, design objectives, and go-to-market acceleration.

Sounds futuristic? This is Next Generation Procurement, a partner focused singularly on value creation for the organization. Besides its pivotal role in achieving cost savings, Next Generation Procurement can act as the much-needed innovation catalyst connecting external expertise with internal business functions to maximize their potential in co-creation.

This allows an organization to orchestrate the identification, acquisition, and management of all external (third-party) resources in concert with its business imperatives to create sustainable value. This can be accomplished only by integrating with core functional stakeholder groups and aligning with their agendas.

Driving Sustainable Value

As in any core function, establishing a robust, well-functioning operating model is at the heart of the procurement ecosystem . Our research shows that 80% of high-performing procurement organizations distinguish strategic from operational roles. Imagine a model in which operational execution tasks are removed from strategic planning; category managers are closely aligned with business stakeholders; a center of excellence provides category managers with the knowledge, data, tools, templates, methodology, and coaching they need; and a service desk responds to the organization, streamlining and prioritizing routine tasks in a timely manner.

A robust ecosystem provides connectivity and information flow among the key players without friction. Next-generation procurement calls for agile decision making. Suppliers are identified based on relevant, timely market intelligence. They are selected based on the best available information, obtained during the strategic sourcing process. Suppliers are managed based on actual performance metrics and changing risk and market dynamics.

The starting point for a healthy procurement ecosystem lies in creating a world-class data, information, and intelligence strategy that provides visibility into spending decisions, consumption patterns, performance and quality data, supply chain risks, market insights, and intelligence.

Information and insights help category management teams develop smart strategies, identify a portfolio of value-creation projects, and mature their categories over time. Such an approach creates sustainable value. Saving becomes a natural outcome, but not the objective—building sustainable procurement models is the primary goal.

The Power of Embedding Technology

Next Generation Procurement has to embed digital enablers to achieve its mandate. Robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics, and peer-to-peer platforms are generic terms used loosely by procurement practitioners. Combining AI, RPA, and analytics to provide a superior buying experience to corporate users is a must in Next Generation Procurement. It includes weaving market insights with spend/supplier data to offer predictive analytics to category managers; applying knowledge management and AI technologies to capture, organize, and reuse knowledge gained from each project; and automating routine tasks so no human touches a purchase request (PR) before it converts to a purchase order (PO).

Refocusing on Talent

A strategic approach also calls for attracting and retaining the right talent. Our research found that almost 90% of high-performing procurement teams consider business acumen, relationship building, and category knowledge to be crucial. In the new model, technology and analytical skills will also be important capabilities. Organizations will need to invest in new-age skilling approaches—such as micro-learning and peer-to-peer learning—with emphasis on knowledge management.

Architecture of a Procurement Ecosystem

Creating an ecosystem of talent, digital enablers, information, processes, and knowledge artifacts is the keystone of Next Generation Procurement. Dedicated teams for things such as strategic support, source-to-manage execution, and transaction execution enable laser-sharp focus on crucial tasks. Insulated from tactical activities, category managers can focus on strategic initiatives. The strategic support team aids them with market research, category plan development, and stakeholder workshops. The source-to-manage execution team manages projects, RFXs, contract authoring, and execution. The transaction execution team minimizes the effort to review and respond to traditional procurement back-office operations.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution, as every organization has a unique business context, legacy, and maturity level. Along with the right team, leaders must be fully invested in and committed to providing the support required for the long term.

Another key aspect often overlooked is that any model will evolve. Expecting immediate results or failing to continually adapt the model to changing business needs can be counterproductive for success.

Total business alignment is the value that next-generation procurement brings to the table. Our research reveals that 60% of high performers in procurement have a clearly documented vision and value proposition. Procurement must be inducted into an organization’s inner circle—and must be an integral part of a company’s goal-setting process from the beginning.

Read the detailed report and whitepaper from WNS:

Performance Procurement: How Do You Create More Value?

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Towania Mims BUL3310 Discussion 5 1. What principles apply to attribute liability between these parties? The principles that apply to attributing liability in this case focus on long-standing practices wherein any blank-endorsed cashier check, such as those cashed by the employee in this particular case are applicable under the UCC when a bank exchanges money over to the party that is given to a person that is unlawfully in possession of these checks or instruments, the holder or company that holds these checks is liable for the checks as they are required to ensure due diligence regarding not allowing these checks to be used for nefarious purposes 2.

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Postmodernism In The Workplace

This new system is often referred to as the "flexible system of production" (FSP) or the "Japanese management system” (Mansfield; 1992).flexibility have been the dominant language of organization and economic change. “Flexibility within the market and between networks is facilitated by new forms of supplier relationships. This has been associated with the Japanese, derived just in time (JIT) system. This depends on a set of relations between large corporations and suppliers normally characterized by tightly controlled multiple sources through layers of subcontractors. In this system it

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As a result of the events of Dremliner, Boeing has improved their supply chain management process by incorporating continuous improvement strategies and implementing ways to encourage open lines of communication amongst their supply base. Boeing 's supply chain management places emphasis on on-time deliveries and streamlining common standard processes across their suppliers. Boeing has developed several tool to not only monitor and audit the best practices and overall performance of the supplier, but aid in collaborative communication amongst their entire supply base.

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TASK IV: PARTNERSHIP IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT Partnering is a project approach designed to allow the construction process to be performed within an atmosphere of mutual trust, commitment to shared goals, and open communication among the partnering members while working in harmony toward mutual goals in order to avoid claims and litigation and establish a win/win management approach. For the complex and large-scale Atlantis project, the contractually associated construction partnering between Laing O’Rourke and NORR along with various other members like Rockwell Group, WATG, EDSA, helped to create working relationship among all of the team members based on mutually agreeable plan of cooperation and teamwork to improve productivity. The main objectives of Atlantis project partnership included reducing project costs and schedules, eliminating change orders and claims, improving communication by developing

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Suppliers provide products and services in return for payment on time, repeat orders and respect but

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Supply Chain Management

Process Drive to achieve functional excellence and integration across all major processes. - Core supply chain processes driving the business. - Best in class approaches to our core processes (manufacturing, integrated demand planning, procurement, cycle-time, compression, dynamic deployment) - Bulk linkages with suppliers and customers. C. Organization Providing the critical success factors of cohesion, harmony and integration across organization entities - Level of cross functional integration is required to manage core processes effectively - Leverage cross-company skills and abilities - Performance measurement and reporting structure help to achieve objectives D. Technology Empowers the Supply Chain to operate on a new level of performance and is creating clear competitive advantages for those companies able to harness it.

Competitive Intelligence Process

Melo and Medeiros (2007) add enlargement to Kahaner’s (1998) CI process cycle to make it as a five-phase cycle consists of planning, collection, analysis, dissemination and evaluation. These scholars also outrun the information that captured and stored and the influential factors. Calf and Dishman (2002) establish six phases of the CI process: planning and focus, collection, analysis, communication, process or structure and organizational awareness and culture. Although this is an improved CI process model, it omits information capturing and storage and

The Role Of Stakeholders In Supply Chain Management

Supply Chain Management (SCM) department encounters a number of different stakeholders. Many different working relationships take place within each individual work on, from colleagues to clients, stakeholders, and suppliers. The internal supply chain that delivers the service is complicated and requires the co-ordination and co-operation of individuals and teams who have different skills and priorities. Hence, understanding stakeholder needs and working effectively with them is critical to the success of the procurement team. Cleland (1995: 151) recognised the need to develop an organisational structure of stakeholders through understanding each stakeholder’s interests, and negotiating both individually and collectively to define the best way

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Procurement Act 2023 - Guidance documents

These documents cover all aspects of the Procurement Act 2023 and are intended to provide technical guidance and help with interpretation and understanding.

To support preparation for the Procurement Act 2023, we are publishing a suite of guidance documents addressing all aspects of the new regime, covering subjects from transitional arrangements and covered procurement through to pre-market engagement, award rules, exclusions and contract modifications.

These documents should be read in conjunction with the Procurement Act 2023 and its associated regulations and are aimed at procurement practitioners and commercial policy leads in contracting authorities. They are intended to provide technical guidance and help with interpretation and understanding of the new regime.

The documents will vary in length, but each will typically cover:

• Legal framework
• What has changed
• Key points and policy intent
• Linked notices or guidance, where relevant (hyperlinks to related guidance will be added once all documents are published)
• Where to find further information (hyperlinks will be added once all documents are published)

References to ‘regulations’ within this guidance should be interpreted as the Procurement Regulations 2024 unless specified otherwise. Guidance which discusses contracting authorities acting in accordance with the Act is to be read as complying with the provisions of both the Procurement Act 2023 and its associated regulations.Where the guidance refers to ‘previous legislation’, this means the Public Contracts Regulations 2015; the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011; the Utilities Contracts Regulations 2016; and the Concession Contracts Regulations 2016.

The central digital platform referenced in the guidance comprises an enhanced version of Find a Tender (FTS), providing the new procurement notices, and a new Supplier Information Service (SIS).  The central digital platform will be supported by a single place of registration for both parts of the service and suppliers will be able to access both FTS and SIS using the same account via: Find tender service - search

The Welsh Government is separately publishing its own guidance and devolved contracting authorities in Wales should consult the Welsh Government website for more information.

To aid navigation, we have arranged the guidance documents under the four stages of the commercial pathway: Plan; Define; Procure; Manage. You will be able to see from the list below which have been published, and for those which have been published a link to the sub-section where you will find the documents.

Evaluating bidder compliance with exclusion grounds and selecting suitable suppliers for the contract

• Publication of Information and the Central Digital Platform
• Time Periods
• Conditions of Participation
• Assessing Competitive Tenders
• Electronic Communications
• Modifying a Competitive Procurement
• Procurement Termination Notices
• Key Performance Indicators
• Assessment Summaries
• Contract Award NoticeS and Standstill
• Contract Details NoticeS and Contract Documents

Working with suppliers and managing the contract to ensure successful achievement of the contractual outcomes

• Electronic Invoicing and Payment
• Payments Compliance Notices
• Contract Performance Notices
• Contract Modifications
• Contract Termination

To aid navigation, we have arranged the guidance documents under the four stages of the commercial pathway. When published, each will be available from the sub-sections below

Having clear and transparent commercial pipelines and a good understanding of the market to plan for the procurement process.

• Transitionals (published)
• Contracting Authority Definition (published)
• Covered Procurement (published)
• Exempted Contracts (published)
• Devolved Contracting Authorities
• Covered Procurement Objectives
• NPPS (published)
• Utilities Contracts (published)
• Defence and Security Contracts (published)
• Concessions Contracts (published)
• Light Touch Contracts (published)
• Reserved Contracts for Supported Employment Providers (published)
• Intra-UK Procurement
• Pipeline Notices (published)
• 24 May 2024

Achieving flexible, efficient procurement process that encourage broad participation and are open and accessible to all.

• Valuation of Contracts (published)
• Thresholds (published)
• Below-Threshold Contracts 
• Mixed Procurement (published)
• Planned Procurement Notices (published)
• Preliminary Market Engagement (published)
• Technical Specifications (published)
• Treaty State Suppliers
• Competitive Tendering Procedures
• Direct Award
• Dynamic Markets
• Conflicts of Interest

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Assessment of hydrogen-based solutions associated to offshore wind farms: The case of the Iberian Peninsula

• Calado, Goncalo
• Castro, Rui
• Pires, A. J.
• Marques, Miguel J.

Offshore wind energy has the potential to be associated with hydrogen production to overcome certain disadvantages, such as the high cost of electrical transmission systems. In this work, two hydrogen producing systems are modelled, one with the electrolyzer offshore, the other with the electrolyzer onshore, along with a conventional offshore wind farm. To do so, each component is individually modelled and combined to construct the systems. Furthermore, an hourly optimisation algorithm is used to control the operation of the systems and a neural network is implemented to forecast day ahead power production and electricity price, so that regulation costs could be modelled. This study extends the existing literature by modelling the regulation costs in the day ahead electricity market using neural networks to provide day ahead forecasts along with analysing the flexibility of using an electrolyzer coupled with an offshore wind farm. Furthermore, innovative floating offshore wind turbines were considered, enabling the assessment for offshore hydrogen production in deeper waters. Results show that, for the present case study, the onshore electrolyzer system is always more economically interesting than the offshore electrolyzer system, mainly due to its ability of purchasing electricity from the grid. The first has a levelized cost of hydrogen of 5.84 €/kg, 3.42 €/kg and 2.57 €/kg for 2020, 2030 and 2050, respectively, compared to 8.98 €/kg, 4.37 €/kg and 2.68 €/kg.

• Green hydrogen;
• Offshore wind;
• Techno-economic analysis;
• Grid integration;
• Day ahead forecast

• Share full article

When Prison and Mental Illness Amount to a Death Sentence

The downward spiral of one inmate, Markus Johnson, shows the larger failures of the nation’s prisons to care for the mentally ill.

Supported by

By Glenn Thrush

Photographs by Carlos Javier Ortiz

Glenn Thrush spent more than a year reporting this article, interviewing close to 50 people and reviewing court-obtained body-camera footage and more than 1,500 pages of documents.

• Published May 5, 2024 Updated May 7, 2024

Markus Johnson slumped naked against the wall of his cell, skin flecked with pepper spray, his face a mask of puzzlement, exhaustion and resignation. Four men in black tactical gear pinned him, his face to the concrete, to cuff his hands behind his back.

He did not resist. He couldn’t. He was so gravely dehydrated he would be dead by their next shift change.

Listen to this article with reporter commentary

“I didn’t do anything,” Mr. Johnson moaned as they pressed a shield between his shoulders.

It was 1:19 p.m. on Sept. 6, 2019, in the Danville Correctional Center, a medium-security prison a few hours south of Chicago. Mr. Johnson, 21 and serving a short sentence for gun possession, was in the throes of a mental collapse that had gone largely untreated, but hardly unwatched.

He had entered in good health, with hopes of using the time to gain work skills. But for the previous three weeks, Mr. Johnson, who suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, had refused to eat or take his medication. Most dangerous of all, he had stealthily stopped drinking water, hastening the physical collapse that often accompanies full-scale mental crises.

Mr. Johnson’s horrific downward spiral, which has not been previously reported, represents the larger failures of the nation’s prisons to care for the mentally ill. Many seriously ill people receive no treatment . For those who do, the outcome is often determined by the vigilance and commitment of individual supervisors and frontline staff, which vary greatly from system to system, prison to prison, and even shift to shift.

The country’s jails and prisons have become its largest provider of inpatient mental health treatment, with 10 times as many seriously mentally ill people now held behind bars as in hospitals. Estimating the population of incarcerated people with major psychological problems is difficult, but the number is likely 200,000 to 300,000, experts say.

Many of these institutions remain ill-equipped to handle such a task, and the burden often falls on prison staff and health care personnel who struggle with the dual roles of jailer and caregiver in a high-stress, dangerous, often dehumanizing environment.

In 2021, Joshua McLemore , a 29-year-old with schizophrenia held for weeks in an isolation cell in Jackson County, Ind., died of organ failure resulting from a “refusal to eat or drink,” according to an autopsy. In April, New York City agreed to pay $28 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of Nicholas Feliciano, a young man with a history of mental illness who suffered severe brain damage after attempting to hang himself on Rikers Island — as correctional officers stood by.

Mr. Johnson’s mother has filed a wrongful-death suit against the state and Wexford Health Sources, a for-profit health care contractor in Illinois prisons. The New York Times reviewed more than 1,500 pages of reports, along with depositions taken from those involved. Together, they reveal a cascade of missteps, missed opportunities, potential breaches of protocol and, at times, lapses in common sense.

Prison officials and Wexford staff took few steps to intervene even after it became clear that Mr. Johnson, who had been hospitalized repeatedly for similar episodes and recovered, had refused to take medication. Most notably, they did not transfer him to a state prison facility that provides more intensive mental health treatment than is available at regular prisons, records show.

The quality of medical care was also questionable, said Mr. Johnson’s lawyers, Sarah Grady and Howard Kaplan, a married legal team in Chicago. Mr. Johnson lost 50 to 60 pounds during three weeks in solitary confinement, but officials did not initiate interventions like intravenous feedings or transfer him to a non-prison hospital.

And they did not take the most basic step — dialing 911 — until it was too late.

There have been many attempts to improve the quality of mental health treatment in jails and prisons by putting care on par with punishment — including a major effort in Chicago . But improvements have proved difficult to enact and harder to sustain, hampered by funding and staffing shortages.

Lawyers representing the state corrections department, Wexford and staff members who worked at Danville declined to comment on Mr. Johnson’s death, citing the unresolved litigation. In their interviews with state police investigators, and in depositions, employees defended their professionalism and adherence to procedure, while citing problems with high staff turnover, difficult work conditions, limited resources and shortcomings of co-workers.

But some expressed a sense of resignation about the fate of Mr. Johnson and others like him.

Prisoners have “much better chances in a hospital, but that’s not their situation,” said a senior member of Wexford’s health care team in a deposition.

“I didn’t put them in prison,” he added. “They are in there for a reason.”

Markus Mison Johnson was born on March 1, 1998, to a mother who believed she was not capable of caring for him.

Days after his birth, he was taken in by Lisa Barker Johnson, a foster mother in her 30s who lived in Zion, Ill., a working-class city halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee. Markus eventually became one of four children she adopted from different families.

The Johnson house is a lively split level, with nieces, nephews, grandchildren and neighbors’ children, family keepsakes, video screens and juice boxes. Ms. Johnson sits at its center on a kitchen chair, chin resting on her hand as children wander over to share their thoughts, or to tug on her T-shirt to ask her to be their bathroom buddy.

From the start, her bond with Markus was particularly powerful, in part because the two looked so much alike, with distinctive dimpled smiles. Many neighbors assumed he was her biological son. The middle name she chose for him was intended to convey that message.

“Mison is short for ‘my son,’” she said standing over his modest footstone grave last summer.

He was happy at home. School was different. His grades were good, but he was intensely shy and was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in elementary school.

That was around the time the bullying began. His sisters were fierce defenders, but they could only do so much. He did the best he could, developing a quick, taunting tongue.

These experiences filled him with a powerful yearning to fit in.

It was not to be.

When he was around 15, he called 911 in a panic, telling the dispatcher he saw two men standing near the small park next to his house threatening to abduct children playing there. The officers who responded found nothing out of the ordinary, and rang the Johnsons’ doorbell.

He later told his mother he had heard a voice telling him to “protect the kids.”

He was hospitalized for the first time at 16, and given medications that stabilized him for stretches of time. But the crises would strike every six months or so, often triggered by his decision to stop taking his medication.

His family became adept at reading signs he was “getting sick.” He would put on his tan Timberlands and a heavy winter coat, no matter the season, and perch on the edge of his bed as if bracing for battle. Sometimes, he would cook his own food, paranoid that someone might poison him.

He graduated six months early, on the dean’s list, but was rudderless, and hanging out with younger boys, often paying their way.

His mother pointed out the perils of buying friendship.

“I don’t care,” he said. “At least I’ll be popular for a minute.”

Zion’s inviting green grid of Bible-named streets belies the reality that it is a rough, unforgiving place to grow up. Family members say Markus wanted desperately to prove he was tough, and emulated his younger, reckless group of friends.

Like many of them, he obtained a pistol. He used it to hold up a convenience store clerk for $425 in January 2017, according to police records. He cut a plea deal for two years of probation, and never explained to his family what had made him do it.

But he kept getting into violent confrontations. In late July 2018, he was arrested in a neighbor’s garage with a handgun he later admitted was his. He was still on probation for the robbery, and his public defender negotiated a plea deal that would send him to state prison until January 2020.

An inpatient mental health system

Around 40 percent of the about 1.8 million people in local, state and federal jails and prison suffer from at least one mental illness, and many of these people have concurrent issues with substance abuse, according to recent Justice Department estimates.

Psychological problems, often exacerbated by drug use, often lead to significant medical problems resulting from a lack of hygiene or access to good health care.

“When you suffer depression in the outside world, it’s hard to concentrate, you have reduced energy, your sleep is disrupted, you have a very gloomy outlook, so you stop taking care of yourself,” said Robert L. Trestman , a Virginia Tech medical school professor who has worked on state prison mental health reforms.

The paradox is that prison is often the only place where sick people have access to even minimal care.

But the harsh work environment, remote location of many prisons, and low pay have led to severe shortages of corrections staff and the unwillingness of doctors, nurses and counselors to work with the incarcerated mentally ill.

In the early 2000s, prisoners’ rights lawyers filed a class-action lawsuit against Illinois claiming “deliberate indifference” to the plight of about 5,000 mentally ill prisoners locked in segregated units and denied treatment and medication.

In 2014, the parties reached a settlement that included minimum staffing mandates, revamped screening protocols, restrictions on the use of solitary confinement and the allocation of about $100 million to double capacity in the system’s specialized mental health units.

Yet within six months of the deal, Pablo Stewart, an independent monitor chosen to oversee its enforcement, declared the system to be in a state of emergency.

Over the years, some significant improvements have been made. But Dr. Stewart’s final report , drafted in 2022, gave the system failing marks for its medication and staffing policies and reliance on solitary confinement “crisis watch” cells.

Ms. Grady, one of Mr. Johnson’s lawyers, cited an additional problem: a lack of coordination between corrections staff and Wexford’s professionals, beyond dutifully filling out dozens of mandated status reports.

“Markus Johnson was basically documented to death,” she said.

‘I’m just trying to keep my head up’

Mr. Johnson was not exactly looking forward to prison. But he saw it as an opportunity to learn a trade so he could start a family when he got out.

On Dec. 18, 2018, he arrived at a processing center in Joliet, where he sat for an intake interview. He was coherent and cooperative, well-groomed and maintained eye contact. He was taking his medication, not suicidal and had a hearty appetite. He was listed as 5 feet 6 inches tall and 256 pounds.

Mr. Johnson described his mood as “go with the flow.”

A few days later, after arriving in Danville, he offered a less settled assessment during a telehealth visit with a Wexford psychiatrist, Dr. Nitin Thapar. Mr. Johnson admitted to being plagued by feelings of worthlessness, hopelessness and “constant uncontrollable worrying” that affected his sleep.

He told Dr. Thapar he had heard voices in the past — but not now — telling him he was a failure, and warning that people were out to get him.

At the time he was incarcerated, the basic options for mentally ill people in Illinois prisons included placement in the general population or transfer to a special residential treatment program at the Dixon Correctional Center, west of Chicago. Mr. Johnson seemed out of immediate danger, so he was assigned to a standard two-man cell in the prison’s general population, with regular mental health counseling and medication.

Things started off well enough. “I’m just trying to keep my head up,” he wrote to his mother. “Every day I learn to be stronger & stronger.”

But his daily phone calls back home hinted at friction with other inmates. And there was not much for him to do after being turned down for a janitorial training program.

Then, in the spring of 2019, his grandmother died, sending him into a deep hole.

Dr. Thapar prescribed a new drug used to treat major depressive disorders. Its most common side effect is weight gain. Mr. Johnson stopped taking it.

On July 4, he told Dr. Thapar matter-of-factly during a telehealth check-in that he was no longer taking any of his medications. “I’ve been feeling normal, I guess,” he said. “I feel like I don’t need the medication anymore.”

Dr. Thapar said he thought that was a mistake, but accepted the decision and removed Mr. Johnson from his regular mental health caseload — instructing him to “reach out” if he needed help, records show.

The pace of calls back home slackened. Mr. Johnson spent more time in bed, and became more surly. At a group-therapy session, he sat stone silent, after showing up late.

By early August, he was telling guards he had stopped eating.

At some point, no one knows when, he had intermittently stopped drinking fluids.

‘I’m having a breakdown’

Then came the crash.

On Aug. 12, Mr. Johnson got into a fight with his older cellmate.

He was taken to a one-man disciplinary cell. A few hours later, Wexford’s on-site mental health counselor, Melanie Easton, was shocked by his disoriented condition. Mr. Johnson stared blankly, then burst into tears when asked if he had “suffered a loss in the previous six months.”

He was so unresponsive to her questions she could not finish the evaluation.

Ms. Easton ordered that he be moved to a 9-foot by 8-foot crisis cell — solitary confinement with enhanced monitoring. At this moment, a supervisor could have ticked the box for “residential treatment” on a form to transfer him to Dixon. That did not happen, according to records and depositions.

Around this time, he asked to be placed back on his medication but nothing seems to have come of it, records show.

By mid-August, he said he was visualizing “people that were not there,” according to case notes. At first, he was acting more aggressively, once flicking water at a guard through a hole in his cell door. But his energy ebbed, and he gradually migrated downward — from standing to bunk to floor.

“I’m having a breakdown,” he confided to a Wexford employee.

At the time, inmates in Illinois were required to declare an official hunger strike before prison officials would initiate protocols, including blood testing or forced feedings. But when a guard asked Mr. Johnson why he would not eat, he said he was “fasting,” as opposed to starving himself, and no action seems to have been taken.

‘Tell me this is OK!’

Lt. Matthew Morrison, one of the few people at Danville to take a personal interest in Mr. Johnson, reported seeing a white rind around his mouth in early September. He told other staff members the cell gave off “a death smell,” according to a deposition.

On Sept. 5, they moved Mr. Johnson to one of six cells adjacent to the prison’s small, bare-bones infirmary. Prison officials finally placed him on the official hunger strike protocol without his consent.

Mr. Morrison, in his deposition, said he was troubled by the inaction of the Wexford staff, and the lack of urgency exhibited by the medical director, Dr. Justin Young.

On Sept. 5, Mr. Morrison approached Dr. Young to express his concerns, and the doctor agreed to order blood and urine tests. But Dr. Young lived in Chicago, and was on site at the prison about four times a week, according to Mr. Kaplan. Friday, Sept. 6, 2019, was not one of those days.

Mr. Morrison arrived at work that morning, expecting to find Mr. Johnson’s testing underway. A Wexford nurse told him Dr. Young believed the tests could wait.

Mr. Morrison, stunned, asked her to call Dr. Young.

“He’s good till Monday,” Dr. Young responded, according to Mr. Morrison.

“Come on, come on, look at this guy! You tell me this is OK!” the officer responded.

Eventually, Justin Duprey, a licensed nurse practitioner and the most senior Wexford employee on duty that day, authorized the test himself.

Mr. Morrison, thinking he had averted a disaster, entered the cell and implored Mr. Johnson into taking the tests. He refused.

So prison officials obtained approval to remove him forcibly from his cell.

‘Oh, my God’

What happened next is documented in video taken from cameras held by officers on the extraction team and obtained by The Times through a court order.

Mr. Johnson is scarcely recognizable as the neatly groomed 21-year-old captured in a cellphone picture a few months earlier. His skin is ashen, eyes fixed on the middle distance. He might be 40. Or 60.

At first, he places his hands forward through the hole in his cell door to be cuffed. This is against procedure, the officers shout. His hands must be in back.

He will not, or cannot, comply. He wanders to the rear of his cell and falls hard. Two blasts of pepper spray barely elicit a reaction. The leader of the tactical team later said he found it unusual and unnerving.

The next video is in the medical unit. A shield is pressed to his chest. He is in agony, begging for them to stop, as two nurses attempt to insert a catheter.

Then they move him, half-conscious and limp, onto a wheelchair for the blood draw.

For the next 20 minutes, the Wexford nurse performing the procedure, Angelica Wachtor, jabs hands and arms to find a vessel that will hold shape. She winces with each puncture, tries to comfort him, and grows increasingly rattled.

“Oh, my God,” she mutters, and asks why help is not on the way.

She did not request assistance or discuss calling 911, records indicate.

“Can you please stop — it’s burning real bad,” Mr. Johnson said.

Soon after, a member of the tactical team reminds Ms. Wachtor to take Mr. Johnson’s vitals before taking him back to his cell. She would later tell Dr. Young she had been unable to able to obtain his blood pressure.

“You good?” one of the team members asks as they are preparing to leave.

“Yeah, I’ll have to be,” she replies in the recording.

Officers lifted him back onto his bunk, leaving him unconscious and naked except for a covering draped over his groin. His expressionless face is visible through the window on the cell door as it closes.

‘Cardiac arrest.’

Mr. Duprey, the nurse practitioner, had been sitting inside his office after corrections staff ordered him to shelter for his own protection, he said. When he emerged, he found Ms. Wachtor sobbing, and after a delay, he was let into the cell. Finding no pulse, Mr. Duprey asked a prison employee to call 911 so Mr. Johnson could be taken to a local emergency room.

The Wexford staff initiated CPR. It did not work.

At 3:38 p.m., the paramedics declared Markus Mison Johnson dead.

Afterward, a senior official at Danville called the Johnson family to say he had died of “cardiac arrest.”

Lisa Johnson pressed for more information, but none was initially forthcoming. She would soon receive a box hastily crammed with his possessions: uneaten snacks, notebooks, an inspirational memoir by a man who had served 20 years at Leavenworth.

Later, Shiping Bao, the coroner who examined his body, determined Mr. Johnson had died of severe dehydration. He told the state police it “was one of the driest bodies he had ever seen.”

For a long time, Ms. Johnson blamed herself. She says that her biggest mistake was assuming that the state, with all its resources, would provide a level of care comparable to what she had been able to provide her son.

She had stopped accepting foster care children while she was raising Markus and his siblings. But as the months dragged on, she decided her once-boisterous house had become oppressively still, and let local agencies know she was available again.

“It is good to have children around,” she said. “It was too quiet around here.”

Read by Glenn Thrush

Audio produced by Jack D’Isidoro .

Glenn Thrush covers the Department of Justice. He joined The Times in 2017 after working for Politico, Newsday, Bloomberg News, The New York Daily News, The Birmingham Post-Herald and City Limits. More about Glenn Thrush

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