Selecting Supplier and Approving Equipment - Assignment Example

Is there any justification for Dr. Spiller having circumvented normal purchasing procedures, selecting the supplier and approving for this equipment? Based on how Rose Silver reacted to Dr. Spiller’s request, there is certainly wrong about what he would want to happen as far as their current normal purchasing procedures are concerned. It is in this reason why Silver had a strong point to oppose to what Dr. Spiller would want to happen. For instance, the centralisation of purchasing activity at Heights General Hospital ensures better policy coordination and planning for long-term requirements and this increases purchasing power, consistency of standards and specifications. These are some of the points that Silver would want to emphasise to Dr. Spiller. However, these could be hardly understood on Dr. Spiller’s part because he is justifying his points as well. The centralisation procedure may be slow to react to local user’s needs and also may be remote from local user or internal customer. Dr. Spiller may have important specifications of an X-ray processor that he found can only be provided by New Age and he can certainly use this as important justification. On the other hand, in a decentralized purchasing activity, Dr. Spiller can actually enjoy the benefits of addressing the local needs of their department and as user of the newly X-ray processor. Their problems may be easily responded at better quality as well. Regarding this issue, it is therefore clear that Rose Silver is only trying to do its part for the good of the company. Dr. Spiller on the other hand is trying to do its part based on what he believes is right for their patient care. They both have essential points to stand on. However, this would matter depending on the generalised process that should be involved in purchasing activity. The first step is basically sourcing. In this stage, the purchasing department receives requisition and asks or solicits quotations. The next step involves authority and ethics. At this point the purchasing department has to negotiate with suppliers and then place its order. Finally, logistics and payment ensures that the supplies are received and payments are made. Based on the above procedure, Dr. Spiller cannot actually justify his concern with Rose Silver. This is due to the fact that Dr. Spiller’s concerns with their patients are not in line with Silver’s main functions. What is only in line with Dr. Spiller’s concerns with Silver’s role in the company is the issue about receiving requisitions and asking for quotations and supplier’s negotiation. 2. What risks or ethical problems could potentially arise from his approach? In the absence of quotations or requisitions, Dr. Spiller could potentially face problems about dishonesty and untrustworthiness. The main point of having quotations and requisitions is to ensure transparency in the actual purchasing process. This is also to ensure that the right prices and quality standards are obtained. Dr. Spiller needs to understand that when there is money involved, the role of Silver is to provide transparent accounting system in order to justify the actual purchasing experience if it is in line with the organisation’s prevailing purchasing standard. In the absence of this, Dr. Spiller is most likely to be confronted with substantial ethical subjects including fraud as aftermath of the main issues like dishonesty and untrustworthiness. If he would push forward to his stand, Dr. Spiller may potentially be showing disrespect to Silver. Silver is a legitimate authority in the purchasing activity. It is not the concern of Silver to approve Dr. Spiller’s request because there is a process involved. This process requires that everything should undergo specific approval of an authority. On the other hand, Dr. Spiller does not have much authority involved in the actual purchasing process except however for his specifications and technical know-how of the equipment. However, the final authority of the purchasing process still is in line with Silver’s department. Dr. Spiller does not have any idea on what are other things or factors that need to be considered by the organisation in purchasing of his specified equipment. This may involve corresponding budgetary constraints or so, which is completely out of Dr. Spiller’s expertise. In this case, it is Silver who has substantial information about the subject matter. In other words, Dr. Spiller could not just follow his demand without keeping in mind the authority or the chain of command involved in the purchasing process. Dr. Spiller needs to comply with the policy of their company. In this case, the policy is clear about their purchasing activity and this is made evident from the stand of Silver to bring on the matter as a regular process. Dr. Spiller could not just break this without proper justification. This is what Silver is trying to ask from him. Dr. Spiller needs to understand that he needs to be fair in his approach between the patients and the company. Although it is important to give significant value for the patients, it is also important to consider what the company values as significant in their entire operation. 3. Which aspects of the purchase should, in any case, have come within Rose Silver’s area of responsibility? One aspect of the purchase in any case that should have come within Rose Silver’s area of responsibility is sourcing. It is important that the purchasing department should receive requisition and ask or solicit quotations. It is in this reason that the best price or even quality is ensured in the purchase. In order for the company to achieve excellent purchase experience, it is important that they have remarkable idea about competitive prices. In addition, it is also important that the company should have basic idea about the best prices and quality of the products. It is important that they have enough options to choose from so that the best value for their money or investment made is realised. Regarding this, Silver should have received requisition from Dr. Spiller about the equipment to be purchased so that the former should have enough time to find for the said request including its specifications. What Dr. Spiller should give Silver are the exact details or requirements of the purchase that is why it is important that a formal requisition should be made. Not only that, it is also the concern of the company to order, receive, and install the equipment at the highest quality standard as possible in order to ensure excellent purchasing experience, efficiency and productivity. Other aspects of the purchase that should be in line with Rose Silver’s area of responsibility are the negotiation and placing of order. It is important that there is negotiation that should be involved in order to consider the company’s welfare and not only the one-sided perspective of Dr. Spiller with his patients and the supplier. This will maximise the opportunity to save cost due to unnecessary spending with the equipment, because the price is certainly regulated and controlled. There would be substantial opportunity to consider about the issue on cost and consider other factors in the purchasing process if there is negotiation. There are many things that need to be negotiated in the actual purchasing process. These not only involved price concerns, quality standard, but including the terms and conditions. The terms might involved various payment options that in a way advantageous on the side of the company or substantially fair with the supplier. In other words, prior to placing of order, it is important that Silver should be able to negotiate beforehand. This will not only ensure good purchase, but the corporate goal of the company is also addressed even in this simple way of following the normal purchasing process. 4. What other hospital departments would be of assistance to her, in ensuring that there would be no problems in ordering, receiving and installing the equipment? The first department that could be of assistance to Silver is the medical department. This primarily involves Dr. Spiller’s department. It is important that this department is involved because people in here know exactly what is best for their patients. They know what they need to offer to their patients’ needs in order to ensure giving them the right value they deserve. Furthermore, they have the updated information on the latest in medical trend, so it is important that Silver should connect with Dr. Spiller and his department in this concern. This will prevent incurring problems in line with the ordering, receiving and installing the equipment. Another potential department that could be of assistance to Silver is the technical department of their hospital. The very reason is the fact that the equipment has technical specifications. These matters are actually out of Silver’s know-how, but she could not just overlook them because these are integral parts of her function as one who belong in the purchasing department. She needs to ensure that the right technical specifications are addressed in the purchasing process. Not only that, she substantially needs to undergo understanding the technical specifications prior to creating sound judgement on which equipment to purchase and could substantially address the needs of their patients. 5. How should Silver proceed in order to bring business expertise to the role of buyer in this organisation? It is important that Silver should adhere to the process required by their company in purchasing of equipments such as with the one specified by Dr. Spiller. This is to prevent her from committing mistakes and other unnecessary failures in the days to come. After all, it is necessary that the whole purchasing process should substantially consider both the company and their patients. It is at this point Silver should start bringing her business expertise to the role of buyer in her organisation. Silver needs to ensure that her organisation receives the best purchase as possible with substantially good quality standard based on the equipment’s specifications. This should be her essential stand on the part of their organisation. Thus, it is important on her side to ask for technical expertise about the equipment to be purchased. It was a good starting point to confront Dr. Spiller and inform him about the prevailing purchasing process in their organisation. After all, Dr. Spiller should have important justifications regarding his concerns on the purchase of the equipment. However, Silver could not just follow right away the demand of Dr. Spiller and what he would expect to happen. In line with this, it is important that Silver should bring this issue on the higher authority for final approval of some probable changes in the normal or regular purchasing process together with the probable justifications of Dr. Spiller on this issue. Not only that, it is not timely to allow Dr. Spiller to influence her decision on the purchase even though he has important justifications. What is the most important in this issue is to bring everything on to the top management and the entire decision making process in order to come up with some important adjustments if necessary. After all, it is the entire organisation that would be involved in this decision, so it is important that there is consensus adjustments that would not just be coming alone from Silver and her department. It is also clear in the case that Dr. Spiller has important justifications of the purchasing of the equipment which are linked with his concerns about the quality of service they could provide with their patients. This is a very important concern because giving the value for their patients seems to be a great area of concern as observed in the line of reasoning of Dr. Spiller. At this point, Silver should also look into this perspective. The point of this is actually not only on the part of Dr. Spiller to provide what seems to be the best, but also for Silver to integrate every essential issue with her decision making process that is tantamount to providing what is the best for their organisation. There is a need for Silver to balance the information and giving equal weight on the potential impact of this on the entire organisation. This primarily includes consideration of the value of service they could provide with their patients and the interest of the entire organisation. Read More