At the Procurement Summit on November 4, this topic will be hashed out in the first panel discussion of the day, moderated by El Cheikh Hassan and titled ‘How can we make purchasing more effective?’
The panel will address the pivotal role a purchasing manager plays in a hotel in terms of operations, including his required expertise to source products, manage vendors and contracts, maintain quality, review technical requirements, and ensure costs are within budget, while product or material delivery is always on time. In an industry where the purchasing manager does hold such a crucial role, it is vital that they are seen as a core function.
The first discussion point of the debate will relate to whether senior procurement professionals within hospitality are aware of how they can contribute to their organisation’s strategic goals and justify their importance. The panel will also cover how procurement managers can highlight the value of their roles to management and engage more effectively with the people at the top of the business.
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Balancing the requirements of purchasing managers and F&B departments was another topic that arose during the pre-event debate, and this is another topic that will be challenged at the summit.
“Everyone struggles with this and I understand how it happens from a purchasing side; for example chefs think they’re artists and that they’re superior. I can call a client and say ‘Can I come over?’ and he says ‘I’ll see if the chef is available’ and I say ‘look you’re not the chef’s assistant — you are the purchasing manager!’” said El Cheikh at the discussion.
A case study titled ‘The F&B struggle and the best practice approach’ will consider how purchasing managers can come up with a best practice approach to create a clear and transparent supplier selection process that includes blind tastings, competitive bidding, quality checks, performance ratings and benchmarking.
Related to F&B procurement is the issue of contracts, which often do not exist in purchasing processes in this region. Creating a more effective system, for the roundtable attendees, meant a more streamlined approach, with information sharing, benchmarking and contracts highlighted as key issues under the topic.
“There’s a very big gap when it comes to having contracts. I know some hotels that do contracts with suppliers but hardly anybody does it,” commented El Cheikh during the discussion.
Pratap Singh added: “You need to document it so that the supplier knows ‘this is my obligation’ and as a buyer you know ‘this is my obligation and my responsibility’. Without that there’s a sense of insecurity between the buyer and supplier.”
This topic will be debated during the first workshop session of the day on vendor evaluation, feedback and contracts, which will discuss how to go about creating a vendor evaluation system and contract to deliver the best value for your hotel.
The other workshop choice of the first session will be ‘Responsible procurement’ which will help delegates to understand principles of procuring in a sustainable way, including the technique of life cycle costing, which establishes the total costs of purchasing a product or service, from ‘cradle to grave’, by asking questions relating to each stage of its life cycle.
This workshop will link nicely to the second panel discussion of the morning: ‘Business ethics and best practice in purchasing’, with panellists Ajaz Wani, director of procurement — hospitality, Damac Hotels Management LLC, Jean Manuel, purchasing manager at Fairmont Dubai, and Asif Kayani, director of purchasing, Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach, set to open this month.
The panel will look into how purchasing departments can maintain best business practices and an element of transparency in the process of selecting suppliers.
Following the lunch break, El Cheikh Hassan will make a presentation titled ‘Effective supplier relationship management’, during which he will explain, from a supplier’s point of view, how purchasing managers can improve their communication systems to create smoother transactions throughout the entire supply chain process.
The final panel discussion of the day will look at whether integrating finance and procurement processes is the future for hotel procurement.
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