INTERNATIONAL PROCUREMENT:
TOPIC 3 :SOURCING STRATEGIES IN INTERNATIONAL PURCHASING
Definition of sourcing
Sourcing is the process of identifying, selecting and developing suppliers.
The definition of sourcing can be simple or much more complex, the simple definition is “the
process involved in identifying potential vendors, conducting negotiations with them to and
then signing purchasing agreements with them to provide goods/or services that meet your
company’s needs”
Sourcing generally refers to those decisions determining how components will be supplied
for production and which production units will serve which particular markets. Multinational
firms have been pursuing integrated sourcing to a greater extent than before because such an
operation allows them to exploit their competitive advantages (Kotabe and Murray, 1990).
Sourcing can, next to the above, be defined as ‘the reorganization of tasks, functions and
services of an organization, whereby the more effective managing of organizational and
operational processes is the main issue (Huibers and Schut, 2006).
Huibers and Schut (2006) also state that ‘with sourcing, organizations can manage their
operational and organizational processes more effectively’. This can be done internally,
externally, national or international. Sourcing can be done by concentration of activities, by
transferring the execution of services or processes to an external party or by the transferring
business activities abroad. In other words sourcing can have many forms depending on the
organization it is applied to.
A. Counter trade:
This is a form of international cashless trade in which an order is placed by a purchaser to a supplier
in another country on condition that goods of equal proportions will be sold in the opposite
directions. The types of counter trade entail:
1. Barter or Swap: This is a one off, direct, simultaneous exchange of goods or services between
trading partners without a cash transaction. The term ‘’swap” is used when goods are exchanged
to save transportation costs.
2. Counter purchase: A country sells to a foreign country on the understanding that a set
percentage of the sale’s proceeds will be spent on importing goods produced in the country to
which goods are exported.
3. Buy back or compensation: This occurs when the exporter agrees to accept, as full or partial
payment, products manufacturer the original exported product.
4. Switch trade: This refers to the transfer of unused or unusable credit balances in one country to
overcome an imbalance of money by a trading partner in another country.
5. Offset trade: This is similar to counter purchase, except that the supplier can fulfil the
undertaking to import goods or services for a certain percentage value by dealing with any
company in the country to which the original goods were supplied.
Advantages of counter trade:
i.Acceptance of goods or services as payment can avoid exchange controls,
ii. promote trade with countries with nonconvertible currencies and
iii.reduce risks associated with unstable currencies
iv.It facilitates enterprise to enter into new or formerly closed markets;
v.expand business and sales volume and reduce the impact of foreign protectionism on overseas
business
vi.Countertrade has enabled participants to make fuller use of plant capacity, have longer production
runs, reduce unit expenses due to greater sales volume and find valuable outlets of declining
products.
Disadvantages of counter trade:
i.Negotiations tend to be longer and more complicated than conventional sales negotiations and must
sometimes be conducted with powerful government procurement agencies.
ii.Additional expenses, such as brokerage fees and other transaction costs, reduce the profitability of
countertrade
iii.Countertrade may give rise to pricing problems associated with the assignment of values to
products/commodities received in exchange
iv.Offset customer can, later become competitors
v.Commodity prices can vary widely during the lengthy periods of counter trade negotiation and
delivery.
B. Reciprocal trading:
This is a mutual exchange of buyer’s and supplier’s products of advantages/privileges in commercial
relations. It is selling through the order book when a policy is adopted of giving preferences to those
suppliers who are also customers of the buying company. In order to perfect this form of transaction,
many countries across the globe agreed to form international reciprocal trade association (IRTA). This
is the global trade association for the modern trade and barter industry. IRTA promotes proper
accountability rules, equitable standards, ethics and governmental relations.
C. Currency management:deration when buying abroad. This is because there is always a risk that
currencies will fluctuate and the buyer will end up paying more than the original expectation.
The degree of involvement of the buyer in the management of currency will vary between one
organization and another. Large organizations e.g. multinational usually have a cooperate
treasury department that manages currency transactions.
Techniques of managing currency available to the buyer include:
1. Pay in own currency: A seller in foreign country may accept payment in the currency of the buyer.
This is possibly owing to the fact that the currency of the buyer is attractive at that market. The
disadvantage is that the seller may increase the price to protect the unfavorable involvement.
2. Paying in a mutually agreed currency that is not the currency of the country of the buyer nor the
seller
3. Inserting a clause in the contract e.g. this contract is subject to an exchange rate. If the exchange
rate exceeds this parameter, then the contract is re negotiated.
4. Inserting a clause in the contract that averages the sum of exchange rate at the time of signing
the contract and the time delivery.
5. Buying the currency and holding it until the time it is required.
4. Direct procurement:
A procuring entity may use direct procurement as allowed under subsection (2), (3) or (3) as long
as the purpose is not to avoid competition.
A procuring entity may use direct procurement if the following are satisfied:
i. There is only one person who can supply the goods, works or services being procured
ii. There is no reasonable alternative or substitute for the goods, works or services
iii. There is an urgent need for the goods, works or services being procured
iv. Because of the urgency the other available methods are impractical
v. The circumstances that gave rise to the urgency were not foreseeable and were not the result of
dilatory conduct on the part of the procuring entity
The following procedure in line with direct procurement shall apply:
1. Need assessment
2. Sourcing supplier
3. The procuring entity may negotiate with a person for the supply of goods, works or services
being procured
4. Section 47 shall not apply to an amendment to a pre-existing contract if the amendment is for
the purpose of carrying out a direct procurement allowed under section 74(4)
5. The procuring entity shall not use direct procurement in a discriminatory manner
6. The resulting contract must be in writing and signed by both parties
5. Use of intermediaries
In in ternational business relationships there is often one more party, some kind of intermediary,
directly involved. Examples of intermediaries involved in international business relationships are the
manufacturer’s sales forte, distributors, agents and wholesalers (see e.g. Keegan, 1989, p. 443). The
usual way to explain the existence of an intermediary is to say that the intermediary is needed to
bridge over the gap between the seller and the buyer. The gap can tonsist of both place- and time
related factors, such as geographical distance and separation of production and consumption in time,
and of technological differences between the seller and 3
Thus, the fact that at least three parties are more or less involved in the same business relationship
increases the complexity.
Effects of globalization
Define: The worldwide movement geared toward integrating economic, financial, trade,
technological, environmental, political, ecological and communications integration in order to
streamline global supply chain. . Globalization implies the opening of local , nationalistic
and international perspectives to a broader outlook of an interconnected and interdependent
world with free transfer of capital, goods and services across national frontiers. However, it
does not include unhindered movement of labor and, as suggested by some economists, may
hurt smaller or fragile economies if applied indiscriminately.
forces and political and macroeconomic forces.
a) Global Market Forces
There is tremendous growth potential in the foreign developing markets which has resulted in
intensified foreign competition in local markets which forces the small – and medium-sized
companies to upgrade their operations and even consider expanding internationally. There has also
been growth in foreign demand which necessitates the development of a global network of
manufacturing bases and markets. When the markets are global, the production-planning task of the
manager becomes difficult on one hand and allows more efficient utilization of resources on the
other. Few industries remain today in which the international product life-cycle theory still applies.
Product markets, particularly in technologically intensive industries, are changing rapidly. Product –
cycles are shrinking as customers demand new products faster. In addition, the advances in
communication and transportation technology give customers around the world immediate access to
the latest available products and technologies. Thus, manufacturers hoping to capture global
demand must introduce their new products simultaneously to all major markets. Furthermore, the
integration of product design and the development of related manufacturing processes have become
the key success factors in many high-technology industries, where fast product introduction and
extensive customization determine market success. As a result, companies must maintain production
facilities, pilot production plants, engineering resources and even Research and Development (R & D)
facilities all over the world. Apple Computer, for example, has built a global manufacturing and
engineering infrastructure with facilities in California, Ireland and Singapore. This network allows
Apple to introduce new products simultaneously in the American, European and Asian markets.
Companies use the state-of-the-art markets as learning grounds for product development and
effective production management, and then transfer this knowledge to their other production
facilities worldwide. This rationale explains why Mercedes-Benz decided recently to locate a huge
manufacturing plant in Vance, Alabama. The company recognizes that the United States is the stateof-the-art
market for sport utility vehicles. It plans to produce those vehicles at the Vance plant and
introduce them worldwide by 1997.
b) Technological Forces
A peculiar trend which was prevalent in the last decade, besides globalization, was a limited number
of producers which emerged due to diversity among products and uniformity across national
markets. Product diversity has increased as products have grown more complex and differentiated
and product life cycles have shortened. The share of the US market for high-technology goods
supplied by imports from foreign-based companies rose from a negligible 5 per cent to more than 20
percent with the last decade. Moreover, the sources of such imports expanded beyond Europe to
include Japan and the newly industrialized countries of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and
Taiwan. There has been diffusion of technological knowledge and global low-cost manufacturing
locations have emerged. In response to this diffusion of technological capability, multinational firms
need to improve their ability to tap multiple sources of technology located in various countries. They
also must be able to absorb quickly, and commercialize effectively, new technologies that, in many
cases, were invented outside the firm thus overcoming the destructive and pervasive ‘not-inventedhere’
attitude and resulting inertia. There has been technology sharing and inter firm collaborations.
The well-known joint ventures in the auto industry between US and Japanese firms (GM-Toyota,
Chrysler-Mitsubishi, Ford-Mazda) followed a similar pattern. US firms needed to obtain first-hand
knowledge of Japanese production methods and accelerated product development cycles, while the
Japanese producers were seeking ways to overcome US trade barriers and gain access to the vast
American auto market. As competitive priorities in global products markets shift more towards
product customization and fast new product development, firms are realizing the importance of colocation
of manufacturing and product design facilities abroad. In certain product categories, such as
Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), this was the main motivation for establishing design
centres in foreign countries. Other industries such as pharmaceuticals and consumer electronics also
have taken this approach.
c) Global Cost Forces
New competitive priorities in manufacturing industries, that is product and process conformance
quality, delivery reliability and speed, customization and responsiveness to customers, have forced
companies to reprioritize the cost factors that drive their global operations strategies. The Total
Quality Management (TQM) revolution brought with it a focus on total quality costs, rather than just
direct labour costs. Companies realized that early activities such as product design and worker
training substantially impact production costs. They began to emphasize prevention rather than
inspection. In addition, they quantified the costs of poor design, low input quality and poor
workmanship by calculating internal and external failure costs. All these realizations placed access to
skilled workers and quality suppliers high on the priority list for firms competing on quality. Similarly,
Just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing methods, which companies widely adopted for the management of
mass production systems, emphasized the importance of frequent deliveries by nearby suppliers. A
number of high-technology industries have experienced dramatic growth in the capital intensity of
production facilities. A state-of-the-art semiconductor factory, for instance, costs close to half a
billion dollars. When R & D costs are included, the cost of production facilities for a new generation
of electronic products can easily exceed $ 1 billion. Similarly, huge numbers apply for the
development and production of new drugs in the pharmaceutical industry. Such high costs drive
firms to adopt an economies-of-scale strategy that concentrates production in a single location,
typically in a country that has the required labour and supplier infrastructures. They then achieve
high-capacity utilization of the capital-intensive facility by aggressively pursuing the global market.
Besides this the host government subsidies also become an important consideration
d) Political and Macroeconomic Forces
Getting hit with unexpected or unreasonable currency devaluations in the foreign countries in which
they operate is a nightmare for global operations managers. Managing exposure to changes in
nominal and real exchange rates is a task which the global operations manager must master. If the
economics are favourable, the firm may even go so far as to establish a supplier in a foreign country
where one does not yet exist. For example, if the local currency is chronically undervalued, it is to the
firm’s advantage to shift most of its sourcing to local vendors. In any case, the firm may still want to
source a limited amount of its inputs from less favourable suppliers in other countries if it feels that
maintaining an ongoing relationship may help in the future when strategies need to be reversed.
Becton Dickinson has built a global manufacturing network for its disposable syringe business, with
production facilities in the United States, Ireland, Mexico and Brazil. When the Mexican peso was
devalued, the company quickly shifted its production to the Mexican plant, thereby gaining a cost
advantage over its competitors’ US factories. The emergence of trading blocks in Europe (Europe
1992), North America (NAFTA), and the Pacific Rim has serious implications for the way firms A?
structure or rationalize their global manufacturing/sourcing networks. These trends are clearly
apparent in many industries. For instance, before 1992, 3M’s European plants turned out different
versions of the same product for the various European countries. Today, 3M manufacturing plants
produce goods for all of Europe and, in the process, realize significant cost savings. Similarly, Philips,
Thomson, Electrolux and Ford are in the process of creating pan-European networks of factories
(producing both components and finished goods). The trade protection mechanisms which exist in
the form of tariff and non-tariff barriers effect the global operation strategy; but these are readily
losing importance in the new borderless trade regime.
Effect of a Global Integrated Economy on Global Operations
Operations and logistics are forced to adapt to environment. The logistic framework is forced to
integrate its activities to meet the challenges of an integrated economy.
a) Geographical Integration
Geographical boundaries are losing their importance. Companies view their network of worldwide
facilities as a single entity. Implementing worldwide sourcing, establishing production sites on each
continent and selling in multiple markets all imply the existence of an operations and logistics
approach designed with more than national considerations in mind. This geographical integration has
been exploited by the regional economic integration, a very good example being the European
Union. After the integration process was triggered off on 1 January 1 1993. At that time, customs
duties between European Economic Community countries were abolished. This elimination of
borders caused companies to rethink their physical flow structures for Europe as a whole. The usual
practice of setting up sales subsidiaries in each country and creating country-specific logistics support
and production systems was no longer appropriate. For companies the production and marketing is
not restricted to one country but is global. Geographical integration becomes possible not only
because of data processing and communication technologies, but also thanks to an excellent
worldwide new means of transport. Express delivery services such as Federal Express, DHL, UPS and
TNT, with their planes, hubs, systems of collection, tracking and final delivery, allow companies to
send articles long distances, in the shortest time possible, and at a much lower cost compared to the
cost of carrying inventory.
b) Functional Integration
The world is moving at such a fast pace that the various functional activities are no longer sequential
and compartmentalized. The responsibilities of the global logistics and operations manager is not
limited to coordinating the physical flows relating to production distribution, or after sales service;
they are also responsible for functions such as research, development and marketing. This functional
integration improves flow management considerably. When setting up projects for developing new
models, automobile manufacturers such as Renault in Europe have two teams working together: one
from the R&D department and the other from the logistics group. The teams’ assignment is to
simulate the flows required in the procurement and manufacturing stages according to the elements
prepared by the research unit. The logistics department, for instance, can affect the automobile
design stage by recommending modifications in order to create savings in logistics.
c) Sectorial Integration
In traditional supply chains, suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and customers each work to
optimize their own logistics and operations. They acted in isolation concerned only with their part of
the flow system which resulted in creating problems and inefficiencies for other players in the
channel hampering the smooth flow all of which add cost to the total system. Leading firms, realizing
this situation, are beginning to extend their view beyond their corporate boundaries and work
cooperatively with all channel parties in an effort to optimize the entire system. This cross-boundary
cooperation is referred to as Sectorial Integration.