An often underrated, misunderstood and underutilised role of the procurement professional is the site visit. Seen as many as a bit of a jolly or a waste of time, the site visit has become a low-priority activity to be completed only in dire circumstances or when there is nothing better to do. On the contrary, visits to suppliers’ facilities should be considered an essential ingredient of effective procurement, in particular in today’s turbulent economic climate, and can be an invaluable source of useful information and insight that cannot be obtained in other ways.

 

More than ever before, perhaps, buyers must ensure that their suppliers are able to deliver against contracts. This requires an assessment of each supplier’s business model in terms of capacity (human and technological resources; financial strength and resilience; physical size of the business) and capability (compliance to latest legislation; human and technological resources; sector knowledge, client/product knowledge).