Sep
10
A purchase order is a document that is used when a business purchases products or services from another business – it is usually sent to the supplier (either as a document or as a EDI/Electronic message) and describes what part/products are required coupled with what price is being paid and what terms and conditions apply. In the purchasing process – it will typically come after the requisition and supplier sourcing phase.
While purchase orders can include a number of different attributes (check out our article on key things to include in your purchase order template) there are some basic concepts that all purchase orders will contain
1/ Your company details
2/ Your supplier details
3/ Your Purchase Order number or reference
4/ Information about what you want to purchase (including quantity and price)
Creating a Purchase Order Template
Here’s our guide on how to produce a generic purchase order template in Excel – if you’d rather not use a spreadsheet application to produce your template word processing software will do just fine as well. Check out the video below and you’ll see how we’ve structured our template.
1/ Starting with a new workbook enter some information about your company including:
• Your Company Name (and logo)
• Your Company Address
• Your Company contact details
2/ Enter some reference information about the Order including
• A Title that reads “Purchase Order” – this clearly identifies what the document is
• A Purchase Order Number
• The Date of the order (this could be the date that the order was raised).
3/ Enter contact details for your supplier include their company name and address
4/ Enter some information about where you want your order delivered too (this is often referred to as a “ship to” address).
5/ In the middle of the document create a table where you will record the items you’ll want to purchase. Include room to record the following
• Part Number
• Part Description
• Qty (how many your buying)
• Price Each
• Total Price.
6/ Add an area under your table where you can record the total price for your order include some cells that will calculate any tax or ancillary costs that you’ll be charged.
7/ Create a text box that you can use to record additional information or notes to accompany your order.
8/ Include a sign off block as necessary
9/ Add some contact information on the buyer (or who is responsible for your purchase order.)
10/ Consider how you will include any terms and conditions that apply to your order
11/ Add some color and some formatting
Sep
6
Green Supply Chain and Corporate Ethics
Filed Under Blog | Comments Off on Green Supply Chain and Corporate Ethics
Perhaps partly due to customer awareness and perhaps equally due to business opportunities such as cost reduction, companies have become increasingly aware of the need to develop and maintain supply chains which are environmentally and ethically sound – such supply chains are increasingly termed green supply chains.
But what is a green supply chain and how can it be best characterised? – the term green is perhaps at best a panacea – there are no hard and fast rules – no procedure that can be provided that clearly dictates what a green policy should or shouldn’t contain – it will mean different things to different companies and different geographical locations.
However, green policies will commonly include thoughts on sourcing, waste reduction, energy, recycling and materials. Markets that have seen one organization adopt certain policies with success are likely to see fellow competitors follow with similar policies shortly after. Increasingly markets are seeing associations developing offering best practice.
Is green just ethics wrapped up in a different name?
The use of child labour has hit the headlines in recent years –a number of high profile companies having been found to be utilizing child labour either directly or indirectly through their supply chain – the resultant bad press and hasty policy changes have shown that business are, rightly so, taking such challenges seriously. There can be much blurring of context around these social and ethical issues and a Green policy, with such issues often being championed under the same corporate responsibility banner. In reality the green policy is more focused on environmental issues than social ones.
Examples of green and social policies in action
To help better understand how green supply chains and ethical policies have risen in importance and deployment lets look at some examples.
1/ General Motors – Corporate responsibility
Covered under the organizations corporate responsibility banner – GM has a strong “environmental commitment.” GM states “We work with governmental, business, and non-governmental organizations to assess the impact of our products and plants and to develop approaches that improve our environmental performance.” And is a key member of http://www.supplierspartnership.org/. Further information at http://www.gm.com/corporate/responsibility/
2/ Marks & Spencer’s Plan A
Marks and Spencers are one of the UK’s leading retail stores selling everything from clothing to homeware and food. Launching Plan A – its umbrella for ethics and environmental policies – the organization has been keen to publicise its foray into sustainable and ethical management. – M&S’s Plan A is far reaching and incorporates a target to be the worlds most sustainable retailer by 2015 as well as targets over energy usage and recycling – more can be found at http://plana.marksandspencer.com/.
3/ The Body Shop
For an organization like the body shop (which produces environmentally and ethically produced cosmetics) – such policies come easy as they are already part of the fabric of the company from the outset. Body Shop founder the late Anitta Roddick stated I just want The Body Shop to be the best, most breathlessly exciting company – and one that changes the way business is carried out. That is my vision.” Using its own community trade suppliers – Body shop targets responsibility in material sourcing – with all suppliers operating within a corporate code of conduct which suppliers have to sign upto before trading with the body shop. For organizations like Body Shop – Green supply chains are not a nice to have but form part of the fabric that makes the company (http://www.thebodyshop.co.uk/_en/_gb/values-campaigns/index.aspx) and any failures on behalf of the company to keep up this strategy could have serious consequences for the brand image.
4/ Airbus
Airbus is one of worlds leading aerospace manufacturing companies. As part of its corporate responsibility program it aims to place the “highest priority on environmental performance” Airbus endeavours to implement full life cycle responsibility from inception and design through to disposal.
In accordance with Airbus’ “mitigation” approach, the company aims to increase the aviation industry’s environmental performance by supporting green economy and technologies transfers, especially in developing countries, creating a sustainable “virtuous circle.”
More information at http://www.airbus.com
Wise words or a real commitment?
What stands out from this short foray into corporate responsibility is that the practical application of green policies varies from company to company – most large organization proudly publicize their environmental credentials as part of their public relations (check out most blue chip company websites) but a key “take home” point is that these should be more than just a mission statement – compare with companies that have put these to action and see how these have been implemented. Wise words are one thing but data from improvement initiatives are another!
Whilst it looks like green supply chains are here to stay, irrelevant of the motives behind them – the tactics and strategy behind them will become an ever more important element in the supply chain executive’s tool kit. It is likely that “how green are you” will continue to be a market differentiator with the customer and it will be interesting to keep a watching brief in the future to see how such initiatives gain notoriety through clever PR.