New Buying Assistants never understand why Purchasing Managers insist on confirming PO's with vendors. A common comment is, "We sent them the PO, they are the ones who are responsible for it at that point. If they don't process it, it's their problem."
While that makes perfect sense, that's just now how the world works. When expected shipments of items for sale in the company's catalog don't show up on time or the IT Department can't perform computer upgrades as scheduled because the CPU's never arrived, it's not the vendor that will suffer, it's the Purchasing Manager!
Since he or she has been in the game long enough to earn that title, he or she also knows that an unconfirmed PO might as well be considered never sent.
It will only take a Purchasing Manager one time at any point in his or her career to be blamed for a problem (in which the vendor simply throws up his or her hands claiming the PO was never received) to decide that all PO's will be confirmed.
Although it does take Buying Assistants an inordinate amount of time, it's a necessary evil in our business. To minimize the amount of time spent doing this task, phone calls made by the Buying Assistants should be a last resort. The best thing to do is to have an automatic procedure set up in which the vendor is instructed to fax, e-mail, or call with the confirmation information immediately upon receiving/accepting an order. The vendor should provide confirmation of order particulars as well as delivery times.
Of course, most of this can be largely avoided if external PO's are not sent and orders are placed electronically, but that's another post!
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