Somebody asked me the other day how big a company should be before it needs a Purchasing Department.
That is an interesting question since most articles and blogs are written by, for, and about large company Purchasing Departments.
As a company grows, the Purchasing function is often bounced around from person to person or split up among different areas. For example, the office manager buys office supplies, the maintenance person buys janitorial supplies, and the operations manager gets what he or she needs for his or her staff. As you might imagine, that is not the best way to handle Purchasing.
The real answer is that, regardless of size or growth, a company needs a Purchasing specialist when management realizes that the efficiency of having a dedicated and knowledgeable employee handle Sourcing tasks outweighs the inefficiency of having it scattered among employees whose core competencies and responsibilities aren't and shouldn't be procuring goods and services for the company.
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