Three questions for Buyers:
- Does your Sourcing Department have standard operating procedures?
- Do you know where they are/how to access them?
- When was the last time they were updated?
Since SOP's are the official version of how things are supposed to be done, they are valuable, especially when corporate auditors are going through your department. "But that's now how we do it," won't be a defense if the auditors find that your requisitioning and purchase order processes don't match the SOP files. Conversely, Buyers can point to the SOP documentation to justify why they do things a certain way if their methods are questioned.
It is worth seeking out your official standard operating procedures. You may be surprised to find what is in them.
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