ABSTRACT

This chapter deals with purchasing activities that take place after the issue of a purchase order. The next activity in a typical purchasing cycle after issuing the order is monitoring and expediting, but to understand what that means it is necessary to know a little about the complexity of the total supply chain. In describing what understand by a materials supply chain the chapter begins with the simplest case, and then we can move on to describe a very complex chain. A shortage list is a communication from the project manager to the purchasing department conveying a request for urgent action. However, for practical project purposes the chapter considers only those stages needed to process the materials up to delivery at their point of use on the project. It is sensible and usual for the inspecting and expediting engineer to issue a report following each visit, both for information of the purchasing manager and the project manager.