Procurement Needs and Specifications

Start with business needs

Begin with the mind map on business needs and procurement decisions. It introduces business needs and the business focus of procurement. Another mind map looks at how business needs influence procurement decisions and how to develop a business case for requirements sourced from external suppliers. Use these as a starting point before moving on to the detail of specifications.

Explore needs and specifications

The mind map titled Need Identification & Specifications lists categories of need, including services, capital assets, components and packaging. It also introduces need criteria. Other mind maps on need identification and specifications cover the translation of needs into commercial equivalents, with criteria such as quality, quantity, delivery, price and service.

Read the maps together and compare how they organize the material. You can use their branches to prompt your own explanations of the categories and criteria.

Practice with flashcards

The flashcard deck on requests for quotation, tendering and specifications asks what a specification is for and explores types of specification. Start by trying to answer each prompt, then return to the relevant mind maps to review the ideas.

Business Needs Flashcards D2 covers direct and indirect costs, price, budgeting, costing and supplier pricing strategies. Use it alongside the business needs maps to practice explaining those terms. There are no quizzes listed here, so the flashcards offer a way to check your recall.

Use this section within the unit

Procurement Needs and Specifications is one section of the Procurement, Purchasing and Sourcing unit in Logistics and supply chain. The page also lists mind maps on standardization of purchases and the activities involved in a purchase. Use these resources to connect the section's work on needs with its material on purchasing. Choose a resource and make a short set of notes as you study.