The complete procurement process can handle quotations, requisitions, and purchase orders, including sending and confirming the purchase orders. It also handles delivery surveillance and sends out reminders when needed. The procurement process can be performed in four ways:
This process description document outlines the processes of entering and handling requests for quotation.
This main process also includes a supporting process, which handles supplier agreements. There are two ways in which this supporting process can be performed:
A quotation can be useful if you have not previously purchased the product. You can enter a request for quotation, or generate it by converting a purchase requisition (which is described in the description of the main process Prepare Purchase). If you enter the request manually, the activities in the Enter Request for Order Quotation diagram are used, followed by the Handle Order Quotation flow.
When entering a request for order quotation, start by entering the header and parts for which you would like the quotation. You can choose among three kinds of parts: inventory registered purchase parts, non-inventory registered purchase parts, and no-number parts (i.e., parts that are not entered in the system's part records). After this, enter the suppliers to whom you want to send the request, then print the requests. For requests generated from IFS/Project or IFS/Project Delivery, select the suppliers and print the requests.
You can also use this process when you want to convert a purchase requisition to a request for order quotation. Before releasing the request for order quotation, select the suppliers. Requests for order quotation can then be printed and sent to the suppliers.
You can also create a new request for order quotation from an existing supplier agreement. The supplier agreement lines (part and assortment) are converted to a request for agreement quotation. The system informs you about the assigned request number.
After receiving the suppliers' quotations, enter their terms and compare the data to determine the most favorable quotation. When you have selected the which one to accept, create a new purchase order or add to an existing purchase order. Furthermore, you can print rejection letters to the suppliers whose quotations you have chosen to reject.
You can also use this process when you want to convert the purchase requisition to a request for order quotation. After receiving the suppliers' quotations, enter their terms and compare the data to determine the most favorable quotation. When you have selected which one to accept, create a new purchase order or add to an existing purchase order. Furthermore, you can print rejection letters to the suppliers whose quotations you have chosen to reject.
You can use supplier agreements when you and your supplier have agreed on terms for a purchase part or for a supplier assortment. There are two kinds of supplier agreements: blanket purchase orders and purchase agreements. The difference between them is in the way in which they are used. A blanket purchase order is only used for supplier agreements releases. A purchase agreement serves in the background as a basis for the price on all applicable purchase order lines, i.e., all manually and automatically generated purchase orders. The only exceptions for the purchase agreement are supplier agreement releases (which use blanket purchase orders) and purchase orders created from an order quotation (the terms agreed in the order quotation will be used for the purchase order line).
You can use the quotation functionality to convert the accepted quotation into a supplier agreement. The quotation to be converted into a supplier agreement can begin either as an externally generated need (from IFS/Project or IFS/Project Delivery), or can be entered manually as a request for supplier agreement quotation.
You start by entering a header and the parts (or supplier assortments) to be included. After this, enter the suppliers to whom you want to send the requests, then print the requests. If the request was generated from IFS/Project or IFS/Project Delivery, the system will include the header and the part lines. All you will have to do in this case is to choose the suppliers and print the requests.
Once you have received the quotations from the suppliers, enter their terms and compare the data in order to find the most favorable quotation. When you have compared the quotations and decided which one to accept, you can create a new purchase agreement, or add on to an existing supplier agreement. Furthermore, you can print rejection letters to the suppliers whose quotations you have chosen to reject.
The Enter Supplier Agreement flow consists of two activity diagrams: one for purchase agreements and one for blanket purchase orders. You can manually enter the supplier agreement in both of these activity diagrams.
When you enter a supplier agreement manually, begin by creating a supplier agreement header in which the supplier and some miscellaneous information is entered. Before saving the supplier agreement for the first time, determine whether it is a purchase agreement or a blanket purchase order. When you have entered the general information, continue adding periods, sites and parts. You can include supplier assortments in purchase agreements. You can use supplier assortments instead of parts if you receive the same discount and additional costs for several parts. You can also include no-number parts, i.e., parts that are not entered in the part record. The supplier agreement must be in a status that allows purchasing (most often status Active) before it can be used.