Central Purchasing
Categories: Company Management
Central purchasing is the part of a company's bureaucracy that is responsible for all the purchases made for the business. All the orders for sticky notes and pens that all the departments need, all the office chairs and computers, all the staplers and printer ink and extension cords and desk fans that anyone needs, as well as the tons of supplies and gallons of chemicals needed to make the company's products...all that stuff gets sent through central purchasing.
This can represent a very efficient way to do things...all the orders are together, one team manages the expenses and distribution, that team is known internally and externally to be the ordering people, so redundancy and miscommunication is reduced.
On the other hand, if the orders are physically delivered to one location and then parceled out from there, there can be a delay in getting them to the proper location. And, of course, there's the paperwork. When you're dealing with central purchasing, better get ready to fill out some forms.
