Smart Purchasing

To optimise the purchasing value of a hotel, today's purchase managers are not only handling capital expenditures but day to day operations as well. Food & Hospitality World explores how these managers juggle purchasing, contracting, planning, receiving orders, scheduling in order to contribute to smart purchasing for a hotel.

- Saloni Bhatia

Purchasing of goods and services is not only important for a hotel's operational performance but also makes a significant contribution to increasing its profit share. In a rapidly changing industry where new products quickly replace the old ones, the purchase managers have to make some very tough decisions within a restricted budget. Being in the purchase department requires smart choices on which products to use and also maintain an efficient relationship with the vendors.

Therefore, the managers need to create and adopt smart purchasing methods to deliver the best products leading to better service. With notable involvement of technology, managers are changing the way they function to attain a better level of coordination and efficiency. Swinky Shrivastava, purchase and stores manager, The Acacia Hotel & Spa, Goa, shares, “In today’s highly competitive market place, it’s imperative for business to innovate new ways to streamline the supply chain and optimise productivity. With the aid of modern technologies we create better visibility within our supply chain. This enables us to have more control over the business and stay ahead of the competition.”

Through proper stalk updates, quick connection to buyers and efficiency in data collection, technology is assisting managers a great deal. Nitin Nagrale, vice president materials, Foodlink Restaurants India; founder and general secretary of Hospitality Purchasing Manager's Forum (HPMF) who has also worked with chains like The Taj, Radisson, Jet Airways, Grand Hyatt among many others believes, “Now we are connected through the click of a button. It is only due to technology that we are quickly able to identify a problem in our supply chain management system which wasn't the case before. Similarly, documentation and reaching out to new vendors has become easy as reply is received within minutes of initiating a deal.”