Transforming the purchasing department by managing supplier's resources

The purchasing function of companies is currently facing a number of challenges because of the radical reduction in the number of first-tier suppliers (those who supply directly to the client), the global optimisation of purchases, and the fact that innovations are shared with suppliers (and even R&D is outsourced). In a flexible, globalised, complex and socially responsible company, the purchaser's role is to reinvent (according to a radical redefinition) the interactions a purchaser may have with the other functions of the company, and with his suppliers' ecosystem. The PRIME (Purchasing Relationship Integrated Model for Enterprises) model, proposed by Jean Potage, stresses the importance of not attempting to improve the purchasing function by separating it from the rest of the company ; the model should be integrated and should cover all functions.