Sourcing and Procurement
Glossary
Your trusted guide to exploring sourcing and procurement terms & definitions,
from the world’s leading procurement experts and companies
Consolidated deliveries
The practice of grouping deliveries with similar products or products which have similar transportation requirements in one journey to reduce the unit cost instead of making many single deliveries of the same item
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Continuing professional development (CPD)
Undertaking training or attending courses to develop knowledge
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Contract
Is a legal agreement between two or more parties which is enforceable by law and subject to legal remedy when breached. Contracts have four (4) elements: agreement (mutual assent), consideration (reason, legal value), contractual capacity (mutual legal authority) and lawful object (legal subject). The two authorities that define a contract are Common Law and the Uniform Commercial Code. Also referred to as an Agreement.
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Contract Compliance
The goal of contract compliance is to make sure that the organization is buying on contract, honoring commitments and realizing the negotiated pricing, savings quality and service levels that were agreed to.
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Contract Management
The management of contracts made with customers, suppliers, partners, or employees. Contract management includes negotiating the terms and conditions in contracts, ensuring compliance with the terms and conditions, documenting and agreeing on any changes that may arise during its implementation or execution. Sometimes also referred to as Contract Administration.
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Contingency Planning
Preparing to deal with calamities (e.g., floods) and non-calamitous situations (e.g., strikes) before they occur. May include an element such as Disaster Recovery Plan or Business Continuity plan.
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Continuous Improvement
The ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes. These efforts can seek "incremental" improvement over time or "breakthrough" improvement all at once. Some successful continuous improvement implementations use the approach known as kaizen which uses small improvements initially to make a big change.
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Contract Administration
The management of all actions after the award of a contract that must be taken to assure compliance with the contract; e.g., timely delivery, acceptance, payment, closing contract, etc. Also sometimes referred to as Contract Management.
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Contract Lines Items
A contract line item refers to each of the items on PO. Often purchase orders have more than one product or service on the PO. For example, grocery retail may order apples and oranges. Each would be a different contract line item.
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Contract Managers
Persons responsible for selecting the right contract, contract negotiation and contract compliance by buyer and seller.
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