Sourcing and Procurement
Glossary
Your trusted guide to exploring sourcing and procurement terms & definitions,
from the world’s leading procurement experts and companies
Materials Management Systems
A managerial and organizational approach used to integrate the supply management functions in an organization. It involves planning, acquisition, flow, and distribution of production materials from the raw material state to the finished product state. Activities included typically are procurement, inventory management, receiving, stores and warehousing, in-plant materials handling, production planning and control, traffic, and surplus and salvage.
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Maverick spend/off-contract spend
Where local staff ignore existing contractual arrangements and purchase from other suppliers. This may be for fraudulent reasons, but most often it is simply because they believe they can get a better deal and do not understand the overall impact on the business
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Measurement Minutia
One of Vested 10 Ailments that states, "With the intention of ensuring accountability, the contract requires measuring everything.
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Micro environment
Factors that directly influence an organisation’s success, such as competitors, suppliers, employees and customers
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Middle majority
A group of consumers who buy or use a new product or technology after seeing it used successfully by innovators and early adopters
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Maverick Buying / Spend
Purchases by employees that occur outside of the organization's guidelines, negotiated agreements and contracts.
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Mean
Another name for the average. The mean is calculated by adding all of the values together, then dividing by the number of values
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Mechanics
Lien A form of payment protection for parties to an agreement for improvement of real property involving construction material or services. The lien process varies by state and may force a buyer to pay twice for the same work if payments to lower tier sellers are not made by upper tier buyers who have received payment for the work.
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Method statement
A plan or procedure that details how a process or task will be carried out
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Micro-, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME)
The expansion of SME to include microbusinesses, which are usually defined as having fewer than ten employees
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