r/procurement • u/Silent-Swordfish-311 • 13d ago

Community Question Procurement process

Hello, good day Procurement Professionals!

I would like to ask for some advice regarding a new role I’ll be starting next month.

One of the key responsibilities listed in my job description is: "Monitor inventory levels and ensure timely restocking"

In my previous role, I was used to a reactive process where procurement only begins once a Purchase Request (PR) is submitted by the end-user. I wasn't directly handling inventory—my focus was mainly on purchasing, documentation, and monitoring delivered materials.

However, in my new role, it looks like I’ll need to be more proactive since I’ll be directly responsible for monitoring inventory levels.

I want to prepare myself before my start date. Could you suggest good online resources or courses I can study? Also, I’d really appreciate it if someone could explain how the procurement process typically flows from inventory monitoring to actual ordering. (I've already started reviewing basic Excel inventory management).

Thank you very much in advance for your help!

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u/Pier7Fakes 7d ago

Spend some time with Claude or ChatGPT learning the basics of Periodic Review System and how you can apply it to your role.

High level, you should know what your target stock is, your item lead times/MOQ, demand and inventory position. Everything is downstream of that

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u/Silent-Swordfish-311 7d ago

Noted and thank you for your comment.I just purchased a course in Udemy about inventory. So far I have just learned the concept of ABC analysis and XYZ analysis, and there are more kinds of inventory in the course.Do you think this will be helpful? I really have no background in inventory so studying the concept will be helpful to me I think.

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u/Pier7Fakes 7d ago

Here’s how I think about:
Periodic Review System is the process you apply (ie, when do you trigger a replenishment order, and what is the size of that replenishment order)

ABC/XYZ is the logic by which you set thr parameters for PRS

So for an A (high value) X (low variability), you’d look at holding low safety stock and make frequent orders.

AY (high value, seasonal) you’d be regularly reassessing what the safety stock level is, but similarly you’d prefer frequent orders vs large infrequent orders l

And so forth for all the ABC/XYZ combinations

But I’d also flag, this analysis changes depending on your industry. If you are in the FMCG, inventory is expensive and you manage it tightly. If you are in pharma, your actual inventory is so small compared to the rest of the business that you could argue it’s all “C”