An online procurement system for sugar mills in the Philippines

• Main Author: Generoso, Frederick V.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2002
• Subjects: Office information systems; Sugar factories; Business data processing; Information storage and retrieval systems
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/3037
• Institution: De La Salle University

The term procurement generally refers to the set of business processes that supports the purchase of operational inventories and raw materials needed for production plus non-inventory materials which includes office supplies and fixed assets. For the sugar mills in the Philippines, the procurement process has long been characterized by problems of late deliveries, voluminous documents, and inconsistencies in the information written in the purchasing transactions. This is the reason why purchasing managers have long sought ways on how to generally improve the conditions prevailing in such systems. Recent advancements in the field of information technology, however, have provided some glimmer of hope for manufacturing companies experiencing the problems mentioned. This study develops a prototype for an online procurement system. The study gives readers an insight as to how procurement systems function and how inefficiencies in such systems affect manufacturing companies in particular, sugar mills in the Philippines. Specific issues that plague said industry were highlighted and a possible solution through the use of a breakthrough in the field of information technology was modeled and proposed through this study. A prototype is a working model of the actual system that imitates the actual user-interface designs as well as the reports and inquiries of the actual system. The proponent employed a methodology deemed as a hybrid between a prototyping and a standard waterfall methodology. The main deliverable is a prototype of a procurement system which when implemented would be launched in a buyer-controlled web site. The viability of the said system was further verified through a product viability survey which was conducted among the major sugar mills in the Philippines plus some of their major suppliers. The prototype output may not be able to solve problems identified in the study since none of the centrals have experienced or tried running an Internet based online system. However, based on the results of the survey conducted involving 6 of the 12 sugar mills, the purchasing supervisors indicated that implementing a procurement system such as the one being proposed would be a better option than just retaining their current procurement systems.