The Purchasing Executive's Adaptation To The Product Life Cycle

Abstract

The purchasing executive must follow a number of strategies in the course of successfully fulfilling his mission. All of these strategies, of course, must strive to maximize the long-run opportunities and survival of the enterprise. There are times, for example, when the energies of the purchasing department must be directed towards improving the quality of the materials and services that the firm obtains. There are other times when the purchasing efforts must emphasize inventory control, shipping procedures, regional supply centers, etc.At all times, however, it is clear that well-thought-out strategies have to be followed, and that priorities need to be established by the purchasing manager for a broad range of possible actions. 1 The necessity for doing this raises the obvious questions: "What guidelines shall the purchasing manager use? What are to be his criteria for establishing his strategies and setting his priorities?" This paper presents a brief exposition of one extremely important concept which provides some of the answers to the purchasing manager's questions. Still too new to be widely known, this is the concept of "The Product Life Cycle."2 Successful application of the lifecycle concept will permit the purchasing executive to make decisions with greater accuracy, relevance and foresight.

Balanced incomplete block designs: selected business-related applications and usage caveats

“…Of the 21 procurement strategies evaluated by purchasing executives for the Introduction phase of the PLC, these six strategies were rated most important (in order): PS #s 2, 3, 14, 5, 10, and 4 (Table 6 and Figure 1). Four of these procurement strategies (i.e., PS #s 2, 3, 5, and 4) coincided with the six strategies recommended by Berenson (1967) for the Introduction stage of the PLC (Table 2). …”

Strategic pricing across the product’s sales cycle: a conceptualization

“…Finally, the sales curve for different industries will have numerous shapes as will those for various segments of a market and associated products (e.g., Berenson, 1967 …”

“…As a 1 For example, Dean (1950), Forrester (1958 and, Patton (1959), White (1962), Kotler (1965A), Clifford (1965A and, Levitt (1965), Kotler (1965B), Management of New Products (1965), Bell (1966), Belville (1966), Buzzell (1966), Cox (1967), Wills (1968), Godin (1968), Wasson (1968), Polli (1968), Cunningham (1969), Buzzell & Cook (1969), Scheuing (1969), MacKenzie (1971), McCarthy (1971), Kotler (1972), and Smallwood (1973). 2 For example, Dean (1950), Forrester (1959), Patton (1959), Mickwitz (1959), May (1961), Charvat & Whitman (1964), Kotler (1965A), Clifford (1965A and, Levitt (1965), Buzzell (1966), Berenson (1967), Thorelli (1967), Cunningham (1969), Scheuing (1969), Staudt & Taylor (1970), MacKenzie (1971), McCarthy (1971), Kotler (1972), and Wasson (1974). result of the...…”

Strategic marketing concepts and models

“…The application of the PLC as a strategic planning tool has also been discussed in the context of the functional areas of purchasing (Berenson 1967), finance (Fox 1973), logistics (Davis and Brown 1974), and sales management (Dodge and Rink 1978).…”