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battle of
the forms
'Battle of the Forms' is what occurs when there is
dispute over whose terms and conditions prevail in
a transaction. Competent contract management
should aim to avoid this happening
benchmarking
Benchmarking is the process of seeing where your
eg: Procurement department sits in terms of its
systems and processes, and determining what
improvements can be made to bring you in line with
world class.
bill of
lading
A Bill of Lading is a document issued by a Carrier
acknowledging that the shippers goods have been
received on board, and contains the delivery
details, port of discharge, container numbers etc.
boilerplate
clauses
Boilerplate
clauses are sometimes overlooked as the standard,
boring, fine-print parts of a contract, which
usually appear at the end of a contract. Never
ignore the boilerplate parts of a contract, for
they are the foundations of which the contract
will stand on.
An example
of a Boilerplate Clause is the 'Law' section which
states the jurisdiction where disputes will be
handled.
BOM
A Bill of
Materials, also known as a BOM, is a
list of parts that build-up into a complete unit.
For example,
a pump can be set up in an ERP procurement system
under a single material number, which has a BOM
attached to it showing the parts used to build the
pump. Furthermore, an 'exploded' view of the
BOM would show all of the sub-assemblies and
components in more detail.
bottleneck
items
In
manufacturing, an item that has a LOW impact on
profit but a HIGH risk of supply is classed as a
Bottleneck Item. Running short on this item
would 'bottleneck' the manufacturing process.
Therefore,
strategies need to be put into place to ensure a
reliable supply (eg: holding more stock on the
shelf; effectively managing the supplier
relationship; negotiating an supply agreement).
Bottleneck Example: A
manufacturing company builds their own hydraulic
pumps, which are very popular in the mining
industry. Each pump is made up of 50 different
parts, including nuts, bolts, piping, machined
parts and so on.
Supply of these parts are not an issue except
for a specially made check valve which can only be
bought from one (unreliable) supplier.
On the scheduled day of production,
all 50 items except the check valve have arrived.
The Procurement officer chases the supplier and is
advised the check valves have been delayed for
another two weeks. Due to this check valve not
arriving, there is a bottleneck in the production
of the pumps.
BPO
BPO
(Business Process Outsourcing) is when a company
contracts out a business function (eg:
procurement, marketing, payroll, accounts) to a
third party.
For example,
a rapidly growing energy company may decide to
outsource its Procurement function to a management
consultancy. This company would be contracted to
hire Procurement staff, and manage all of the
Procurement processes.
An example
of Offshore BPO would be an internet
service provider outsourcing their customer
service center to an overseas party.
brownfield
A project
where there has never been any prior construction
or exploration is considered 'Greenfield'.
For example,
a coal-mining company setting up operations on
unexplored territory would classify this project
as 'Greenfield'.
On the other
hand, a coal-mining company setting up operations
on or near an area previously mined for coal,
would classify this project as 'Brownfield'.
business
efficacy
The term
'Business Efficacy' can be spun around to mean
'Effective for Business'.
EXAMPLE:
When a court
implies terms into an under-detailed contract by
filling in the gaps, it is making the contract
commercially fit, and therefore giving it business
efficacy. |
