Innovations in improving the Public Procurement Effectiveness through ICT in Indian Railways
By P.SIVALINGAM, Indian Railway Stores Service, Deputy Chief Material Manager, Indian Railway
This paper is intended to bring the innovations adopted in Indian Railways by leveraging the ICT
tools in the recent years. It was possible by way of developing and deploying software (Indian
Railway Material Management Information System) and switching over the tender solicitation
processes through e-procurement portal. The present automated and re-engineered processes in
the public procurement enables the PP framework to achieve better effectiveness through
obliterating the old processes of unproductive yearly reviews, calculating the lead time and reorder points based on the actual lead time of the past data , evaluating and identifying the
successful vendors for future better sourcing, priority wise functioning in the PP office, visibility
and traceability of each of the PP functions, real time performance and progress monitoring,
ensuring the public procurement ethics of transparency etc. The revised process besides
improving the PP effectiveness is also a tool to decrease the TCO of PP function in Indian
Railways and efficient achievement of its objective of all over availability of materials for the IR
business functions
Indian Railways Profile Fast Facts
Total outlay for the year 2012
Public procurement made in 2011
Total number of employees
% of PP personnel over total staff
Number of stocked in the IR warehouses
Inventory turnover ratio
$12 Billions
$6 Billions
1.4 millions
1%
45,000
20%
Assets population
Stations
7083
Bridges
131,205
Locomotives
9,000
Freight Cars
219,931
Route Kms
63,974
Daily Turnover
No. Freight
trains
7,000
No. Passenger
trains
12,000
Passengers
transported
23 millions
Freight
Revenue
Transported
2.65 million tons $ 58 millions
Innovations in improving the Public Procurement Effectiveness through ICT in Indian Railways
1. Overview
The public procurement (PP) function of the Indian Railways (IR) caters to the material
requirement needs of IR’ public rail transport service operation and maintenance and also supports in the
manufacture of assets such as rail coaches, locomotives, wagons, wheels, rail equipment, spares etc.
required for the transport business. The PP requirements for operation and maintenance are more
fluctuating than the asset creation material requirements. For the easy managing of the vast IR, the whole
network is divided into 17 zones and for assets manufacturing 6 product specific production units (PU)
are operating. Each zone and PU is placed under a General Manager who functions as CEO with 11
different functional departmental heads under GM. The PP functional head is designated as Controller of
Stores, under him four tier organizational hierarchy of material managers serve for the PP functions. The
procured materials are received at different user points in the Railway network and each such unit
warehouse and logistics function is under a separate Material Manager who is also delegated with limited
purchase powers of procurement to rise to urgent local needs of the field units. The vendors execute their
supplies direct to the user point warehouses on receiving the Purchase Orders (PO) from the PP office.
2. Problem Context and background
The PP all operational framework functions’ information repository such as PP office data,
warehouse stock and transactions data were being maintained in each zone/PU in the mainframe
computers since the year 1965 without any networking among the mainframe computers and also with the
PP offices. Microprocessor based PCs were inducted in IR only in early 1990s mainly for simplification
of PP functions office work (excepting few in-house software system developments adopted in some
units) without any attempt for automation and leveraging the ICT till 2003 initially.
The vision to augment the ICT for PP functions gained momentum later and software named as
Material Management Information System (MMIS) was developed through IBM and was commissioned
in phases in each zone/PU from 2004 onwards and the new system implemented and got stabilized
recently in most of the Zones/PU.
While the MMIS facilitated the process automation and simplifications with enhanced PP
efficiencies in the PP offices and warehouses, the PP commercial bidding process with the market
necessitated IR to switching over to an in-house developed e-procurement system through commissioning
of Indian Railway Electronic Procurement System (IREPS) in a centralized server at the national capital.
It catered to the IR common PP functions such as tender solicitation, vendor registration, and interaction
with the stakeholders for PP decision making besides acting as central repository. Induction of MMIS &
IREPS necessitated several modifications and adjustments in the PP functional framework in contrast to
the erstwhile PP old systems. Induction of these ICT tools led to PP process re-engineering adapting to
the latest trends of the industry benchmarks to enhance the PP effectiveness.
In the above context this experience study’ objective is to bring the methodologies adopted
through the ICT that facilitated in improving the PP effectiveness with a reduction in TCO of the PP
framework functions, better availability of materials, minimum order cycles, lesser paper work, lead time
and inventory reductions, process traceability and visibility, improved response time to meet the user/
stakeholders needs, real time performance measurements etc.
3. Look back the Old System
In the earlier system except using the mainframe computer as a repository to the PP information
after feeding the voluminous paper data created in the day to day processes in the PP framework, the PP
function was managed at various places through manual creation of files/records in the offices without
any automation. The procurement of each item’s requirement was made on yearly review (fixed p-model).
For this the entire list of items for procurement were split into equal 12 batches, so that each batch comes
for review every month. As the mainframe is not connected to the PP functional points and warehouse
there existed back and forth paper movements among them. The erstwhile old system processes are
mapped below.
Table-I Manual Processes Sequence of IR PP function from the year 1965
Sl
Activity for the PP
1
Demand
forecast
Advance intimation
Mainframe
computer centre
2
Updation of advance
intimation & return
Warehouse
Manager
3
Generation
Demand Forecast
Mainframe
computer centre
4
Collection of the
Forecast and updation
Warehouse
Manager
5
Submission
of
Forecast to PP office
Demand Finalisation
and Budget provision
Warehouse
manager
PP office
PP office
8
Sanctioned quantity
advice to users
Initiation
and
processing
of
Procurement actions
9
Tender Finalization
PP
office
in
collaboration with
user agency branch
10
Post
contract
management
11
Monthly
updation
PP
office
in
collaboration with
warehouse
manager
Mainframe
computer
6
7
of
data
Activity agency
PP office
Purpose of the Activity
To fill the information gaps and correct errors in the data, this
print out is sent to the warehouse two months before an item is
due for review
Advance intimation corrected manually is returned back one
month advance to mainframe and information is updated in
computer.
To assess the quantity requirement for the next 18 to 24 months
based on the future forecast, current stock and quantities due in
pending PO(s)
Again updation takes place based on the latest developments,
material budget projection for next year, trend of demand
fluctuations, physical stock etc.
Consolidation of all user points demand for initiating
procurement action by PP office
The total estimated demand for the item is sent to the Finance
Manager, who vet the quantity that is authorized to be procured
by the PP office
Communication of the quantity proposed to be procured for
objection or review if any.
Deciding the vendor panel for sourcing finalization,
description/specification updation, formulation of tender
documents, deciding the mode of tender either public tendering
or limited source solicitation, tender notice advertisement,
sending tender enquiries to the vendors by post and opening
the tender on specified date
Commercial and technical evaluation of bids, quantity reviews,
tender committees deliberations, acceptance of bids, placement
of PO
Supply monitoring before PO fixed delivery dates, reminding
vendors, clarifications, delivery extensions, PO modifications,
material stage inspection with vendors, logistics etc.
After release of the PO manually, copies sent to mainframe and
fed in the computer. Similarly each transaction document copy
at warehouse sent to mainframe for feeding & updating the
same in the repository which becomes archives of the item for
next year review and the cycle is repeated.
Apart from the monthly updates are fed manually in the Mainframe electronic data processing
centre by collecting the various papers and documents generated at PP office and warehouse, the data
centre also runs specified accounting programs every month and generates various management
statements, reports, outputs etc so that the status till last month is known to all the stakeholders. All
information available in the PP offices and elsewhere will be based on last month’s updated data in the
mainframe computer
4. Re-engineered Public Procurement Processes through ICT
The currently commissioned MMIS has three modules for three main functionaries viz.
Procurement module for the PP office, Depot module for the Warehouse and Finance module for the
Finance/Budget Branch. The server placed at PP office is networked with the field units through
dedicated WAN. The server for electronic procurement is kept at New Delhi catering to entire PP
agencies of IR. How the old manual processes are re-engineered, adapted, simplified through ICT
automation and tools is discussed below.
5. Demand Forecast Planning
To avoid back and forth paper and information flows and updations as shown in the old system
mapping table I, instead of printing the hard copies of the advance intimation in the mainframe/server for
the batch of items due for procurement after two months, a soft copy of the data is accessible through
customized menu driven program for user point to take a print out (if required) and update the
discrepancies if any noticed online on real time basis. The mainframe is isolated from the PP networks
except running the monthly programs and generation of management reports for progress monitoring and
records.
Elimination of hardcopy print outs in the mainframe/central server, sending it to the satellite user
points spread across the national networks, manual updating by the users, re-submission back to the
server, manual feeding and its errors etc address the problems of back and forth paper flow, human errors,
delays etc cutting the time required arriving the forecast from three months to 15 days.
6. Demand Forecast generation
The finalized forecast in the server is placed online for viewing by the user’s warehouse
managers, who consults, checks the budgets, reconciles the planned demand for the ensuing year in
confidence with the end users of the item, fills any gaps or corrects errors that may be found in the
recoupment proposals generated. The controlling officer(of several end user and sub-users) who decides
the total requirements required for the ensuing period are also provided with all the details of
consumption of their users, so that a comparison is made for the quantity projected during the earlier
procurement cycle and actual consumption of the item. After analyzing the reason it is also possible to
revise the requirement for next cycle with necessary justification for the revised budget demand from the
finance manager. In the earlier manual system this was not possible and it warranted getting cumbersome
process details down the line to analyze the realistic demand of each item that led to delays, process
duplications, voluminous paper work etc.
The updated recoupment forecast is sent online to the Finance manager in case it exceed certain
value threshold limits in terms of value of procurement, quantity to be procured etc for exercising budget
control. Small value items below the threshold value are directly sent to the PP officer for procurement.
After finance vetting of the proposed demand for procurement with modification if any the warehouse
manager complies with the observation of the Finance manager and forwards it online to the Procurement
manager.
This entire process eliminates paper work duplication, enhances the visibility and traceability of
each case showing pending status and its monitoring. In comparisons to the manual old process taking
two month time this work gets completed within a fortnight cutting across delays.
7. Demand consolidation & finalization in PP office
The normal course of action by procurement office in line with the old system will be to
consolidate all user demand and clubbing to arrive the quantity to be procured for that item for the next
year. As this is item specific, fixed period review every year, irrespective of whether stock available or
otherwise, a review is conducted by taking print outs, which wastes time and resources. This
methodology doesn’t facilitate to take cognizance of the other items which may require review due to
precarious stock situation as result of fluctuating demands, rejections, trade failure against the last PO
etc. With a view to overcome this problem and to place the PP functions on priority basis the following
process priority is assigned for the day to day functions of PP office.
Table II
Priority processes
For<1month
Status of items at the For
start of day in the PP stock out stock items
items
Office
For<3months
stock items
Action
Items without
PO dues at all
any
1
5
9
Generate adhoc demand and
make emergency purchase
With uncovered dues
i.e. no PO available
but tender under
finalisation
Live PO with valid
delivery period exists
2
6
10
Expedite contract Finalisation
for early PO release
3
7
11
Review & take alternate action
on the defaulted contract
PO
with
delivery
available
4
8
12
Contact vendor for supply
status and take action in case of
delay in supply
Valid
period
The process of monthly review is obliterated and instead the above priority wise processes are in
the daily schedule work of the PP office and ware house manager. Since identifying the above priorities
manually is a tedious process due to dynamic material inflow and outflows at the user points, the ICT
tools in the MMIS software brings the above priority work schedules to the PP manager on daily basis. As
the very purpose of the procurement manager is to support the agency operation by ensuring availability
of materials the above become first priority on every day. After focusing attention and taking necessary
action for the above the PP manager can take up the other regular work. The priority also signals the
corrective/remedial actions to be taken at the user points. This also reflect prospect of regular availability
of materials for operation, maintenance and production in the ensuing days facilitating the PP office top
management to initiate alternate emergent action to improve the material availability wherever warranted.
8. Re-engineer the Re-order points
Once a demand hit the PP office server online, on real time basis the system activates the review
not only for the items for which demand has been received for the day, but also for the demand that has to
be procured when quantity reaches below re-order level. In the conventional supply chain the re-order
points are arrived when the stock reaches below certain level. This is based on lead time assumptions for
each item. But in a public procurement process wherein creation of competition is the watch word by
ensuring public procurement ethics, the lead time changes from time to time, item to item due several
market conditions such as the present supplier offering better delivery than previous vendor, change in
technology, readiness to pay higher rates for earlier delivery etc. So it is required to calculate the leadtime scientifically in cognizance of dynamic market conditions over a period. For this though the PP
manager cannot evaluate the future market dynamics of the item, it is possible to make logical
conclusions from the past lead time data over a period of about five years.
For approximate calculation of the lead-time requirement of the item in the next procurement cycle
the following factors can help. After consumption of the item at the user points across the network that
are captured online, the change in stock to a lower level triggers the system to run and filter the item that
has reached the re-order point. The re-order point is through analysis of data from several databases
which may be cumbersome process if done manually. Those factors are listed below.
a) In the last five procurement cycles, what was the average time take to cover the demand with a
PO
b) The average delivery materialization time taken in the last five PO i.e. time taken from release of
PO to receipt and acceptance of the item in the warehouse.
c) The average time period of total period of delivery time extension given for last five years POs
for arriving safety stock i.e say for instance in the last five years POs a total delivery period of
extension of 15 months was given in five PO, then the safety stock required is 3month stock (15/5
months). This time includes from the date of PO to the PO cancellation date also in case a vendor
fails to supply that led to cancellation of contract.
d) The overall vendor rating performance average of all the vendors who have supplied that item in
the last 5 years to arrive the uncertainty risk factor of the vendors for the item. The IR adopts
separate formulae for calculating vendor performance evaluation ratings that include delivery,
quality and service rating of the vendor for each contract or defaulting. This address the
difficulties in getting the item based on the quality of vendor base for the item
If the stock available in the warehouse and live dues (through which supply may materialize) quantity
reaches re-order level taking into the above factors the system signals to take next procurement cycle
action on emergent basis i.e
Quantity required for the total of Periods (a+b+c)/d is less than the (Stock + live PO quantity).
The PP office once completes the actions for that item in that day the next item are taken as per the
priority table II. The receipt of the fresh quantity in warehouse and consumption by user makes the
system dynamic and real-time and priorities for each day is prompted for each procurement manager once
logs on the system on first time of day. The prompts PP manager specific in the system is based on
procurement value powers delegated to different procurement managers in hierarchy and also based on
the group of items meant for each procurement manager.
9. Effective sourcing methodology in Procurement
The mode of tender is decided on the basis of total value of the item to be procured either to
resort to open public advertised tendering of to issue tender to the limited prospective sources. However
in case if the item has to be procured from a sole single source only or the stock situation warrant for
emergent tendering in a faster way than the normal, the same is decided accordingly.
Once the quantity to be procured is finalized, on seeking the MMIS system to generate a tender
solicitation proposal it furnishes the following informations for the item
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
List of all successful sources that supplied the item in the past with vendor rating >40%
Past sources whose vendor rating is less than 40% for the item
Other than the (i) & (ii) above, the other approved/registered sources with Railway for the
item, but not supplied the item, wherein their overall vendor ratings based on all other items
supplied to Railway is >40%.
Delivery requirements for the item based on available stock and live PO, say for instance a
stock of 3 months quantity (excluding safety stock) is available in March 12, then the first
installment of 3 moths quantity should be deliverable in the next contract during the month of
June ’12, so that before the item is exhausted, fresh quantity is sought for.
If the item is out of stock or the lead-time is such that before the next supply is expected the
available quantity may gets exhausted, out of the total quantity of demand three months
quantity can be procured through emergency purchase through limited tender or sole sourcing
from the ready stock sources which is also prompted in the system
In case of limited tenders, all sources in (i) above is included and the sources (ii) & (iii) is decided
by procurement manager in a discretionary manner depending upon the nature of the item, value of
procurement, sources capacity cum capability, number of sources in (i) that can be suffice to create
competition, delivery requirements etc. Thereby MMIS system assists the PP manager in identifying
the effective sources and decides the speed at which the item could be made available to avoid stock
out situation.
10. Automated Tender solicitation
In case of Limited tender invitation, once the sources are decided, when the procurement manager
approves the tender online, the tender solicitation is shifted in the electronic procurement portal
(IREPS) with specified due date fixing. After this a draft tender schedule is displayed on the screen
for the benefit of the Procurement manager to exercise final check of all parameters of the tender.
Once this is approved the page link is sent to email of the respective sources in the tender invitation
panel. The supplier can log on the IREPS through his assigned password and digital signatures and
can submit their offer electronically on line. Apart from email to the vendors, SMS alerts with key
information of the tender is also sent to the mobile phone numbers registered for the firm through
system. For this IREPS provides any vendor to get it registered for receiving such alerts and tenders
online.
11. Innovated Bulletin Tendering system
The vendors who intend to supply to Indian Railways are inducted as Registered Suppliers of the
Railway for a batch of items for which they have the credentials along with capacity cum capability to
supply. In the earlier manual system that existed till last year, a monthly bulletin booklet of tenders
were generated and sent to these registered suppliers. This system of collecting subscription charges
from the vendors, printing of bulletin books, sending them by post every month is in vogue for 50
years.
In the present system, the printing and sending bulletin to registered suppliers is modified by
posting the same bulletin soft copy online in the IREPS portal, which can be accessed by the
registered suppliers through their log in pass words. Besides this, the suppliers need not search for the
items they are registered as for the items they are dealing is separated and an email is generated and
sent to them for participating in the bulletin tenders. This ICT tool besides eliminating the paper work
and manual activities in sending the books to the vendors, has also reduced the lead time of each
item’ procurement. While in the manual system as all the activities required considerable time from
the date of publication of the tender enquiry, atleast 90 days time was fixed for due date, which is
now reduced to 30 days as the publication of tender is quicker by simply uploading the bulletin of
tender in the portal.
12. Open Advertised solicitation
In case of open advertised tender, the approved tender is automatically uploaded in the IREPS
website with a Notice Inviting Tender (NIT) to be sent by email to the respective media for
publication in the newspaper/journals etc which is compulsory in the public procurement to ensure
transparency. In case of open tender, email and SMS alerts are also generated automatically to the
vendors of (i), (ii) & (iii) as cited above in para on ‘effective sourcing’
Once a procurement process is initiated, alerts also sent to the end users so that last minute
modifications of quantity , description/specification etc if any is done online which be taken care
before tender release or after tender released posting as addendum to the original tender solicitation.
13. Online Protest and Clarification
After floating the tender solicitations online, in case of any clarification is required by the firms,
the queries are lodged online by firm in the tender solicitation portal which in turn gets delivered to
the respective contract manager. The contract officer gives the clarification at once, which is also
available to all the prospective sources for tender. In case of delays contract officer also considers a
brief postponing of the tender due date in order or give reasonable time to the suppliers to quote or
revise their offer after the postponement of tender due date,.
14. Simplified Tender Opening
In the old system of tender opening, on the tender opening due date and specified time, an
authorized representative from PP office and Finance Branch office opens the bids dropped by the
firms in the tender box or received in the PP office and dropped in the tender box. The firms who
have participated in the tender can be present in case they want to the inter-se commercial position of
the competitive offers received for those items. This is modified as follows.
On the tender opening date and time the nominated person though his digital signature key and
encryption certificate key opens the tender. Once the tender is opened the entire offer details are
delivered to the respective PP manager online. Simultaneously the comparative tabulation statement
of the tender is emailed to all the sources who have participated in the tender, so that they are
apprised in a transparent manner about their inter-se commercial competitive position in the tender.
15. Bid Evaluation process through ICT
The contracting officer once opens the delivered bids for that day it displays the entire history of
the item with details such as
a) Comparative competitive inter-se tabulation of the offers
b) Deviations/counter offers given by the sources
c) History of the item, where it is used, who are the end users, where& when required, last purchase
details, previous suppliers for the item with their performance, previous year consumption trends,
pending orders for the item, change in market of its raw material inputs etc
On scrutiny of all the above information which are retrieved and displayed from different databases of
the server, the procurement manager evaluates and decides after ascertaining/satisfying the rate
reasonability of the source on which the contract has to be awarded. On finalization and clicking the
accept tab the entire draft PO is displayed on the screen to the manager to peruse the entire terms and
conditions, to carry out correction if any warranted by the contract manager after which signs the PO
digitally through their digital signature.
Once the PO is signed the soft copy of letter of acceptance (LOA) is sent and a draft PO is sent online
to the Finance Manager to vet the PO (in case purchase value exceeds the threshold value) for budgetary
provisions and Finance branch sends back the vetted PO to the contract officer, who on authorization
from the finance manager releases the PO. The released PO is automatically sent online to the supplier.
Hard copies are also taken and sent to the respective stakeholder of the PO for record and meet statutory
compliances. In addition to this, SMS alerts are also sent to the supplier.
16. Process in the Open tender solicitations
After opening the tender, the offers are delivered to the respective contract manager online. In
open tenders instead a contract officer decides the tender, a committee comprising a technical engineer
from the user branch, finance manager along with the contract officer has to meet, deliberate and submits
the recommendation to the tender accepting authority. For this the online information exchange is
facilitated online to speed up early finalization of the committee recommendations.
Before the committee meets, a technical evaluation of the offers has to be done by the technical
member of the tender committee. The Material Manager who is also the convener of the tender committee
first sends the bids received by him after opening the tender to the technical member of the committee
online. The technical member furnishes the technical recommendation and the points he finds it relevant
to be discussed during the meeting and sends it to the Finance member of the tender committee. The
finance officer also peruses the tender after which on a nominated day the committee meets and decides
the rationale for recommendation and makes the recommendation in the custom screen. Thereafter the
tender committee recommendation minutes are signed digitally by the committee members and sent to the
tender accepting authority online electronically.
The tender accepting authority peruses the committee recommendations and gives his orders
regarding acceptance/rejection/modification of the committee recommendation and sends it back to the
material manager. For the tender accepting authority also all the relevant details as available in the limited
tender for finalization will be available online.
On getting acceptance order of the tender accepting authority (TAA), the material manager,
makes a draft PO and sends a Letter of acceptance to the accepted vendor. Simultaneously the draft PO is
send to Finance manager for vetting and budget provision and returned back to the material manager. The
material manager signs the PO digitally and sent to the supplies as like in limited tender process.
17. Online Negotiation Process
In certain situations where the rate of bid to be accepted may be on the higher side warranting the
procurement office to call for a negotiation with the supplier. Instead of doing this manually as in the old
system, a negotiation proposal is emailed to the supplier with sms alerts duly fixing the cutoff date and
time before which the firm submit reason for the quoted rate with or without downward revision of the
rates. The firm also called by the contracting officer in person to negotiate not only for the price but also
other commercial conditions.
18. Post Contract Management
Once the PO is released, at regular intervals the contract management is to monitored with
requisite actions so that the status of contract is visible and supply status is traceable
a) Once the supplier gets the PO and accepts the PO online it becomes a live binding contract.
b) The supplier is given access to post information about the dispatch/supply details online
c) Where such of supply details are not posted by the suppliers before 15 days of the delivery due
date due email and sms alerts are sent to the supplier and the warehouse manager to update the
supply status of the item online.
d) In case of no delivery status on expiry of due delivery date, the penal conditions of contract is
invoked by the contracting officer and a notice is served to the defaulting firm to explain as
otherwise resorting to procure the item elsewhere at the defaulter risk and cost.
e) In case on delivery failure the contract is cancelled and cancellation advice sent to the defaulter
online and alternate procurement action is resorted to the item as per terms of the contract.
f) In case the firm seeks for delivery period extension, the firm registers and asks the same online
with contracting officers. The contracting officer if considers the request may give extensions
online.
g) The firm as well as the contracting officer can exchange letters and clarification about the
contract online.
19. Performance and Progress monitoring of PP functions
19.1. Online meeting list:In order to discuss the availability of items, trade failures, alternate emergent action to speed up
certain functions, regular weekly and monthly progress monitoring meetings are convened by PP
office with controlling officers of several end users, divisions, warehouse managers etc. In the earlier
manual system a list of items were sent to all the authorities who are to attend such meeting to collect
all the relevant information required for each item to discuss. In the present system, through the
customized menu, once the meeting list of items are decided the entire details will be displayed online
by retrieving the required information from several databases for inputs or analysis by the persons
who will attend the meeting. On the meeting day, the customized format is displayed in the
conference hall through multimedia projector directly linking to the server. This apart from
eliminating the paper work of taking several print outs, also make the information real-time due
change in positions captured online from the field units.
19.2 Management reports
Unlike in the earlier system whereing the mainframe computer every month has generated some
management reports in predefined formats, in the current MMIS any information can be generated
according to user wish and requirement according different purposes through customized menus and
data retrieval methods. This also facilitates anytime review on real-time basis instead of seeing the
printouts whose position is one month old generated in mainframe computer in earlier system. It is
also possible to know the Performance indices for the month, Progress monitoring and Workload
pending at each level.
20. Conclusion
In the old PP systems in the absence of priorities the PP manager in most time was doing crisis
management in making available the items that become out of stock. Whereas in the present system it
is possible for the PP manager and the warehouse manager to know at once the item reaches re-order
point based on several factors. This facilitates preventing actions in the PP office for all the time
availability of items. Further as most day to day functions are carried out in the MMIS and eprocurement portals, the TCO of the PP is reduced besides ICT tools improving the effectiveness of
the PP functional framework.