Today’s lesson will begin with an overview of how computers and technology are used in purchasing. You'll learn all about various types of information technology, including electronic data interchange (EDI), electronic commerce (e-commerce), bar coding, and enterprise resource planning (ERP). This lesson will also discuss how to use procurement cards safely and effectively.

This lesson will go over some information that will help you meet company international purchasing objectives. It will explore the history of international business and purchasing, define key purchasing terminology, and define the participants. You'll discover how international business varies by key area, including economic, political, legal, culture, technology, and demographic.

As a purchasing professional working with international sourcing and supply, it's essential that you have a solid understanding of the various laws that you must comply with. So today, to help you build a firm foundation, this lesson will discuss the major challenges surrounding intellectual property rights, product liability, and anti-trust practices. It will examine specific international law that affects purchasing activity, including United Nations' Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the European Union (EU). The lesson will finish up by investigating organizations that can help with your international purchasing activities.

What exactly is the world economy and why should it concern you? You'll find out today. This lesson will examine economic forecasting as a way to help you predict what's taking place in the world economy. Then it will discuss business cycles and economic growth. This lesson will also explore gross domestic product and gross national product, and macro and microeconomics. Finally, it will conclude with a study of economies of scale, the experience curve, and econometric forecasting.

To fulfill your organizational role, you search for, locate, qualify, and obtain materials and services. An important facet of this role is making sure that what you buy meets (or even exceeds) company requirements. To do this, you must thoroughly understand what represents quality. So this lesson will define quality, discuss what makes up a quality system, review the components of a quality philosophy, and explore the quality organization. You'll also learn that high quality takes place when all employees are involved—using total employee involvement (TEI).

Today’s lesson will take an up close and personal look at a few methods that your best suppliers probably use. These include Six Sigma, statistical process control (SPC), control charts, and process capability. The more you understand the nature of these concepts, the better you can represent your organization in buying high quality materials. This lesson will start by discussing Six Sigma and examining its define, measure, analyze, improve, control (DMAIC) methodology. You'll learn about the nature of variation and see how SPC helps stabilize process. The lesson will finish up by seeing how suppliers use control charts and process capability to meet customer expectations.

This lesson will explore how to communicate expectations by using specifications. It will start by looking at the benefits of standards and how they're defined. You'll see how suppliers successfully use the ISO 9000 standard to create a quality system and provide high levels of satisfaction. You'll learn the background of ISO, what ISO 9000 represents, and the challenges and methods of implementing it. The lesson will wrap things up by briefly examining each section of the ISO 9001:2000 standard.

Purchasing personnel work closely with physical transportation, also known as traffic or logistics. Since your company is either directly or indirectly paying for transportation, you need a good command of the basics. To increase your knowledge of physical transportation, today’s lesson will review each element of a logistics system. You'll learn how to use warehousing effectively, understand tracing and carrier modes and types, and to recognize the importance of an effective receiving process.

Many purchasing practitioners use MRP software to define what they need to buy. In this lesson, you'll learn the essentials of MRP, including dependent demand, bills of materials, and inventory records. You'll discover the various reports and schedules, and find out how to lot-size MRP orders. The lesson will finish up by discussing what's required to successfully implement MRP.

Managing inventory can be a thankless job. When you have the right inventory, you probably won't hear much. But if you run short or have too much, watch out! Today, to help you maintain the right level of inventory, this lesson will cover the ABC classification. It will discuss how to use the economic order quantity (EOQ) formula as a way to balance inventory costs. You'll also learn the basics of setting and managing an inventory budget, and discover various methods of controlling inventory.

Public purchasers are everywhere. You find them at the college you attend, the school your child goes to, the hospital you visit to see a sick friend, the police and fire departments you make annual donations to, and of course, at city, county, state, and federal government offices. These professionals are similar to their counterparts in the private sector. They try to get the best deal for their organization. This lesson will look at nine distinctions between private and public purchasing. It will also examine a typical purchasing manual for a public organization.

This final lesson emphasizes key financial concepts and fundamentals. Much of the information that purchasing professionals use—such as purchase price variances, inventory balances, and expense budgets—comes from accounting. So you need to understand accounting reports. Today’s lesson will begin by reviewing two vital financial statements that you find at nearly every organization—the balance sheet and the income statement. Then it will move on and see how to financially account for inventories. This lesson will also explore the significance of cash flow. By the end of the lesson, you'll see why sound cash management helps any company stay on the right path.