Material Management Purchasing and Storage 2017 for Dr. Sulaiman Khaled Obaidat and Mustafa Naguib Shawish

Materials Management Purchasing and Storage Department Professor Dr. Sulaiman Khaled Obaidat Professor Mustafa Naguib Shawishi The global economy has witnessed many economic developments at different times, especially between progress and decline, accompanied by technological advancements to introduce new technologies to help economic organizations develop and grow. However, this does not prevent the occurrence of a severe economic decline reaching the level of crisis sometimes, characterized by global recession and economic stagnation, during which inflation and unemployment rates increase, and economic growth rates decrease in many countries around the world. The situation worsens in developing countries where their debt increases, and it is also observed that fierce competition has emerged due to modern technological shifts and the difficulties they brought despite their benefits. There is also a major problem represented by the shortage of available resources and the rising prices of raw materials, foremost among which is oil, which is currently experiencing a sharp increase, along with raw materials that constitute the inputs of industrial organizations, leading to higher prices of final goods that are the scope of commercial organizations. These economic variables and others have directly impacted the orientations of industrial organizations toward an important activity among their activities, which is the activity of purchasing, because sound policies and wise decisions in this activity can save the organization many problems it faces and have a direct impact on the profitability of these organizations. Therefore, the purchasing function has become more than just performing its procedural aspect; today, it is considered an economic, technical, and commercial function among modern organizations, governed by a set of policies, principles, and objectives, all aimed at serving the goals of various economic organizations. When we talk about the purchasing function, we do not forget another function associated with it, which is storage, and together with the purchasing function, they form what is called Materials Management, which is the subject of this book. If one of the tasks of the purchasing function is to provide the organization’s needs for various materials in terms of quantity, quality, price, and at the right time from the appropriate supplier, then the storage function is responsible for preserving these materials and supplying the different departments within the organization with their needs for these materials, also in the right quantity and at the right time, helping to ensure the continuity of the organization’s work. There is no doubt that the efficient and capable performance of both functions allows any organization to control its profit margin to the extent that serves its interests in facing competitors and achieving competitive advantage. In light of what has been presented, Materials Management (purchasing and storage) has become one of the important functions of the organization, similar to other functions such as production, finance, marketing, and others, and it has gained a prominent place on the organizational map of the organization. Organizations now view Materials Management in terms of its importance and active role in achieving their goals and objectives, quite differently from how it was viewed previously. This is what will be emphasized in this book, which includes ten units. Five of them are dedicated to the purchasing function, which in the first unit addresses the basic concepts of Materials Management (the purchasing function), while the second unit discusses the scientific foundations of this management. The third unit discusses purchasing planning, the fourth covers purchasing implementation, and the fifth and final unit in this part discusses purchasing evaluation. The other five units are allocated as follows: four units are dedicated to the storage function. The sixth unit addresses the basic concepts of Storage Management, the seventh discusses inventory planning, the eighth covers storage procedures, the ninth deals with inventory control, and the tenth and final unit is dedicated to discussing the management of supply authority. All of this comes within the concept of Materials Management, which includes the functions of purchasing and storage.