EL-IPS offers several purchasing and supply (chain) management courses to Bachelor and Master students in the University of Twente. Among other things, EL-IPS offers or participates in the following courses:
- Purchasing Management
- Purchasing for IBA
- Supply Chain Management in Construction
- Logistics Management for Business Administration
- Health Care Purchasing
The courses provide a general or more specific overview of purchasing management. It is not to teach specific purchasing skills, but rather to develop the understanding of what strategic, tactical, and operational aspects are involved in purchasing and how they can be managed. The purchasing function is considered from various angles, including its organisation, the relevant procedures, and the purchasing process itself. Many issues are illustrated with examples taken from the practical experience of the teaching staff. In this way also new developments in purchasing are included.
A brochure on the master Purchasing & Supply Management is available for download.
Capita Selecta
Students who have passed a purchasing related exam, may subsequently submit a proposal for a so-called Capita Selecta-project on purchasing management. A Capita Selecta project involves writing a paper based on a thorough literature search on a specific topic.
Master graduation projects
The EL-IPS staff supervises around 15-20 students yearly who work on a Master-level graduation project on Purchasing Management. These projects are usually carried out over 6-8 months in both public and private organisations. Some typical examples of Master projects are:
- Auditing of the purchasing function
- Investigating the tools for purchasing analysis and diagnosis
- Improving the efficiency of MRO-purchasing
- Investigating the possibilities of E-commerce
Bachelor graduation projects
The EL-IPS staff also supervises students involved in a Bachelor's graduation project or a practical training project on Purchasing Management (internship). These projects cover around 10-14 weeks and are more likely to be carried out abroad.
Courses facilitated by EL-IPS
Purchasing Management - this elective course in the Industrial Engineering and Management track is an introduction to Purchasing and Supply Management (PSM). It provides a mix of knowledge, theory and professional skills (hard skills), interpersonal skills and intrapersonal traits [soft skills] to analyse an organisation's PSM function's performance and make well-founded, inventive decisions on complex strategic purchasing issues. The course takes a challenge-based approach and is open to multi-disciplinary student groups. Due to the course design and learning opportunities, students reported increased out-of-the-box thinking/strategic thinking. 191820160 Dr. Klaas Stek, Dr Liubov Pakhomova, Drs. Henrike Heunis & Drs. Esmee Peters
Supply Chain Management and Innovation - In this course in the Purchasing & Supply Management track, students are trained to become experts who possess and integrate knowledge about supply chain management and innovation whilst mediating between both specialised departments to bring them further and get the best innovations. 201100054 Prof Dr. habil. Holger Schiele & Dr.Ir. Remco Siebelink
Global Sourcing and Organisation - The master course in Global Sourcing and Organisation (GSO) focuses on the understanding and design of purchasing practices within a global supply chain context. Based on real-life business problems, the students learn to analyse and improve the organisation and practices of international procurement departments, addressing the need for high purchasing maturity, the implications of digitalisation and relevant purchasing objectives. 201500085 Dr. Vincent Delke & Prof Dr. habil. Holger Schiele
Purchasing Strategy and Systems - The first part of the course will focus on the tasks of the department systems and strategy. The second part of the course (strategy) will establish knowledge of leading strategic management theories with purchasing relations (such as resource-based theories, principal-agent theory, transaction cost economics, resource dependency theory and others). 201500091 Dr.Ir. Niels Pulles
Seminar Purchasing - The course provides a brief introduction to the particularities of public procurement and industrial purchasing and gives a deeper understanding of contemporary issues (e.g. innovation, sustainability, digitalisation) in either private or public / health care procurement (i.e. students have the choice between the public and the industrial variant of the course). Students prepare theory and literature reflecting research papers on the subject, which will also sharpen their research skills and present their findings to their peers in a closing mini-conference. 201600014 Prof Dr. habil. Holger Schiele & Prof. Dr. Louise Knight
Finance and Healthcare Purchasing - This course is intended to provide an overview and an appreciation of the importance of finance and healthcare purchasing, with a strong emphasis on healthcare purchasing. The course guides how to perform and manage professional purchasing in the healthcare sector. The course is not intended to teach you how to become an operational purchaser of healthcare. It is designed for students to understand healthcare finance and purchasing as a management issue from the perspective of a healthcare provider and a healthcare insurer/municipality. 201600025 Dr. Carolina Belotti & Prof. Dr. Louise Knight
Construction Process Management - This course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of managing complex construction projects like bridges, highways, sea locks, large utility buildings, stations, railway tunnels and dikes. Drawing upon the book 'Construction Project Management – An Integrated Approach' by Fewings & Henjewele (2019) as the foundation, the course explores the intricacies of initiating, designing, and executing construction projects from an integrative perspective. 201800029 Ir. Ruth Sloot & Prof. Dr.Ir. Leentje Volker
Construction Supply Chain & Digitisation - The focus of this course is the opportunities for applying digitalisation and supply chain management concepts from other industries to construction, such as for improving construction supply chain management and materials transport and distribution between manufacturers and construction sites. Next, this course will focus on digitalisation, supply chain, and purchasing management issues concerning construction firms and their suppliers. Attention will be devoted to Building Information Modeling (BIM), Internet of Things (IoT), RFID and ERP in improving construction supply chain management. 201800045 Dr. Hans Voordijk
Procurement Strategies and Tendering - The course consists of two stages, each examined separately. The first stage comprises a series of lectures about procurement literature and underlying theories. The first stage is concluded with a written examination. During the course's second stage, you will work on a group assignment and attend guest lectures with experts from the industry. The group assignment consists of a role-playing game in which students will consult a client who has to choose a procurement route for a construction project. The guest lectures by practitioners will provide insights into practice and supporting decisions to make the assignment. The second stage is concluded with a presentation of the advisory reports. 201800048 Drs. Ing. Hans Boes
Sourcing and Supply Network Design & Transformation - This course offers a comprehensive overview of critical concepts in transportation, sourcing, and supply chain network design. Students learn to analyse transportation modes, solve routing problems, and make informed procurement decisions. The curriculum uses quantitative models to cover procurement strategies, supplier selection, and distribution network design. Additionally, students explore transportation network design options and trade-offs. Through heuristic methods, they tackle challenges like vehicle routing and travelling salesperson problems. By the course's end, students are equipped to optimise supply chain operations effectively. 202000408 Dr. Carolina Belotti and others
Public Management - the sub-field of public management covers the internal and external functioning of organisations in the public and semi-public sector—defined in a comprehensive sense—as well as the effects of this functioning on the performance of these organisations (e.g. innovativeness, effectiveness, and legitimacy). Performance is conceptualised primarily from the perspective of creating public values that are important to society as a whole rather than making a profit on a consumer market. Public organisations;
a) contribute to and help to accomplish collective public values and interests;
b) at least partly depend upon public funds and other resources.
The (semi-) public sector is defined much broader than “government” in its traditional sense. It also encompasses the activities of non-profit organisations and even the interactions between public and non-profit sector organisations with private sector organisations when such public-private partnerships serve the public interest. 202200067 Dr. Veronica Junjan and others
Business Operations Management (BOM) - Students will learn about several knowledge domains. Besides the production management principles that are core to operations management, you will learn about the critical concepts of purchasing, supply management, and supply chain management. Your study activities concerning operations management (OM) will deal with concepts such as the company's design and management of production and supply chain processes. Purchasing and supply management (PSM) focuses on the purchasing function and the management of buyer-supplier relationships. Due to the quantitative nature of operations management and the quantitative focus of the BOM module in the International Business Administration programme, considerable attention will be devoted to quantitative modelling (QuaMo). Including modelling will stimulate your analytical skills in a more general sense. The Research methods learning line, integrated into all modules of the study programme, deals with probability during this module, as this is necessary knowledge for understanding some of the operations management topics. The business skills learning line is mainly related to the project in this module. The main issues are argumentation, decision-making, and feedback capabilities. 202000553 Dr.Ir. Niels Pulles & Dr. Carolina Belotti
Supply Management (SUM) - The relationships between a firm and its suppliers are crucial in acquiring essential resources for achieving firm-level competitive advantage. It is argued that the nature of competition has shifted from interfirm competition toward supply chain versus supply chain struggles. In an average industrial firm in Central Europe, 60% of the turnover is purchasing volume. For firms to be successful, it is thus essential to professionally manage their main cost block. Therefore, the supply management function of a firm plays a vital and increasing role in attaining firm-level competitiveness. The SUM module will mainly consist of four integrated components, content-wise covering the year cycle of a purchaser and preparing an understanding of the work of a “commodity buyer”, i.e. a buyer responsible for sourcing a particular group of materials. 202000569 Dr. Vincent Delke, Dr. Carolina Belotti, Drs. Henrike Heunis, Dr. Philip Horn, Prof Dr. habil. Holger Schiele & Prof. Dr. Louise Knight
Public Sector and Healthcare Procurement - This course will cover strategic procurement in the public and healthcare sectors. Examples include the procurement of complex projects, goods, and services provided by the government (ministries, municipalities, international agencies, and state-owned enterprises) and health-related organisations (hospitals, social care providers, and international charities). The course brings a strategic perspective to tackle public matters in settings where the organisation's core purpose is to serve communities and wider society rather than deliver profit to shareholders. The diverse nature of the stakeholders, such as public bodies, non-profit organisations, suppliers, and society, is a particular challenge for the public sector. Effective public procurement is critical to addressing many of today’s societal challenges. This course aims to develop students’ strategic procurement knowledge and place this in the public and health policy domains. Students will develop their analysis and communication skills and be better positioned for procurement leadership roles in the future. 202300077 Prof. Dr. Louise Knight & Dr. Carolina Belotti