An Inside Look At Target's Procurement Process

Target is a major retail company that not only supplies consumers with goods, but also some locations offer food and/or beverage services. The first step in operating a company is the procurement process. How the materials for this process are obtained and delivered is a key concept involved in the operations of a company. All of these processes come together to form a supply chain. A successful supply chain operation is vital for any prosperous company.
Procurement
The procurement process is essential to every company. Procurement is defined as the “act of obtaining or buying goods and services” (Business Dictionary, 2015). Target operates in the retail industry, but also owns some of its own brands. This makes in procurement process

The company has locations globally from areas such as Bangladesh, Canada and China (Target, 2015, p. 1-3). In many of Target’s hundreds of locations their products are being manufactured. A majority of the goods found in their stores are sourced from using outsourcing practices. One way to that this is displayed is by checking the tags of their goods which the U.S government requires that a company identifies the country where the products were processed or manufacture (Federal Trade Commission, 2014, para. 35). This got me to thinking. After, checking some of my Target purchases it is noticeable that none of them are from the U.S. This is not surprising after doing more research I came across numerous articles that spoke about numerous allegations of Target manufacturing in sweatshops, using endangered tropical wood as raw material and being fined by the U.S government for some of its manufacturing practices (Green America, 2011, para. 1). Target has added sections to their website to address these concerning issues and looks as it is working to reduce its environmental footprint and keep their employees

The planning section would involve budgeting, the sourcing strategy, the outsourcing strategy, sales and operations planning, and forecasting (South University Online, 2015). The source would involve the types of materials that Target uses, the ordering of these materials and the delivery. The make aspect would involve the production, manufacturing and quality of the goods (South University Online, 2015). The deliver portion of this model would pertain to the ordering taking and shipping of all of Targets goods. Well the return process would involve both supplier return and dealer/customer return (South University Online, 2015). For Target this would include returning of default material or goods to the supplier and also the consumer returning a good to the retail location. Another supply chain process is also practiced by