The objective of this study is to determine if and how Swedish businesses measure the efficiency of their purchasing departments.
In this study I have interviewed six medium to large successful companies and asked them
· Which ratios they use to measure the efficiency of their purchasing departments
· Why they use these ratios and
· How the results of these measurements are used
I can conclude that although there are no ratios or other measurements that directly measure the efficiency of purchasing indirect measures do exist.
The measures applied are usually the result of demands from management and the results are reported back to management and used to follow development within a particular field of purchasing. Benchmarking, especially external benchmarking, is unusual.