Context In the modern network economy, a typical industrial firm in Europe spends about 60% of their turnover on purchased components. More than half of the entire income of a firm is directly routed through to its suppliers. Hence, not only from the perspective of an individual firm but from the perspective of European competitiveness the management of the buyer-supplier interface, i.e. professional Purchasing and Supply Management (PSM), is crucial. For that, world-class training and education of purchasers are necessary. In a previous Erasmus+ strategic partnership project we empirically identified the skills characteristic for successful purchasers and developed a curriculum and a MOOC for teaching them (www.project-perfect.eu). However, since then, a new development gained unpreceded momentum, the sustainability challenge facing the global economy. Developing sustainable and innovative solutions in supply chain management design is now obligatory for businesses, not just an option. The PERISCOPE project aims to prepare students in acquiring future PSM skills and key competencies towards innovative and sustainability solutions. In the fast-changing world, PSM employers need to keep pace with the occurring developments. Institutes for higher education need to be a step ahead of the employer needs of the future and have to face the future and prepare students for the upcoming developments i.e. sustainable developments. Within education as well as in industry there is a strong demand for directions on how to manage this change in general and how to educate and prepare the purchasing workforce in particular. Objectives Project PERISCOPE’s objective is to address this demand, by a) identifying those skills which are likely to prevail and those which are newly added to the profile of a European purchaser and supply manager and b) develop a course-set to teach these skills. Moreover, it would be a missed opportunity to try to teach global mindset, critical thinking and entrepreneurial skills with traditional means. Hence, c) PERISCOPE is going to develop an open student-centred learning in digital space with educational materials and simulation games. Needs and target groups to be addressed The challenge is that currently, very little knowledge is available on how purchasing managers together with their suppliers can develop sustainable and innovative solutions to face the environmental changes and requirements from an educational perspective. The following question arises on -How will the purchasing and supply managers select and evaluate sustainable suppliers? -Which skills and knowledge are managers likely to need? for developing sustainable and innovative solutions together with their suppliers? -And how to train current students of the future in an efficient, modern way (i.e. student-centred), i.e.already reflecting innovative and integrated methods? Number and profile of the transnational participants The PERISCOPE consortium consists of five partners with complementary skills. The workload is spread over the five universities equally. In every university two colleagues are working in the project; in total 10 researchers will work on the project. The project consists of about 1500 working days, meaning that the workload per person is 150 working days in 3 years, which is approximately 1 day per week on average. The workload is divided in a way that the project work can be performed within three years by the team of researchers. Outputs and results: 1. Providing a framework for Innovation and Sustainability PSM competencies (knowledge, skills and traits) 2. Description of best practices World Café sessions approach to the collection of future competence requirements for PSM managers towards innovative and sustainability solutions 3. Describing a procedure for using gamification elements and playful interaction concepts in teaching courses (accessible tool-set using modern digital learning elements, gamification) 4. Developing an open module-based course for finding and applying innovative and sustainable solutions in PSM Education 5. Providing open-source learning material to prepare students for finding and applying innovative and sustainable solutions in PSM Education
Based on the above, it was important to answer the following questions: What is the role of purchasing in innovation and sustainability projects? Which skills and knowledge are purchasers likely to need for innovative and sustainable solutions? Beyond this question, it was crucial to identify soft skills, these personal traits, and attitudes such as global mindset, curiosity, and cross-functional teamwork that students need in a changing labor market and empower them to become active and responsible citizens for finding sustainable solutions. Another question was how to train students as future innovative and sustainable purchasers in an efficient, modern way? We wanted to address this demand, by a) identifying those skills which are likely to prevail and those which are newly added to the profile of a European purchaser and supply manager and b) developing a course-set to teach these skills, and c) developing open student-centered learning in digital space with new educational materials.
In the modern network economy, a typical industrial firm in Europe spends about 60% of its turnover on purchased components. More than half of the entire income of a firm is directly routed through to its suppliers. Hence, not only from the perspective of an individual firm but from the perspective of European competitiveness the management of the buyer-supplier interface, i.e., professional Purchasing and Supply Management (PSM), is crucial. In a previous EU project, some members of the PERISCOPE team (TU Twente) empirically identified the skills characteristic for successful purchasers and developed a curriculum and a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for teaching them (www.project-perfect.eu). However, since then, a new development gained unprecedented momentum – the sustainability challenge facing the global economy. Developing sustainable and innovative solutions in supply chain management design is now obligatory for businesses, not just an option. For that, world-class training and education of purchasers are necessary. PSM employers need to keep pace with the occurring developments. Institutes for higher education need to be a step ahead of the employer needs of the future. They must face the future and prepare students for the upcoming developments i.e., sustainable developments. Within education as well as in industry there is a strong demand for directions on how to manage this change in general and how to educate and prepare the PSM workforce. When applying for this Erasmus Strategic Partnership project, we identified the challenge that very little knowledge was available on the link between sustainability, innovation, and purchasing and how to develop new competencies such as holistic supply chain thinking, curiosity, and cross-functional teamwork skills in PMS from an educational perspective. We focused on identifying PSM competencies (hard and soft skills) and developing and providing a course-set to teach these skills.