AT THE RIGHT PRICE

Procurement heads have their tasks cut out for them. They need to be sensible about procuring, and more so in an uncertain market

- Molly R

Real estate benchmarks are created by finance teams who budget or estimate the total cost in terms of leasing, renovating, construction, procurement, etc. The team communicates the requirements to procurement.

The pandemic put an enormous strain on global supply chains, at times halting manufacturing while shutting down airports and seaports, interrupting delivery of raw materials and finished goods. At the pandemic's onset, procurement departments switched to crisis-management mode to help companies alleviate disruptions, including sourcing personal protective gear for employees and helping smaller suppliers manage their cash flow.

Construction Week speaks to procurement heads of real estate companies to find out some of the modern ways they deal with the job.

Nanda Kumar, DGM, purchase, Century Real Estate, says, "For faster and more efficient procurement, we use e-bidding portals and reach out to e-platforms to connect with more vendors. To shorten approval times, we have moved the internal approval process to mobile platforms. Though the technology platform we use gives us necessary information regarding the procurement to be done, interval, and forecast, we need to drill down further as to whether we can knock down the components, assemble them at the site, and accommodate for critical components that can come later. We do this all while ensuring the work is complete and the end date is not compromised."