Jimmy McConnell came to work in Delaware on January 6th, 2019; the company had SAP, but they did not use the software as it was designed.\u00a0 The Purchasing department had evolved into more of a customer service department for all the managers of the company to give little projects to.\u00a0 There were no internal controls with access to the key functions of SAP such as issuing Purchase Orders.\u00a0 There were about 15 hourly employees in the company who could just create a Purchase Order without any specific approvals.\u00a0 The Purchasing system was out-of-control, so Jimmy’s first order of business was to maximize the use of SAP.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

$\"Jimmy$

Jimmy McConnell, Purchasing & Category Management Leader<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe two Purchasing Supervisors were the first people I trained in the proper usage of SAP Purchasing Module.\u00a0 Next came the training of the Requisitioners, Approvers, and Goods-Receipt personnel.\u00a0 The required training took about 6-8 weeks to get the key people in the different locations of Delaware and North Carolina to minimal confidence levels.\u201d\u00a0 The Purchasing & Category Management Leader explained that to implement the process and convert to a true online SAP Purchasing Function, the roll out was just one facility at a time.\u00a0 The First requisition was entered and approved online in SAP on June 5th, 2019, creating the first correctly issued Purchase Order.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI trained two Purchasing Supervisors, 24 Requisitioners\/Receivers, and 15 Approvers when the system was fully implemented.\u00a0 My next obstacle was getting Accounts Payable and Accounting to use the Purchase Order system.\u201d\u00a0 Jimmy concluded that more training was needed in those departments in order to acquaint them with the system.\u00a0 Jimmy then had to teach the Suppliers the appropriate invoicing method of using a Purchase Order on their invoices.\u00a0 This all resulted in a functioning three-way match, where the Purchase Order, Goods-Receipt Document, and Invoice all matched which allowed the payment to process.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn 18 months, the company moved from a non-existent Purchasing Department to a fully functional system.\u201d All locations in the company began entering requisitions with managers approving the orders in the system.\u00a0 Now there are two Purchasing Supervisors issuing the Purchase Orders to the approved suppliers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n