There is a growing awareness in the global business and supply chain environment of the importance of managing the supply side, also referred to as the input side, of business processes as a strategically important area. South African business and supply chain managers are certainly also aware of the strategic competitive advan­tage in an increasingly difficult and competitive business environment, especially post-pandemic. This eighth edition of Purchasing and supply management provides contemporary insights into this dynamic field of business management. The stan­dard foundational purchasing and supply management text from the previous edition has been retained but with a focus on strategic and contemporary issues.

Purchasing and supply management introduces basic and advanced concepts and management tools to make purchasing and supply management more efficient in functioning within the broader concept of supply chain management. It covers not only basic principles, but also the activities incumbent on a purchasing and supply manager, as well as resources and areas of application. This new edition has been updated and the inclusion of real-life examples, case studies, as well as descriptive questions based on theory and case studies and multiple-choice questions makes it student-friendly, but at the same time remains a valuable aid to the purchasing and supply fraternity in South African business.

Some of the more prominent topics that are included in this edition are the following:

·    Purchasing and supply policies and strategies
·    Price and cost analysis
·    Assessment and selection of suppliers
·    The management of quality
·    Electronic commerce and purchasing applications
·    Purchasing services 
·    Sustainable purchasing and supply management
·    Supplier development

Purchasing and supply management is aimed at undergraduate students in this field as well as practitioners in business and supply chains.

Professor Willem Hugo (Unisa) and Prof Dirk van Rooyen (UP) were the founders of this unique, standard South African publication in the 1980s, whereafter Prof Hannie Badenhorst-Weiss (Unisa) joined them as co-author and later co-editor and main-editor. In the last two editions new authors and co-editors have, under the managing editorship of Prof Hannie Badenhorst-Weiss and Prof Orpha Cilliers, contributed to this publication.