I4.0 Technologies Leveraging Procurement Categories Strategies

This article discusses the proposal of a framework to support procurement professionals in defining digital strategies and technology priorities for their purchasing category. Procurement digital transformation has gained attention in the literature over the years. However, the focus is mainly on the procurement area, capabilities, and tools to cover the end-to-end source-to-pay process and activities of the purchasing cycle. On the other hand, more publications need to be on how procurement category managers select the new technologies available to generate more value and accomplish the objectives defined in the strategic sourcing plan for their categories. This paper characterizes the group of new technologies available and explores their functionalities described in the literature on Industry 4.0 from a procurement perspective.
Moreover, it identifies the best-fit purchasing levers and technology's functionalities combinations through a literature review and a focus group with procurement experts. The findings indicate that artificial intelligence, used as support for humans, has the highest potential for mainly two purchasing levers: process and product/service specification improvement. Ultimately, this paper ignites the proposal of a framework based on the purchase lever's selection to prioritize digital solutions for category managers and stakeholders.