Supplies and procurement
REOI MANAGEMENT OF THE MATERIAL MASTER - RESPONSE DEADLINE 30 November 2009
MANAGEMENT OF THE MATERIAL MASTER
A. Background
UNICEF Supply Division uses the SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Financial and Logistics System while UNICEF’s country offices currently use the Programme Management System application (PROMS) – a Financial and Logistics System developed by UNICEF.
All Materials are created in the Material Master (MM) in SAP and are replicated via an interface to PROMS. Not all materials created in MM are replicated to PROMS i.e. there are internal numbers used only in Supply Division (SD). There are currently 6,000 materials in the SAP MM. Of these, about 2,500 are active materials available for use in SAP and PROMS. The remaining 3,500 include depleted, discontinued and internal material numbers.
Material numbers used in the Material Master are:
1. Direct order material numbers used for third party procurement by UNICEF Country Offices against Long Term Arrangements (frame agreements) managed by SD.
2. Standard Stock material numbers used for materials stocked in the SD warehouse in Copenhagen and SD–managed/HUB (satellite) warehouses.
3. Standard Non–stock material numbers used for standard materials procured from Suppliers and delivered direct to customers/UNICEF Country offices.
4. Non-standard Non-stock material numbers (U Numbers). These are material numbers whose "specification" text field may be edited by the requestor of the materials/services and is adapted to the exact requirement needed per transaction. U numbers are used for procurement of:
- Materials procured by SD that fall outside of the three categories. (Direct order, Standard Stock, Standard Non Stock)
- All Materials procured locally by UNICEF Country offices
- All services procured both by SD and UNICEF Country offices,
B. Purpose
As a part of UNICEF’s continuous business process improvements and in preparation of the anticipated replacement of PROMS by SAP in UNICEF country offices in 2010, a review of the contents of the Material Master, processes, tools and guidelines is required since the management of the Material Master is essential for this process.
The purpose of the review is to evaluate the existing processes and procedures with a view to streamlining the creation of materials and maintenance of the Material Master, and ensure that there is a clear strategy in place for the management of the Material Master. The proposed strategy should be in line with UNICEF centralized material master maintenance approach and should cater for the increased requirements from UNICEF Country Offices in terms of creation and maintenance of materials.
C. Major Tasks to be accomplished
Strategic Area
1. Prior to the roll out of SAP to Country offices in 2010, analyze the existing SAP Material Master in SD and, in consultation with stakeholders, develop preliminary guidelines to support the clean-up of the Material Master.
2. Prior to the roll out of SAP to Country offices in 2010, analyze the materials procured against non-standard non-stock material numbers in PROMS (U numbers) and document, based on the analysis, what materials could qualify as standard non-stock materials in the Material Master in SAP and how they could be classified.
3. Work closely with stake holders in UNICEF to develop and document a strategy for Material Master management in respect of:
Providing support/guidance in the process of identifying criteria for standard versus non-standard materials;
Identifying roles, responsibilities and accountabilities of all the stakeholders in the creation and maintenance materials and general management of the Material Master when SAP is rolled out to Country Offices;
Defining clear communication lines between stakeholders such as Country Offices/Regional Offices as well as internally in SD (Technical Officer, Material Owner, Material Master Administrator, Web Catalogue Specialist etc) for the creation and management of materials;
Catering for non-standard material numbers that need to be stored in a warehouse taking into account IPSAS and operational requirements.
4. Provision for actual implementation of suggested guidelines for material master cleansing and creation of material master from PROMS materials.
Interested individuals/companies are requested to send an Expression of Interest via e-mail to Ms. Maria Grazia Pattumelli at mgpattumelli@unicef.org
Please note that Expressions of Interest should include detailed information on the individual/company including cv, experiences and skills of individuals. Interested parties are encouraged to provide their comments on the scope of this REOI and/or requests for clarifications.
A more detailed tender will be sent out at a later stage. Responding to this REOI is not a guarantee that the responding individual/company will receive any future tender.
Please note that UNICEF can only do business with individuals/partners meeting certain minimum criteria. Please click here to see the details of these criteria.
