Strategic Sourcing, Purchasing, Procurement

Strategic sourcing is an institutional procurement process that continuously improves and re-evaluates the purchasing activities of a company. It is one component of supply chain management.
The steps in a strategic sourcing process are:
1.Assessment of a company's current spend (what is bought where?)
2.Assessment of the supply market (who offers what?)
3.Development of a sourcing strategy (where to buy what, while minimizing risk and costs)
4.Identification of suitable suppliers
5.Negotiation with suppliers (products, prices)
6.Implementation of new supply structure
7.Track results and restart assessment (continuous cycle)
来源: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_sourcing

Purchasing refers to a business or organization attempting to acquire goods or services to accomplish the goals of the enterprise. Though there are several organizations that attempt to set standards in the purchasing process, processes can vary greatly between organizations. Typically the word “purchasing” is not used interchangeably with the word “procurement”, since procurement typically includes Expediting, Supplier Quality, and Traffic and Logistics (T&L) in addition to Purchasing.
来源: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchasing

Procurement is the acquisition of goods and/or services at the best possible total cost of ownership, in the right quantity and quality, at the right time, in the right place and from the right source for the direct benefit or use of corporations, or individuals, generally via a contract. Simple procurement may involve nothing more than repeat purchasing. Complex procurement could involve finding long term partners – or even 'co-destiny' suppliers that might fundamentally commit one organization to another.
Based on the consumption purposes of the acquired goods and services, procurement activities are often split into two distinct categories. The first category being direct, production-related procurement and the second being indirect, non-production-related procurement.
Direct procurement occurs in manufacturing settings only. It encompasses all items that are part of finished products, such as raw material, components and parts. Direct procurement, which is the focus in supply chain management, directly affects the production process of manufacturing firms. In contrast, indirect procurement activities concern “operating resources” that a company purchases to enable its operations. It comprises a wide variety of goods and services, from standardised low value items like office supplies and machine lubricants to complex and costly products and services like heavy equipment and consulting services. MRO(maintenance, repair and operations)
来源: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procurement

Sourcing和Purchasing在中文的意思差不多，都可翻译成“采购”，那是因为笔者想不起更好的方法来译Sourcing。各位朋友如果有更好的翻译方法，请告知。但从实际职能上讲，两个工作的内容大不相同。
Sourcing的词根是Source，即根源。所以简单地理解，Sourcing是找到根源，即找到合适的供应商。在新产品开发中，Product Sourcing就是为新产品找供应商。如果想把产品生产转移到低成本国家，就叫全球采购（Global Sourcing），或低成本国家采购（Low Cost Country/Region Sourcing）。
Purchasing就是采购。相对于Sourcing，Purchasing更侧重于订单处理（PO Transaction），即询价、下订单、跟踪订单、催单、收货、付款等。 相对而言，Sourcing属“一次性行为”，一旦选定合适的供应商并把他们带上正规，Sourcing的任务就基本完成。当然Sourcing的过程可能很长。然后是Purchasing去执行日常订单管理。当然如果Sourcing选定的供应商有表现问题，例如质量、交货、价格等，那么Sourcing有可能再度涉入，寻找新的供应商。当然这种区分有点理论化。在很多公司，Sourcing和Purchasing是由同一组人员完成。但对于建制完全的大公司，总体趋势是把Sourcing从Purchasing分离出来。
从上面的分工不难看出，Sourcing相对更战略一些，而Purchasing更侧重于日常工作。在工作中，Sourcing与产品部、工程技术人员等交流较多，而Purchasing则主要是支持生产部、客户服务部（例如备件、配件）。Sourcing的班子一般由Sourcing Manager加采购/供应商工程师构成；而Purchasing则由Purchasing Manager加采购员、催货员、检验员等组成。
纵观采购在美国的发展过程，不难看出采购是在从Purchasing向Sourcing过渡，就是采购的作用和在公司的地位不断提升的过程。采购部门也从原来的订单处理更多参与到战略决策过程，例如决定公司自己制造还是采购（Make or Buy）、选择合适的传略合作供应商、很大程度上决定产品的最终价格（因为采购部分占的分量越来越大）。
当然，对个人而言，如果想向Sourcing方面发展的话，Purchasing的功底还是很有好处。因为那些日常工作也挺能锻炼人的基本功。
附注（2007年12月27日）：下面是苏州的Allan Chen就这个话题做的补充，讲地很有道理。
采购工作最核心的权力有三个：supplier selection（供应商样品认证）, allocation（采购量分配）和cost down（成本降低）。看一个采购的重要性和工作含金量，我们就看他可以控制住三个权力中的哪些部分。Sourcing肯定可以掌握supplier selection，负责供应商出样，完成样品认证，在系统中建立合格供应商的代码。
在有些公司，sourcing不能掌握allocation（采购量分配）和cost down（成本降低），这个时候，sourcing的地位就非常尴尬，工作很不好展开，最后很容易变成他们就是到处求人打样，而供应商爱理不理，因为打样要耗费供应商成本，但是后来有不有订单下来，成交价格是多少，sourcing又不能控制，这时，做purchasing的buyer就非常关键，实际作用就大于sourcing。
如果三个权力都集中在sourcing那里，buyer就等于被架空、无事可做，sourcing工作的好坏将会很大程度上影响采购部门的绩效。可是，很多公司并没有把这三项权力集中到采购部，而是被公司更高层的领导所控制。这时，采购部的重要性就大大削弱，甚至退居次席，在选择供应商和谈价格时，都是走过场，停留在表面。至于企业是否以最好的价格买到物料，采购部根本就回答不了。我看过一些大公司的采购记录，他们虽然采用最先进的系统和管理手段，但是他们的采购价格并不好，有些时候非常糟糕，原因就是采购和供应管理中，形式大于实质，采购部没有被赋予足够的权力，没有得到足够的支持，开展工作中有太多的掣肘。
(来源: 供应链管理专栏)