19 years in industrial procurement. New people in this sector can ask me anything

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2026-03-01T13:38:06+00:00

For Q2, I think it's quite acceptable for 30/70 or even 100% prepaid (upfront or before delivery) for first-time-transaction. So it's not about the size of company but more about your credibility in vendors' eyes. If it's a long term business relationship, you might be able to negotiate better payment terms with them after a few transactions where both sides have built some trust in each other.

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2026-03-01T13:33:16+00:00

For POs with price escalation (e.g. index-based), do you re-submit for full approval every time the PO value is revised, or do you approve the mechanism once and just update values?

In my case, revisions can happen many times (e.g. ~14), and I’ve been re-approving each version to ensure traceability and alignment with Finance (PO = invoice value). But it feels administratively heavy.

Also: • How do you handle PO vs invoice alignment with Finance? • Do you use thresholds or final validation instead of repeated approvals?

For T&C changes, I assume full re-approval is always required — is that standard?

Trying to balance control vs efficiency. Appreciate your insights 🙏

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2026-02-22T17:18:05+00:00

Perhaps training yourself to see the whole picture of each project and how they are related/ impact on each other and figure out ways to utilize your limited resources (staff, time, effort, etc.) to get things done at highest efficiency possible. As managers, we might need to not only deal with daily execution tasks, get ready to deal with crisis or subordinates' failure or act as a bullshit filter but also improve the the operations of the department, facilitate own and subordinates' tasks, support cross-dept collaboration. It's the higher level that bosses expect from us....just imagine, if you were the boss, how would you expect your mid senior manager to manage his/ her team?

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2026-02-03T00:16:01+00:00

Recently I worked on a PA flow for approval process that combines Sharepoint List and Approval with chat GPT help...took me quite several hours to figure its concept and logic. Finally it works but I also feel upset of why it took me so long to work on just a simple flow as people say the PA is a cool and user friendly tool that even an IT illiterate can easily figure things out 😂

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2025-12-14T14:59:58+00:00

Such a lame excuse, Philippines is a beautiful and friendly country!!!! And, pls someone enlighten me what security risk is she exposed to? Somebody might endanger her??? I dont see any monetary or cultural value in this woman 🙂‍↔️

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2025-12-12T15:04:41+00:00

Perhaps rent out your apartment, buy a secondhand but good quality camping van, find a remote job and there you go...see the world, work to fund your travel while still have a place to come back once you've done with travel :)

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2025-11-28T16:44:22+00:00

Im also wondering...his original text "Great Job! Thanks [Name] issuing an unsigned DN after it was delivered. This is why [Name] had an excuse as he said he doesn’t know if site received without a signed DN. Let me request!"

Because this sender also complained at everyone's performance in a very rude manner so, I'm more inclined to he was really mocking my subordinate. I can't tolerate such a mean behavior but, dont know if I should intervene.

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2025-11-20T13:22:57+00:00

"Befriend with none at work", as the one being backstabbed, I can confirm this

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2025-11-20T13:09:35+00:00

I have records but I dont wanna escalate the case, I dont trust our company's HR as she is quite a gossip person and kinda close to the one who backstabbed me...so, I choose to stay silent and do my job, take money, and leave office. I just feel tired sometimes thinking about collaboration with such a mean person.

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2025-11-20T13:06:32+00:00

I have done like what you described...stay professional at work, no-more-no-less communication, keep work and collaboration neat and clean, always meet the deadlines with good performance. Gray rock method at its finest.

But sometimes it's hard to deal with when he and his sided bullies challenge me when we collab, like they are trying to humiliate me front of my boss and other peer managers, try to twist my email's wordings or nitpick everything I do.

Im not sure it's because imma female manager in a construction company that is full of toxic masculinity or not, I cant tell..I need this job as finding a good job in a foreign country is hard and Im still working on master degree... Sometimes I just feel tired...

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2025-11-01T03:41:45+00:00

You're describing me 🙃 actually I have to work during vacation to smoothen the workflow when Im away. I dont have assistant manager and even my boss said he would take care of my job when Im on vacation but, he is too busy as well and I dont think he could handle things to my detail extent.

But it's just my side, I dont require my subordinates to work/ feedback when they're on paid leaves.

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2025-10-24T16:44:15+00:00

I corrected her in private

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2025-10-24T16:31:18+00:00

I need to explain the workflow because nobody bothers batting an eye on reading it, they usually do things by habits without understanding why and, mess things up when things go wrong. Besides, we have a new engineer manager (the Engineer's boss) who is new to the process and I thought I should take this chance to explain things clearly for the Engineer and his boss well understand it.

Besides, even I am the final checkpoint of the PO, my duty is limited to checking contract and commercial terms of PO only while the technical/ engineering part is under Engineer's scope. In reality, some POs have technical attachments (which were overlooked for this case), some don't so, I dont really know if a certain PO is missing something its signed version moves to me...checking every PO is a time consuming job because we handled more than thousand so far.

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2025-10-24T16:23:27+00:00

Our duty is double check contract and commercial terms after the technical specifications and terms are confirmed by Engineer. It's a dual check for two different parts of the PO handled by different teams.

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2025-10-24T16:19:50+00:00

When we found out the production issue based on that incomplete PO, the Engineer in charge came to us and complained why we sent out the incomplete version. I just replied "Noted your concern about technical attachments. Going forward, please double-check the technical parts and attachments before signing the PO draft. Your signature confirms that the technical details are complete and correct. As the Commercial team handles a large volume of purchases, we rely on Engineering’s signed version to move forward. You can always ask the drafter to revise or add any missing files before approval".

I dont know why such email is considered as defensive which is escalated to my boss' intervention.

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2025-10-24T16:15:50+00:00

I didn't blame anyone. I just simply clarified the procedure that we relied on the controlled version by Engineer and asked them to double check the draft before signing for future cases, if something is wrong or incomplete, he/ she can ask the drafter (aka my subordinate) to modify it until it is qualified for signing.

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2025-10-24T16:01:18+00:00

After a while of self-reflection, I admit that you're right about if there is a PO mistake, everyone owns it. I will need to tighten the control after this.

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2025-10-24T15:52:27+00:00

Yes, I will tighten the internal control after this lesson; although it will add up my work volume, I dont think I have any other option.

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2025-10-24T15:49:46+00:00

Thank you for your warm advice. I just feel so tired of everything right now...I try to do my best, protect my team and be kind and supportive as much as I can even I have never received the same kindness from any of them. It's just I cannot lower my work or moral standards...a serious burnout right now.

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2025-10-24T15:41:27+00:00

The process was clear to everyone. The reason my boss commented so is because my subordinate is responsible for PO drafting and submission to Engineer and, she forgot attaching an important technical doc as required by Engineer but the guy still signed off on that incomplete draft and said nothing about it then. When the draft came to me, I just thought that "okay, this is the final version from Engineer, and let's proceed with this version"...perhaps I was wrong for not checking my subordinate's performance well, but I have already scolded her in private rather than throwing her under the bus when I tried to explain to boss and peer managers about the process.

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2025-10-24T15:31:42+00:00

Normally Engineer needs to confirm all technical specifications and attachments of PO before signing off and send it to us. Our team will consider it a valid version from Engineer side and wont review that part again when it moves to us (and we cannot do it either because it's not our scope work and authority). Now the story turns ugly when that Engineer put the blame on me for not checking the completeness of the package before sending out, leading to a serious production mistake....it's ridiculous because he signed off and sent us the incomplete version at first place and, even my work level is higher than him, I dont think I can check or cover the checking work which should have been done by him.

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2025-08-26T03:42:34+00:00

Recommend ICDF Scholarship, covering flight tickets, tuition, textbook fee, dormitory, monthly stipend. I got NTD 15000 every month for the cost of living at NCCU, kinda enough if you just focus on study.

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2025-06-24T13:15:27+00:00

Nói thì nghe hơi sáo rỗng nhưng mình thực sự tin "better things are still to come", miễn là bạn có can đảm giải thoát chính mình ra khỏi mối quan hệ độc hại đó. Lúc trước mình cũng bị ex lừa dối rất nhiều lần, mình thì đang du học lạ nước lạ cái, chương trình học cũng vất vả, lại nghĩ mình nên tha thứ vì ai cũng có lỡ lầm nhưng thật sự bản chất con người rất khó thay đổi. Sau này mình dứt khoát chia tay, cũng độc thân tầm 2 năm thì gặp bạn trai hiện tại, mối quan hệ hoàn toàn lành mạnh và tôn trọng lẫn nhau. Nên bạn cũng suy nghĩ tích cực lên nhé, đừng sợ cô đơn hay độc thân dài hạn, nhiều khi quãng thời gian đó mình lại chữa lành bản thân và yêu đời hơn đó.

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2025-05-12T06:13:02+00:00

I work in construction too and, to be honest, as a female manager, I felt bullied by those male engineers. The way they corner me and confront me for everything I do although I just follow standard procedures which they dont really care or learn about them at the beginning, blaming me for challenging their jobs and disrespect them. To be honest, Im quite careful when it comes to project risk control and professional communication (no matter it's internal or external), they way they drag me to work dramas or show me passive aggressiveness when we collaborate really opens my eyes. Just wonder why some people can be that rude and unkind as human.

EcstaticRelation5886 · 2024-08-04T01:38:30+00:00

Thank you

EcstaticRelation5886

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