What is the difference between procurement and purchasing in industrial environnement ?

Although both terms i.e Procurement and Purchasing are used as synonymons but these two are different in their scope. Procurment is viewed as a wider function area encompassing all activities starting from initiation of requirement and culminating upto delivery of goods and services to the end user. Purchasing, on the other hand, has a narrow scope and is limited to those activities which relate to supplier so to say, from Tender Enquiry Issuance to Placement of Purchase Order. It goes without saying that these definitions are not hard and fast, and vary according to the practice and culture of each organization. 

Hello.

Purchasing is involved with the business in terms of the Supply Chain daily operating processes.

Procurement is close to Finnancial department and it deals with the business in terms of strategy (rules, procedures, risk management, governance, ...).

Regards.

RR.

Purchasing will generally refer to the direct requirements for daily operational needs (consumables, raw materials, packaging, logistics costs, etc)..

Procurement will usually entail more complex processes (tender, weighted values in line with measureable preformance outputs, leases) and will include capital equipment and or asset acquisition.

Both however will be regulated by governance, transparency and accountability

Both terms can become interchangeable dependant or the size and function of the business.

Procurement is to go through the whole process of obtaining the needed goods which means local and international market, importing procedures, transportion means, specs comparison... etc, while purchasing is only to deal with the supplier either direct or throughout tenders to get the specific required material/goods