Independent Purchasing

A term denoting a process of selecting a supplier whereby the individual field location of a customer makes all decisions about which suppliers to use and in what proportions.
(See also Centralized Purchasing, Standardized Purchasing)

Example 1:

In the 1970s, individual companies within Xerox controlled their own suppliers, assembly plants, and distribution channels. They had little communication between them. In the 1980s, faced with competition, Xerox created a central purchasing group of representatives from the various companies. Xerox trimmed the number of its suppliers from 5,000 to 400 and saved over $100 million annually on raw materials.
(SIC 3861-Year 1992)

Explanation: In the 1970s, Xerox used Independent Purchasing, where every organization negotiated is own contracts.

Example 2:

Even as late as 1990, more than ten years after personal computers came into widespread use, many corporate departments chose PC suppliers for themselves. They had more than 300 suppliers from which to choose.
(SIC 3571-Year 1990).

Explanation: This is an example of Independent Purchasing, where many parts of the organization choose their own suppliers for personal computers.

Example 3:

Home Depot's basic systems — purchasing, accounting and logistics — had not been updated in years. Buyers from the company's nine regions each dealt directly with suppliers, which created redundancies in the company's $37 billion supply chain.
(Year 2001-SIC 5200)

Explanation: Here, Home Depot offers examples of Independent Purchasing, where each of the nine regions purchased its own products.