Why an urgent purchase takes weeks
In a large company, every purchase order follows the same path, whether it is for CLP 200,000 or CLP 200 million. For a small, urgent purchase that path has three stages, and the longest one is rarely the one you would expect.
| Stage | New supplier | Onboarded supplier |
|---|---|---|
| Request, quotes and bid comparison | 5–9 days | 4–7 days |
| Supplier onboarding (vendor record, bank details, HSE, legal, ERP, treasury) | 10–21 days | — |
| Tiered approval and PO issuance | 3–6 days | 3–6 days |
| Total until the PO reaches the supplier | 18–36 days | 7–13 days |
The underlying problem is that urgency shows up exactly where the process is most rigid. The parts and services needed overnight usually belong to categories you rarely buy, from suppliers you have never used. So on top of waiting for quotes comes the full onboarding of a new supplier, for a purchase that will probably never be repeated.
Where the time goes
- Onboarding. Procurement, HSE, legal and treasury review documents one after another, each with its own queue. The supplier is slow to send what is missing, and every back-and-forth adds days.
- Quotes that never arrive. A small supplier won't prioritize a low-value quote for a company it has never worked with. Asking for three bids and getting one is normal.
- Incomplete requests. The part number, exact quantity, delivery location or cost center is missing. Every detail requested afterwards restarts the conversation.
- Tiered approval. The approver is on site or on vacation, and the order sits in an inbox even though the amount is minimal.
Seven practices to issue the PO the same day
1. Define in writing what counts as urgent
Without a rule, everything ends up urgent. A useful rule fits in three lines: a production asset stopped or at risk of stopping, a risk to people’s safety or the environment, and a contractual commitment to a customer or an authority. Anything that does not meet the rule follows the normal process.
2. Onboard suppliers before you need them
Identify the five to ten categories where urgent requests keep coming up (bearings, hydraulics, electrical, PPE, maintenance services) and onboard two suppliers per category in advance. It is the single measure that saves the most time, because it takes the longest stage off the critical path.
3. Delegate approval by amount
An urgent request below a certain threshold should not wait for a manager. Set an amount under which the requesting area’s supervisor approves, with a designated backup for when they are unavailable.
4. Accept a single quote below a threshold
For low-value urgent purchases, one quote with a written justification is reasonable. The cost of waiting for a second and third bid is usually higher than the price difference. Keep the record so it can be reviewed later.
5. Use a request form that leaves nothing out
Specification or part number, quantity, delivery place and time, cost center, person receiving the goods and reason for the urgency. A complete request gets quoted in hours; an incomplete one, in days.
6. Buy fast and regularize with full traceability
If your policy allows it, issue first and complete the paperwork within a fixed deadline, for example 48 hours. What cannot be negotiated is traceability: every urgent purchase must end with its PO, goods receipt and invoice linked.
7. Measure your urgency rate
If more than one in five requests arrives as urgent, the problem is no longer the purchasing process but maintenance or inventory planning. Measuring the share by area and category shows where it pays to plan better instead of buying faster.
Quick checklist
- Written urgency rule, known to requesting areas
- Suppliers onboarded in advance for critical categories
- Approval delegated by amount, with a backup
- Single-quote rule below a threshold, with justification
- Request form with all mandatory fields
- Fixed deadline to complete the paperwork
- Monthly urgency indicator by area
When the internal process can't keep up
In some companies these practices clash with corporate policies that cannot be changed, or the purchasing team simply does not have the hours to keep suppliers onboarded across dozens of categories. The alternative there is to buy through a supplier that is already onboarded and takes care of the end suppliers.
That is what AROLICO does. You onboard us once and, when you flag a request as urgent, we issue the purchase order the same business day, with a surcharge agreed in the contract. If we miss the committed deadline, that order is free of charge. The end supplier is onboarded in our vendor master, not yours.
Permitting (building permits, municipal fees, professional sign-offs and municipal filings) is always outside the scope of the service.
Frequently asked questions
How long does an urgent purchase usually take in a large company?
With a new supplier, we commonly see between 18 and 36 business days from request until the purchase order reaches the supplier. Most of that goes into supplier onboarding. With an already onboarded supplier, the range drops to 7 to 13 business days.
Can an urgent purchase order be issued without onboarding the supplier?
Skipping onboarding exposes the company to labor, tax and safety risks. What you can do is keep suppliers onboarded in advance for critical categories, or buy through an already onboarded supplier that takes over the management of the end supplier.
How do you stop everything from being flagged as urgent?
With a written urgency rule, a surcharge or an extra approval level for urgent requests, and by measuring every month what share of requests is flagged as urgent and by which area.