Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS)

CIOP sessions are conducted by a pool of faculties who also offer the other international certification programs. The typical faculties are having experience between 20 to 30 years in the domains of procurement and supply chain and have a wealth of industry and teaching experience. All of them have great passion for teaching and believes in continuous learning and sharing those learnings. The faculties also go through periodic trainings titled “Faculty Development Programs” to keep them abreast with the latest developments in supply chain and teaching methodologies. Basically, all the faculties are practitioners or consultants who work for the industry and teach supply chain during their spare time or execute this as a project.

The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, commonly known as ACAS, is a Crown corporation public body of the UK. Its function is to promote and facilitate working life throughout the country through the facilitation and negotiation of effective commercial relationships. It is an agency of the government that is accountable for seeing that contracts are made properly and also that the contract award durations are met. 

This is why, when a new commercial transaction is being considered by a company, it is always advised by the ACAS to carry out its analysis first before reaching a conclusion as to whether or not the proposed transaction is in the interest of the company. This analysis involves an assessment of all the relevant factors concerning the prospective contract and the likely implications thereof. The main task of ACAS is therefore to provide advice on whether a commercial transaction is in the best interests of the company.

This advice is primarily available in regards to the supply chain elements of a commercial agreement. The ACAS can help companies in terms of identifying their own supply chain processes and developing a means to align them with the interests of both parties. For instance, when there are supply chain problems, it is often found that the company producing the goods or the one manufacturing the goods has developed certain internal processes that are less than perfect. By engaging an independent party to analyze these practices and identify ways to make them better, the company can see to it that its practices will benefit both parties.

The ACAS can also help companies in terms of streamlining their business procedures. For example, if there is a problem with the way in which warehousing is carried out, this could lead to poor quality control of products and lower turnover rates. By making it easier to meet the needs of customers by improving warehousing, the company can increase profits and reduce costs related to poor quality and service. In addition to streamlining warehouse operations, an ACAS can also help with production planning. If there are problems with production levels, these problems can be identified and worked on to produce quality goods. This process is particularly useful for the production of pharmaceuticals as the high level of specialization required can sometimes be difficult for smaller companies to keep up.

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