KAUST
How an environment of continual improvement in the university ’ s supply chain has supported the positioning of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology as a leading light in the GCC ’ s higher education sector
Saudi Arabia boasts a number of leading universities , and , while not one of the oldest , having been established in 2009 , King Abdullah University of Science and Technology ( KAUST ) ranks among them . The university is quickly and consistently gaining a reputation for excellence — in 2013 , KAUST was recognised for delivering some of the fastest-growing high impact research , expressed through the number of prestigious citation in recognised publication . Also , in 2016 , Nature ranked KAUST 19th in the world as one of the fastest-rising universities for high-quality research output in the Nature 2016 Index Rising Stars .
In addition , KAUST was ranked as the world ’ s top university in citations per faculty ranking indicator as per the QS World University Rankings for 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 .
At inception , the university ’ s procurement team numbered just 15 , all of whom worked in contracting roles , with the supply of research materials outsourced . It was soon recognised that the supply chain was integral to the achievement of the university ’ s research objectives and indeed the success of the university and that it can be affected by many unforeseeable variables , the decision was made to in-house this function . Purchasing , logistics , permitting , customs clearance and warehousing were then established , progressively increasing the number of professionals to around 160 .
From the early years , it was recognised that the procurement
200 May 2018