A luxury scarf manufacturer located in Europe selects a fine wool supplier in Australia. The manufacturer's supply manager wants to ensure timely monthly deliveries while keeping transportation costs reasonable. Which of the following actions by the supply manager is MOST likely to meet the scarf company's needs?
A supply manager identifies an overseas source for parts used by the organization. The supplier's capacity, performance, reputation and sample quality are all acceptable. During final price negotiations, the supplier requests that the contract be based on its local currency. Which of the following is the FIRST course of action the supply manager should take in order to address the possible impact of this request?
PQR, Inc. is a small manufacturing firm that is rebuilding its customer base after emerging from bankruptcy. PQR now projects growing demand for its products. PQR's supply manager is planning negotiations with a key supplier that has worked well with the firm in the past. Which of the following is the STRONGEST factor the supply manager can use to improve PQR's negotiating position?
GHI, Inc. manufactures and sells high-end headphones. Each pair of headphones is packaged with a kit of customizable parts. GHI sources these customizable parts from a specialty supplier. Recently, GHI received a shipment of the parts from the supplier, and although the materials arrived on time, they were not bagged and labeled individually as the contract requires, but rather arrived in bulk.
GHI needs the parts as soon as possible to complete its holiday orders. Given this situation, which of the following is the BEST course of action for GHI's supply manager to take?
RST, Inc. is a global electronics manufacturer which has purchased electronic assemblies from Supplier X for many years. RST has experienced occasional quality problems with these assemblies, and these problems have caused significant delays in production. Because RST's senior management regards Supplier X as a loyal supplier, the firm has not looked to replace it. Nevertheless, RST's supply manager feels that Supplier X has become complacent in Its relationship with RST and is behind the market in important technological advances. Which of the following should the supply manager do FIRST to convince RST's senior management to re-source the electronic assemblies?
A supply manager for JKL, Inc. finds a potential new supplier for an item included In a finished product. Quality and service are comparable to those of the current supplier, and the new supplier's cost per unit is $.03 lower than that of the current supplier. Making the transition to the new supplier will require changes to operations costing approximately $12,000. How many units would JKL need to buy in order to justify changing suppliers?
A supply manager is developing a request for proposal (RFP) for travel agency services. The firm’s travel manager has a short list of requirements that have served the company well in the past. However, the vice president (VP) of sales wants frequent fliers from the sales team to be given special status. The travel manager is concerned these additional requirements will limit competition and result in a less favorable deal. In which of the following ways can the supply manager BEST resolve this situation?
A firm’s supply manager is asked by the engineering department to replace a chemical used in a majority of products made by the firm. The current chemical is Imported and has components that are highly regulated. Engineering wants to replace it with a chemical that uses non-hazardous domestic materials. This chemical would still have to be reported and customers would have to be notified of the change. Initial tests indicate that the new chemical is as effective as the old one. In this situation, which of the following should be the FIRST step taken by the supply manager?
A state university is looking to purchase equipment to scan books and manuscripts into a digital format. Several variations of this equipment exist in the marketplace, and the university has not decided which format is best for their needs. There is also a possibility that the cost for additional storage requirements will be shared with the state. Given this situation, which of the following is the FIRST course of action the university should take?
A firm’s primary goal for its upcoming raw material negotiations with a well-performing supplier is cost reduction. In order to achieve this, which of the following courses of action should supply management take?
