After graduating from college, you accept a position with Best Auto Parts in the purchasing department as the Assistant MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Operations) Buyer. Your new employer is a large international manufacturer of automotive parts, and sales for the company are over $500 million per year. When you accepted the job, you were advised by HR that the Senior Manager of Procurement is Ari Wang and that you will be working very closely with Susan Khan who is the MRO Buyer. This is an important job because MROs keep the plant running and annual MRO purchases represent 1.86% of the company's revenue. Ari advised that a major area of responsibility of supply chain management is to reduce total costs while increasing productivity. The cost reduction goal for the Assistant MRO Buyer for this year is $100,000 and your ability to meet this goal has a direct impact on the annual bonus. Ari advises, "I know $100,000 sounds like a lot of money, but with Susan's help I know you will be successful." Susan nods her head and smiles confidently. The first week went by very quickly and you learned more than you thought you would. Susan admittedly was anxious to have you working with the requisition system. Susan spent a few hours with you on the requisition process and then a millwright, Alex Hernandez, came into Susan's office to request a purchase for next week. Susan asked you to work with Alex to complete the requisition. Alex advised, "I have already done all the research on what we need and the best supplier, so this should be easy for you. I need a Baldor gear motor, Part # GF1524BGD15 for next Wednesday night for preventative maintenance. It's stocked at our preferred supplier, Toronto Factory Supplies (supplier code TO3290) just a few miles away at 520 Industrial Road. The gear motor costs $2883.00 USD. No need to expedite this item, just process the requisition and we will pick it up ourselves with the company van. With the company van we can get things quickly and with no delivery costs. Just make sure the supplier gets the PO a few days ahead of time."

COMPANY PURCHASING GUIDELINES STATE

Purchase order signing authority states: if the total dollar amount is under $500, Assistant Buyer's signature is required; $500 to 2,500, Buyer's signature is required; and over $2500, Manager's signature is required. Requisitions can be sent by interoffice mail for additional signatures or walked through the system if it is a rush order. Requisitions are to be sent to the department administrator to produce a hard copy using the company's customized software after it is signed according to the signing authority guideline. The administrator will send the purchase order to the supplier. MRO items purchased locally are picked up with the company van 24 hours prior to the due date. Items to be picked up should be consolidated where possible. When Wednesday arrives; Alex is looking for the gear motor since maintenance overtime is scheduled for changing the gear motor on the machine that night. Alex comes into your cubicle and asks about the status of the order; unfortunately, you have no idea what the status of the order is. You panic and go straight to Susan, who advises that the first thing we have to do is find the requisition. Susan knows she signed it the same day it was produced, and she put it in the interoffice mail for the next signature per the signing authority guidelines. Your next stop was the administrator's office who issues the POs. The authorized requisition has not made it to the administrator for processing yet. Therefore, the requisition has not been completely authorized. Unknown to you, Ari took some last-minute time off due to a family emergency. The administrator checks Ari's in-basket and finds the interoffice envelope with the requisition waiting for his signature. Due to the urgency of the purchase request and Ari's absence, the secretary advises to take the requisition to the Financial Controller for a signature. The administrator produces the PO immediately and Susan calls the supplier. Everything is set up. Fortunately, they had one of the items in stock. Susan passes the PO back to you and suggests you should go with Alex to the suppliers' location so you can meet the Sales Manager at Toronto Factory Supplies and give them a hard copy of the PO (which the millwright does not have the authority to do).

Your task:

Please follow the guidelines below when putting together your report:

1. brief report describing the case study, and the roles (see Assignment Steps below)