How do I debate

Case Studies "Surplus Styles"

1) Identify the steps that Derick should take to solve his problem.

As someone who works in the supply chain industry and has to keep fair pricing and relationships in mind for the business, I would recommend that Derick contacts his current supplier to see if there are any shifts that can be made from sourcing an organic solution so that the relationship can be maintained and pricing worked out. If the current supplier can not meet the new requirements, I would then open the bid process to different suppliers with specific guidelines and deliverables, and start the process of negotiating a cost-competitive contract for the hair care products needed.

2) Should Derick ask for the required changes from the current suppliers? If they do not comply, should he solicit new suppliers? How might he do this?

I personally believe that relationships and cohesiveness are hard to replace in the supply chain industry, so yes I would give the current supplier an opportunity to change the ingredients for the hair products before soliciting a new vendors or moving into a new bid-process. If the current vendor does not supply, then yes he should solicit new vendors by creating specific guidelines and deliverables for the bid-process and then start the process of negotiating new contracts with the vendor that best suits completive pricing and is closest to the demanded deliverables of the negotiations.

3) Should Derick go through a competitive bid in the future? If so, should he do it for all purchased products or just some products?

Most organizations do open up all aspects of there business to the completive bid-process or otherwise known as the process of procuring new goods or services. I do believe this is crucial for large organizations in order to maintain the bottom line and company net profitability. Smaller organizations dont have the buying power to negotiate in this way which is why they largely dont open up every process of the business to competitive negotiations until they reach a certain level of buying power.

Overall, there is always the rub of service provided versus cost of service. In my experience, when you go with the low bidder, you tend to eat those cost on the side of service provided. I believe its best to go with the median bidder as they typically provide quality service and dont have as many issues whether that be on the service, manufacturer, or supplier side of things.