Negotiations with vendors on minimum purchase quantity. Reducing long$-$term

contracts from $80\%$ to $65\%$ translates into a reduction of approximately $12,000$ tons from

the long$-$term contract purchase $($which means the $12,000$ tons will be purchased from short$-$

term contract vendors$).$ One way to implement this new policy would be to reduce the

minimum purchase quantity requirement in the current long$-$term contracts with four of the

eleven vendors.

Which of the four vendors would you suggest that BP&L approaches and negotiates to

achieve approximately a total of $12,000$ ton reduction in the minimum purchase quantity

requirements in the long$-$term contracts? Multiple vendors need to be approached in this case.

How would you allocate the target $12,000$ ton reduction? What is the potential cost savings

associated with such a reduction?