PLEASE ANSWER EACH QUESTION IN 2-3 PARAGRAPHS USING THE CASE STUDY ABOVE. THANK YOU

2. What organizational, individual, social, and operational factors do you believe will impact this buying center and the purchasing process? Explain why.

3. Develop a list of criteria you think should be included in the vendor analysis.

4. Should Briggs & Stratton use only one vendor or more than one? Justify your recommendation. What are the advantages and disadvantages to your decision?

229 Page 147 (165 -1 + 70% Highlight all Match case Whole words of 13 matches ho Case: Briggs & Stratton Briggs & Stratton the world's number one maker of air-cooled gasoline engines used in lawn mowers, garden tillers, and other lawn equipment. Sales of these small gasoline en- gines account for about 86 percent of the total sales for Briggs & Stratton, which was $1.9 bil- lion last year. Briggs & Stratton manufactures all of its 3-to 25-horsepower small engines in the United States. Factories are located in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, and Wisconsin. It also has joint ventures with companies in Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, and Latin America. The headquarters for Briggs & Stratton is located in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. A major component part of the gasoline engine is the spark plug. With the contract up for its current supplier, the Briggs & Stratton purchasing de- partment in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, decided to put the contract up for bid. At the current production level, Briggs & Stratton purchases about two mil- lion spark plugs a year. Because of the size of the contract, Senior Vice Presi- can dent Paul Neylon and Vice President and General Manager of the Small Engine Division, Joe Wright, were asked to participate in the initial discussion The first decision that had to be made was who would be included in the vendor deci. sion. At the first meeting, the group agreed that both Neylon and Wright should be involved in the decision. Neylon suggested, given the size of the contract, that Senior Vice President and CFO James Brenn should also be involved in the purchase decision- at least at the stage of se- lecting vendor. Although the foreign joint ventures in China, India, or Japan would not be directly affected by the by the decision, Neylon suggested that the Vice President of international Op. erations, Michael Scheon, and the Vice President of Europe an Operasion should also be in. volved. His rationale for inclusion was that any changes in major suppliers in the United States would have ripple effects in the international operations and the same vendor chosen for the United States would be in the bidding for the international production facilities. Wright dies greed, saying that the Asian facilities are different because of the joint ventures and that the factories there tend to use local vendors, not us. firms Wright falt strongly that the buying center group should also include the plant manas ers at each of the five manufacturing facilities, an engineer from each facility and the vice pres Ident of distribution, sales and service curtis Larson. He wanted to knou first hand from each facility if there were any problems with the current vendor and hat factors were important in the talenten adora cial : 0 0 CERN 78F Rain to st EL CME6e.pdf X My Citadel 6/13/2021Chat X ad/9929 Page 148 (166C + 70% Highlight all Match case Whole words 3 of 13 matches about service problems with the engines and about whether the spark plug was a contributor to any service recalls or warranty repairs. Leaving the final decision of who should be included in the buying center group to Wright, attention was turned to the possible vendors. Wright suggested they consider Auto- lite, Robert Borsch Corporation, ACDelco, NGK, Champion, Spitfire, and Kingsborne. Each of these brands had good reputation, was dependable, and was large enough to handle the Briggs & Stratton account. "We will need to develop the vendor analysis criteria for the site visit," suggested Ney- lon. "But the most critical decision is: Do we go with just one vendor, or do we use two or three? With five plants, we could potentially use up to five vendors. By allowing each plant the freedom to use a different vendor, we don't have such a high risk if there are problems with one vendor meeting our production schedule. We could easily contact one of the others to fill in any slack." Wright countered that he felt that strategy was not cost effective. First, he did not like the idea of each manufacturing facility choosing the brand of spark plugs. Second, he felt that by consolidating to one vendor, the company could negotiate a better price. Ordering two mil- lion from a single vendor would certainly be cheaper than breaking down the order to 400,000 fron veral endors. Third, did not want to share production data with four or five different vendors. Although Neylon understood, he felt strongly that it was too risky to go with just one vendor. "At least use another vendor at one of the plants to ensure a backup vendor," he sug- Eested Wright could see this was going to be a difficult decision and would take a long time to accomplish. It was also a critical decision that had significant ramifications for the entire com- pany. He first would have to decide on how many people he wanted in the buying group and who they would be. He then would have to decide on the vendor analysis criteria and the ven. dor audit checklist. Lastly, he would have to decide about how many vendors to use. Questions 5. Who should be in the buying center for this decision Discuss which roles you think each per son should play 2. What organizational, individual, social, and operational factors do you believe will impact this buying center and the purchasing process? Explain why. 5. Develop a list of criteria you think should be included in the vendor analysis. 4. Should Briggs & Stratton use only one vendor or more than one: Justify your recommenda tion. What are the advantages and disadvantages to your decision? Scut cat tans 'scampar straten oration: Beam i ? 78F Rain to stop