Q3. Lets party! is still echoing in your head as you leave your Supply Chain Management Performance class. Again you ask yourself, Why did I ever let myself run for class president? Most of the people in the class were good, level-headed individuals who enjoyed a good time and you enjoyed working with them. But a small group from your class, who were known on campus as The Rowdies, often bullied their way on decisions affecting class activities. The decision to have a year-end party was right up their alley, and class had ended with a chanting session of Lets party. It sounded like a wrestling match to you. Fortunately, your professor had left the room early to let you discuss with the class the idea of some kind of year-end get-together.

One of your recent lectures was on supplier selection, and your professor had demonstrated the technique called the supplier ranking method. It seemed simple enough in the lecture, and you had almost embarrassed yourself by asking the question Why not just pick the least expensive supplier? The thought occurred to you that there just might be some solution to your current problem in the professors response, One of the hardest things to do in any group, whether a business or a social club, is to get consensus on even the simplest choices.

Please put yourself in the position of the class president described in this case.

Perform a supplier rating analysis for the situation. Include at least 6 factors and 3 possible locations around Elon. Assign each factor with appropriate weight and rate each supplier on each criterion. Please briefly explain your rating system (for example, why you weigh one factor more than another). Then make the selection as indicated by the analysis.

[In this case, we assume (and really hope) the Covid is gone and our life gets to normal.]