Read the case study below and answer ALL the questions that follow. Simon and Singh Jacques Pascalle is a purchasing manager at Simon and Singh, a consumer food products company located in the UK. He recently attended a seminar that discussed current issues in sourcing and supply chain management. In one session, a speaker presented the results of a study, which suggested that the concept-to-customer cycle time for new products was getting shorter by an average of 50 per cent every 5 years. Obviously, some industries had far less reduction, but others had rates of change that were even faster. The speaker used the car industry as an example. In the 1980s, the three big US manufacturers GM, Ford and Chrysler took 5 years to design and produce a new car. By the early 1990s, this had declined to 4 years and by the mid-1990s, the target was a cycle time of 3 years. However, the US companies had been left behind by Japanese companies who by this time had reduced development time to 2 years. In 2002, the Wall Street Journal quoted the CEO of Honda as saying that his company needed to reduce development times to 18 months. The seminar speaker made the obvious point that such reductions in the major process of new product development also needed the equivalent reductions in the sub-processes that support it including procurement. Jacques considered these comments and came to two conclusions. First, there were the same pressures to speed up new product development in the food products industry as in the motor industry. These pressures probably arrived later, but they were no less intense, and the life cycles of Simon and Singhs products were continually getting shorter. In some ways, the pressures were even more pressing, as the barriers to new entrants to the industry were lower, and firms needed to be very flexible and responsive to customer needs. Second, Jacques realized that many supplier evaluation and selection decisions were associated with new product development cycle times, it would also need to reduce the time taken to evaluate and select suppliers. Jacques began to wonder how he could reduce the time taken to select the companys suppliers by 30 per cent, 40 per cent or even 50 per cent. He started by drawing diagrams or process charts of the supplier evaluation and selection process and then looked for ways of improving the core operations. QUESTION 1 (40 Marks) 1.1 In the context of Simon and Singh, recommend the supplier selection process and options that Jacques can implement in order to ensure that there is a reduced time taken in the selection of suppliers. (20 marks) 1.2 Supplier evaluation is considered as essential among companies such as Simon and Singh, discuss the criteria that can be used by the organisation in evaluating suppliers. (10 marks) 1.3 What are some of the challenges that might be encountered by Jacques in his attempt to reduce the time taken in selecting suppliers? (10 marks