Resources needed: - A PC with Microsoft Excel installed. Office 365 can be downloaded from https://myapps.microsoft.com/ - Ess14ch02_questionfile.xlsx Improving Decision Making: Using a Spreadsheet to Select Suppliers In this exercise, you will learn how to use spreadsheet software to improve management decisions about selecting suppliers. You will filter transactional data about suppliers based on several criteria to select the best suppliers for your company. You run a company that manufactures aircraft components. You have many competitors who are trying to offer lower prices and better service to customers, and you are trying to determine whether you can benefit from better supply chain management. In the spreadsheet file Ess 14ch02 questionfile, you will find the list of all the items your firm has ordered from its suppliers during the past three months. The fields in the spreadsheet file include vendor name, vendor identification number, purchaser's order number, item identification number and item description (for each item ordered from the vendor), cost per item, number of units of the item ordered (quantity), total cost of each order, vendor's accounts payable terms, order date, and actual arrival date for each order. Prepare a recommendation of how you can use the data in this spreadsheet database to improve your decisions about selecting suppliers. Some criteria to consider for identifying preferred suppliers include the supplier's track record for on-time deliveries, suppliers offering the best accounts payable terms, and suppliers offering lower pricing when the same item can be provided by multiple suppliers. Use your spreadsheet software to prepare reports to support your recommendations. HINTS for management reporting This exercise requires some student knowledge of spreadsheet database functions. At a minimum, students should know how to sort the database by various criteria such as item description, item cost, vendor number, vendor, name, or A/P terms. Students may need to be told that A/P Terms is expressed as the number of days that the customer has to pay the vendor. for a purchase. In other words, 30 designates 30 net days. The vendor that allows customers the longest amount of time to pay for an order would, of course, offer the most favorable payment terms. Students will need to add additional columns for calculating the actual delivery time for each order and the number of days the delivery is late. The Actual Delivery Time can be calculated by subtracting the Promised Ship Date from the Arrival Date. The number of days late can be calculated by subtracting the Promised Transit Time from the Actual Delivery Time. If the number of days late is negative, it indicates that the order arrived early. These numbers are useful when trying to determine who is the vendor with the best on-time delivery track record. Students can use the DAVERAGE function to determine the average delivery time for each vendor. Students can also use one of the database functions to determine the vendor with the best accounts payable terms. To determine the vendor with the lowest prices for the same item when it is supplied by multiple vendors, students can filter the database using the item description. This filtered list can then be sorted by item cost and vendor number. Orders and Suppliers