Strategic Supply Management

MATCHING SUPPLY STRATEGIES TO SUPPLY NEEDS

Jack Wilson, a buyer at a major aerospace company, is not happy. During a break at a training session, he left the room to make several phone calls. After a few minutes he returned visibly upset. When a colleague asked what was wrong, Jack explained that he just called a supplier to ask for some special consideration in the scheduling of an order. Jack’s company was asked to adjust a delivery schedule to accommodate a change at an important customer, prompting the request for a change further upstream from this supplier. His contact at the supplier told Jack the change was not possible and that Jack’s ...