Question

Imagine this scenario... you are an independent owner of a brand new "pick-up only" pizza place in Macomb County.

1. When thinking about purchasing ingredients (like vegetables, meats and cheeses) from suppliers, briefly explain what would happen at each step of the business-to-business buying process for your new pizza place.
2. Outline at least 3 product specifications and write a brief RFP for these ingredients.
3. What would you seek in obtaining a supplier? Develop 2 vendor/performance assessment points you would use to measure how well your supplier's performance.

Answer 1

Organizational buying process is the process by which the industrial or institutional buyers conclude to a purchase decision. Every organization has to purchase goods and services for continuing its business operations and so it must go through a complex problem solving and decision making process. The behaviour that the industrial or institutional buyers exhibit while making a purchase decision, is known as organizational buying behavior.

The 8 stages of organizational buying with reference to "pick up only" pizza place are as follows:

1 - Problem or Need recognition: To finalize all the list of products to purchase

2 - defining characteristics and quantity required: To make a clear details of all products in terms of shape, size, appearance, weight, volume, and several other factors. In addition to all these, confirming quantity of products to be purchased. The economic order quantity and reorder level has to be fixed.

3 - Product specification development: To define the technical specifications of all the products.

4 - Search and qualification of potential supply partners: To search all those suppliers who can supply us such products. To receive the request for proposal(RPF) form duly filled from the suppliers.

5 - Acquisition and analysis of proposal: To analyze all the proposal received.

6 - Evaluation and supplier selection: Verifying the strengths of each supplier and finalyl selecting suppliers based on various products range. Sometime, a single supplier cannot fulfill the requirement of all the products. In such a case multiple suppliers are required.

7 - Selection of an order routine: To place final order as per requirement.

8 - Performance feedback and evaluation: The perfomance is checked time to time and feedback is given to the supplier for improvement or to maintain the consistency.

Product specifications

Vegetables: a - Fresh from farm with less than 8hrs time from time of harvest

b - Free from mud, chemicals, pesticides, and insects

c - Packaging should not deteriorate quality.

Meat: a - It should be freshly cut

b - All the meat must be boneless

c - It must be differently packed based on organ. Like chicken breasts to be packed differently and legpiece must be packed differently

Cheese a: Mozzarella cheese

b: Minimum packing of 500gms

c: Color must be white. Yellowish or greenish traces of color will be rejected on arrival.

Supplier Selection

1- Must adhere to food standards

2- Must focus on hygiene

3- Must deliver quality products on time

4- Must be ready to supply excess in case of emergency

The two vendor/performance assessment points I would use to measure how well the supplier's performance are quality and delivery time. To deliver fresh pizza, the quality of products must be good and it should be delivered on time to avoid degradation of quality.