Competency

Describe the supply chain management principles through the flow of information, materials, services, and resources.

Scenario

You are a newly hired Analyst at Mitchell Consulting, a firm that specializes in providing managerial expertise in supply chain management. You are assigned as a support role to a senior consultant. Your role does not allow you to make selections for clients, but you will be evaluated for future promotion based upon your work in the analyst role. You are assigned to new a client, Johnson Motor Parts (aka Johnson). The Director of Quality has contacted Mitchell Consulting to assist in resolving a recent situation that began with a customer complaint. Your manager, Senior Analyst Andrea Sims, has directed you to work on this case and provide analysis and options to resolve the problems.

John Davis, the Director of Quality for Johnson, received a complaint from a major client regarding rusted parts. Those parts were used by a US car manufacturer in finished engines and the car manufacturer and the client want Johnson to pay to replace the rusted components. Not only is this a huge financial burden, but John Davis must find out how this happened in the first place, and how can it be prevented in the future? He has reached out to Mitchell Consulting to investigate the issue and provide recommendations for future quality control.

Your investigation reveals that the Director of Quality is angry and embarrassed about the quality issue, and insists that their trusted supplier, Beta Metals, has the best quality parts. You discover that while Johnson Motor Parts typically receives its parts from a trusted supplier, they can have a delay in shipments because of their quality checks. The Shop Floor Supervisor expresses frustration about the loss of money if there isn’t enough inventory. The Engineering team is forced to reach out to other suppliers with faster delivery timeframes, or risk running out of inventory. The parts from the trusted supplier are still delivered, so not only are they receiving these parts from six different suppliers, but they currently have enough inventory to supply current demand for the next six months.

Instructions

In an executive summary to John Davis, Director of Quality, provide your analysis and recommendations to resolve the current dilemma.

• Explain your analysis and opinion of root causes in a brief executive level overview
• Describe the relationships within the flow of parts in terms of supplier to finished product as it relates to Johnson Motor Parts.
• Compare industry best practices and a brief contrast that is occurring at Johnson Motor Parts.
• Recommend methods that could be employed to support supplier selection, inventory control, and supplier accountability.