Essay About Supply Management Department And Younger Members Of The Department

Julberg Company
JULBERG, INC.
Julberg, Inc., was a manufacturer of computer output microfilm (COM) devices. These devices
transfer data from a computer directly onto microfiche storage and retrieval systems. Banks and
insurance companies were the principal user of COM. Julberg was the leading firm in this market,
and sales were $150 million per year. Its product line included ten different models of processors,
ranging in price from $75,000 to $500,000.
The supply management department at Julberg was responsible for supplying
approximately 20,000 different parts needed to manufacture the firm’s processors. Mechanical
parts, tubes, resistors, transistors, and keyboards were typical of the items purchased. The
department consisted of fifteen buyers, five supply management services clerks, and the supply
manager. The buyers’ experience ranged from two to thirty years with varying levels of
education. The younger members of the department had degrees in business or engineering while
the senior buyers had less education. Several of the senior buyers had worked their way up from
manufacturing, receiving, and inventory control. The supply manager possessed an M.B.A. and
three years of purchasing experience. Before this job, he had held a supervisory position in
inventory control. His current job required him to oversee the day-to-day functioning of the
department and to perform some supply management duties.
Under the present manual system, considerable time and effort were required to perform
supplier selection and price analysis activities. Ideally information would be gathered on potential
suppliers’ past performance, including their prices, their ability to meet delivery dates, and their
history on quality (based largely on the number of defective parts received per shipment). In order
to compile this historical data, the buyer would have to go through several file cabinets and
manually combine separate reports from supply management, receiving, inspection, and the
stockroom. Often, if a decision on a source had to be made in a hurry (the normal situation at
Julberg), the buyer would