Responses to Case Study Analysis
For the discussion this week, please choose a case study from last week and provide an interactive analysis. Respond directly to the open-ended questions posted by your case study.

What other questions or recommendations do you note? The response should be at least 300 words in length.

Case study: Bobby vs. Angie

Bobby and Angie are both senior buyers at a large manufacturing company that makes airplanes.  Both Bobby and Angie have years of experience and are over several other buyers to help train and guide the group.  Bobby is low keyed in his approach when it comes to negotiations and confrontations while Angie lives in, and often creates, drama.  Both Bobby and Angie have to work with the same suppliers to purchase materials for their respective divisions.

One morning while walking through the office area, Bobby hears Angie yelling at someone on the phone for not making a delivery on time.  Angie is threatening to pull all her business if the supplier doesnt ship the material overnight for delivery first thing in the morning.  Bobby is not surprised to hear this conversation as Angie often gets upset and yells.  Several hours later, Bobby has to contact a supplier about one of his shipments due the following week to see if it can be shipped early.  The CSR, Shirleen, who Bobby has talked with for years, is very short in her reply and advises Bobby that she is unwilling to commit to any movement at this time and will get back with him later.  This is not like Shirleen as they have always been willing to work on shipping schedules to accommodate productions schedules fluctuating. 

During lunch, Bobby overhears Angie telling another buyer about her shipping issues and how unreliable Shirleen is with her schedule.  Bobby asks for the details of what happened, and Angie tells her that Shirlene had promised the material would deliver today but failed to deliver.  Angie was being pressured by the production supervisor for answers on why the material was late again.  Angie advises me that if Shirleen missed one more shipment, we would not be able to do business with them anymore due to their low supplier scorecard.  Suppliers are judged in many categories that make up their scorecard, on time delivery is a very important part of the score.
Bobby was concerned for Shirleen and her company as they were an integral supplier for his division.  If Bobby had to stop using her company, it would cause a lot of work for him to find and replace the products and services they provided.  Bobby called Shirleen back later in the afternoon to check on his original shipment and also to inquire into the issues with the other divisions shipments.  Shirleen advised Bobby that it could ship three days earlier but wouldnt promise anything more because she didnt want her on time delivery scorecard dinged again.  Bobby could tell that Shirleen was upset on the subject.  Bobby had always worked and moved his dates to match Shirleens dates.  Upon questioning, Shirlene stated that Angie wasnt as flexible and often dinged her for late deliveries.  As Bobby had never gotten a delivery from Shirleen that he felt was truly late, he asked her what was different about Angies division.  Shirleen stated that Angie often put in orders for delivery for less than their agreed upon time frame.  Shirleen felt pressured to meet the expedited schedules in order to keep the business.  Bobby had always taken the normal delivery schedules that Shirleen had given him and ordered accordingly.  Shirleen stated that Angie often forgot to order on time and then yelled at her if she missed the dates she was pressured to agree upon.  Bobby told Shirleen that he appreciated her work with him and that he would discuss the issue internally.  Shirleen stated that while her company would hate to lose their business, Shirleen would be happy to be relieved of the stress Angie created.

While Bobby had never worked directly with Angie, he knew a few buyers who had, and they all agreed Angie was difficult to deal with on the best of days.  Bobby knew that his method of keeping the scorecard could be seen as lax by some, but he also knew that Angie was using it as a tool to force suppliers to her will.  Bobby did about an hours worth of research which showed that some of the issues were not with Shirleens company, but with Angies purchasing practices.

Questions:

Should Bobby confront Angie directly with the information and ask her to correct Shirleens scorecard?

Should Bobby take the information to either his boss or Angies boss first in order to avoid what Bobby believe would be fruitless confrontation with Angie?

Should Bobby tell Shirleen to stop working with Angie and stick to her normal production schedules when Angie asked for better dates?