Memorandum for Criteria That Should Be Considered When Selecting Supply Vendors and Office Equipment

To: 

From: 

Date: 

Re: Discussion regarding the certain criteria’s that should be considered when selecting supply vendors and office equipment 

Adopting a suitable selection criterion when selecting vendors for offices supplies and equipment is suitable because of the advantages offered by an efficient system of operations. For example, a well thought out criteria may lead to competitive advantages, high customer satisfaction and increased longevity and survival of the business. A well thought out criteria of selection of office equipment and suppliers translate to higher efficiency and better profit margins. 

The main criteria that should be developed when determining a supplies vendor is first identifying the potential suppliers. With this information, one should gather opinion about the supplier from various stakeholders. The following elements can be used to determine the criteria to be used when selecting office supplies and equipment; inventory decisions, scheduling decisions, process decisions, technology decisions and location decisions (Stevic, 2017). Inventory decisions can be critical when determining profitability and efficient operations for the firm. Low levels of inventory might be costly for the company and too much inventory may negatively affect the firm. For example, if the inventory exceeds customer demands, additional storage may be required for the excess materials which exposes them to the risk of deterioration and theft. Too little inventory may lead to unwarranted shortages and unsatisfied customers that may negatively affect the business. 

Scheduling decisions primarily rely on the idea of determining the right mix of labor and machines required to produce goods and services efficiently and maximize profits. For example, if the firm is known to have peak and off-peak periods, getting the right schedule for supplies may be critical to prevent losses (Abdolshah, 2013). Process decisions mostly involve decisions that affect the organization of labor and equipment which is divided into intermittent processes and repetitive processes. 

Intermittent processes involve services or even products that do not need to be produced on a regular and may be unique with each delivery. For example, patients may have a varying range of illness that need different forms of treatment. A clinic or a health facility that treat specific illnesses may buy the specific equipment required during the treatment of such illness while a general hospital may hire certain equipment than buy them due to the unspecified number of illnesses treated (McCubbrey, 2009). Repetitive processes involve the production of similar products in large amounts for example assembly lines that produce computers cars and automatic car washers. A repetitive process would definitely warrant buying of the equipment that sis required for the process since the equipment is regularly required for production. 

Technology decisions are an important criterion when it comes to selecting equipment to use in the manufacturing or service delivery process. Automated machinery and programmable equipment, are most desired due to their speed, increased accuracy and efficiency and labor-saving advantages. These advantages make equipment with the highest level of technology more desirable than other equipment but this also comes with limitations such as high initial costs of buying the equipment and other high costs of maintaining such equipment. Thus, a lot of consideration is warranted before buying equipment with advanced technology. 

Location decisions play an important role when it comes to selecting venders for office supplies. Proximity of the supplier to the firm can be a big factor when it comes to determining which supplier will supply the required materials to the firm. Firm that deal in bulky materials are more likely to be located at the source of the material suppliers. For example, beef processing plants are more likely to be located near cattle ranches to reduce the costs of transporting the cows to the meat processing plant. 

In a hotel business, for example the Hiltons group of hotels, proper scheduling may be necessary as more customers are expected to visit the hotel during the summer than in other periods meaning the hotel should make adjustments in its food and toiletry supplies accordingly. During off peak periods few customers will imply that there is less demand for accommodation and food therefore less supply of food and other essentials required in the hotel. During the summer when peak demand is experienced, hotels may require more supply of food and other hotel essentials. Hotel business should in place have proper scheduling criteria that accommodates the different periods of demand. 

References 

Abdolshah, M. (2013). A review of quality criteria supporting supplier selection. Journal of Quality and Reliability Engineering , 2013 . 

McCubbrey, D. J. (2009). Business fundamentals . Zurich, Switzerland: Jacobs Foundation. 

Stevic, Z. (2017). Criteria for supplier selection: A literature review. International Journal of Engineering, Business and Enterprise Applications (IJEBEA) , 23-27.