Mgmt 423 – Purchasing and Supply Management             Homework Assignment #11. Prepare a 2 – 3 page specification/statement of work for one of the following scenarios:

(1) You work for an air conditioning manufacturer who specializes in large scale cooling systems for sports arenas, theaters, etc. Due to the high demand for customized cooling systems, your engineering department has been unable to keep up with maintaining modified drawings for most of the company’s projects. Handwritten notes appear on copies of the company’s standard design drawings. For future reference, a set of customized drawings incorporating these notes would be better to document each installation’s configuration.The answer is outsourcing. You’ve been tasked to develop a statement of work/specification for a company to follow in producing an updated set of drawings. This statement of work/specification will be used for suppliers to develop bids and eventually form the basis of a contract.

(2) You manage the Natural History Museum downtown. Currently you retain a landscaping staff to trim lawns, trees, bushes, etc. In light of budget cutbacks, you’ve decided to outsource the landscaping work. Develop a specification/statement of work for landscaping contractors to use in developing bids and eventually form the basis of a contract.

(3) If currently working, you may develop a specification/statement of work for an activity that may present an outsourcing/buy opportunity for your current employer.

2. In developing these specifications/statements of work, please make use of the following reference materials (all posted on the Canvas site):

    1. The draft Statement of Works posted on Canvas. You assignment should follow a similar organizational format to this requirements document.

    2. Other specifications, available through hyperlinks on Canvas.3. As this document will be part of a contract, the document should conform to the “Strict American Rule” in drafting. This means that words giving supplier direction in a requirements document have denote different levels of commitment. For example, use of the word “shall” means that a supplier has no choice but to perform a task. On the other hand, the word “may” is much more discretionary.

The following meanings apply to words used in your assignment:

    shall = has a duty to    must = is required to [never used to mean future tense]    may = has discretion to; is permitted to    shall not = has a duty not to    may not = is not permitted to; is disallowed from    is entitled to = has a right to    will = expresses something that will occur in the future

4. There are two parts to this assignment – first, an outline due on October 2.  Second, a full paper on Thursday, Oct. 30.  The goal is for me to give you feedback, which should result in a better final work product. 

5. Final comment: Remember that a specification/statement of work serves several purposes. Its importance begins as a basis for suppliers to prepare an estimate of their costs to perform the work. It later becomes part of the contract. Clarity is therefore critical.  It also should not include contractual terms – payment, warranty, etc.  It is not a standalone contract.

These are challenging times for the Electric Vehicle (EV) market in the United States.  You are the Operations Manager for a business that has successfully been installing charging stations across the country.  However, with the change in administration and the pending shift towards fossil fuel-usage in the US, the viability of your business plan is now in question.  The Federal government has ended its $ 7,500 rebate.  California considered extending it.  However, it has not abandoned this idea. Your company has secured a number of investors who have pledged $ 2 billion towards the expansion of your business.  Your management is concerned that, without a clear path forward, they might take those investment dollars elsewhere.  The challenge is how amend the company’s business plan in a way that would lead the investors to continue to invest in your company.

It’s clear that the EV market is continuing to grow worldwide.  In fact, the United States is not even the fastest growing market.   To demonstrate to investors that building charging stations in other countries is a reasonable alternative, you’ve been tasked to build a set of decision matrices similar to those used to select sites in other industries.

These matrices will be structured similar in format to those found on slide 11 of our Week 4 lecture.  These should be created for the top 5 countries for EV sales.  You’ll find information on this posted in our Week 5 Canvas module.  This “Deep Dive” discussion is worth 5 points and is due on October 23. 

There are no right or wrong answers.  However, creative responses that identify key decision points will be rewarded with higher scores.