Read the assignment and answer the questions.
GOTHAM CITY BUYS FIRE ENGINES
Mayor Sarah
Buylin
of Gotham City is faced with a touchy situation involving a City Hall dispute between
her
newly appointed city supply manager, Ed Frisby, and G
otham’s venerable fire chief, Willard Clark.
It all started soon after Mayor Buylin
hired Frisby following a favoritism scandal linked to the purchases of the
previous city supply manager. To prevent a recurrence of the problem, the mayor gave Frisby instructions to set
up a standards committee and g
ave the new city supply manager full backing in enlisting assistance from other
city employees.
In accordance with the mayor’s instructions, Frisby formed a committee consisting of a Fire Department
representative selected by Chief Clark, an engineer fro
m the Public Works Department, an analyst
from the
Finance Department, and himself. The group began working on the high value purchases, and the first on the
agenda was the purchase of ten new fire pumping engines and five extension ladder trucks, involvin
g an
estimated expenditure of approximately $
5.5 million for the pumpers and another $5 million for the ladder
trucks.
Frisby got together with the standards committee and representatives of firefighting equipment suppliers.
Through these meetings, the c
ommittee prepared open specifications, to which all agreed.
Bids were received, opened publicly, and then analyzed. The supply manager, in accordance with the unanimous
findings of the committee, recommended that the city accept the lowest bid that met t
he minimum specifications
in all respects. There was considerable spread between the lowest and the next lowest bids.
Then the trouble began. Shortly after making this recommendation, supply manager Frisby learned that Chief
Clark had sent a resolution t
o the City Council recommending rejection of all the bids and award of the contract
to another higher
-priced supplier. Clark told the City Council that he would not be responsible for fighting fires
unless his selection of equipment was approved by the council.
The mayor called Frisby, “Look, Ed,” s
he said, “I’m in the middle of this fire equipment dispute. I think you’re
right in this hassle, and I want to support your work on the standards committee. But Chief Clark is a respected
old-
timer around here, and I think he’s got some of the City Council on his side. Do you have any ideas on how
to settle this difficulty and keep the chief happy too?”
“Another thing
– we need to make sure that this new fire
equipment is maintained well. I noticed that the cu
rrent specifications do not require any warranty. We need to
consider getting bids on either a warranty from the manufacturer or from an independent repair facility.”
1.
List
6 to
pics (in total) from Chapters 6, 8 and 9
that you think are most relevant to
the issues in the above
case. Explain.
2.
How should the city supply manager help solve the fire equipment dispute to the satisfaction of the fire chief
and the city council?
3.
If Ed Fisby could go back in time, what would you suggest that he change in the
approach to this large
equipment purchase process?
4.
What are your recommendations concerning the best way to create specifications that can be placed in a
“Request for Proposal” (RFP) for the service component, i.e. to obtain a warranty on the trucks?
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Posted 02 Aug 2017 08:08 AM
My Price 10.00
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