Chapter 2 Hands-on MIS Application

Problem Statement

IMPROVING DECISION MAKING: USE A SPREADSHEET TO SELECT SUPPLIERS

Software skills: Spreadsheet date functions, data filtering, DAVERAGE function

Business skills: Analyzing supplier performance and pricing 2- 11

In this exercise, you will learn how to use spreadsheet software to improve management decisions about
selecting suppliers. You will filter transactional data on suppliers based on several different criteria to
select the best suppliers for your company. You run a company that manufactures aircraft components.
You have many competitors who are trying to offer lower prices and better service to customers, and
you are trying to determine whether you can benefit from better supply chain management. In the
BlackBoard “Learning Module” folder you will find a spreadsheet file that contains a list of all of the
items that your firm has ordered from its suppliers during the past three months. The fields in the
spreadsheet file include vendor name, vendor identification number, purchaser’s order number, item
identification number and item description ( for each item ordered from the vendor), cost per item,
number of units of the item ordered ( quantity), total cost of each order, vendor’s accounts payable
terms, order date, and actual arrival date for each order. Prepare a recommendation of how you can use
the data in this spreadsheet database to improve your decisions about selecting suppliers. Some criteria
to consider for identifying preferred suppliers include the supplier’s track record for on- time deliveries,
suppliers offering the best accounts payable terms, and suppliers offering lower pricing when the same
item can be provided by multiple suppliers. Use your spreadsheet software to prepare reports to support
your recommendations.

Hint on Excel Skills and Usage

This exercise requires some student knowledge of spreadsheet database functions. At a
minimum, students should know how to sort the database by various criteria such as item description,
item cost, vendor number, vendor, name, or A/P terms. Students may need to be told that A/P Terms is
expressed as the number of days that the customer has to pay the vendor for a purchase. In other words,
30 designates net 30 days. The vendor that allows customers the longest amount of time to pay for an
order would, of course, offer the most favorable payment terms.
Students will need to add additional columns for calculating the delivery time for each order.
The delivery time can be calculated by subtracting the Order Date from the Arrival Date. Vendors with
the shortest delivery times are obviously desirable.
These numbers are useful when trying to determine who is the vendor with the best on-time
delivery track record. Students can use the DAVERAGE or the SUMIF and COUNTIF functions to
determine the average delivery time for each vendor. Students can also use one of the database
functions to determine the vendor with the best accounts payable terms. To determine the vendor with
the lowest prices for the same item when it is supplied by multiple vendors, students can filter the
database using the item description. This filtered list can then be sorted by item cost and vendor
number.

Excel Tutorials Links

Choose Link below Based on Your current Excel Version:
http://www.gcflearnfree.org/excel2013/27 For MS Excel 2013 users – 28 Lessons in all subjects
needed
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/excel/ For MS Excel 2010 users - Lessons with examples in all
subjects needed – click on training of interest from the Left Side Menu.
http://www.gcflearnfree.org/excel2007 For MS Excel 2007 users - Lessons in all subjects needed –
avoid the Ads, the training material is there as you scroll down the pages.