Case Study: SRM at Deere & Company

Total points: 20 points on Midterm Exam.

Submission deadline: 3:00 pm, Thursday, March 3, 2005.

™ Access the John Deere Supply Network at http://jdsupply.deere.com and look into
the practices of Deere & Company with respect to supplier development and
supplier relationship management (SRM). Your case study [write-up] should be
brief and to the point—2-3 pages (maximum), typewritten, double-spaced.
™ Attach to your write-up relevant materials downloadable from the website;
however, you should leave out materials that are NOT directly referenced in your
write-up. Do refrain from padding your submission with unnecessary printouts
from the website. While points will be gained for attachments that are relevant,
those that are NOT relevant will negatively affect your score.

Points to Ponder for Your Case Study

1. The article “Facing SRM and CRM” (Inside Supply Management, August 2002),
posted at http://utminers.utep.edu/solis, stresses the need for a “win-win”, instead
of an adversarial, relationship between a company and its suppliers. What
features/elements/aspects of the John Deere Supply Network presented at
http://jdsupply.deere.com would appear to address this “win-win” mentality in
SRM?

2. The book World Class Supply Management (Burt, Dobler & Starling, 2003) lists
“world class” best practices in supplier development/supplier relationship
management—which are summarized in the article by Charles Noland entitled
“Beyond Strategic Sourcing: Strategic Supplier Relationship Management”, a
copy of which is posted at http://utminers.utep.edu/solis. Which of these best
practices in supplier development/supplier relationship management are
apparently applied by Deere & Company in dealing with its suppliers? Provide
evidence from the John Deere Supply Network presented at
http://jdsupply.deere.com.