From the end of Chapter 6, complete the following questions out of the section titled Questions for Review and Discussion.   Each question should be thoroughly answered using support from the text, examples, and other scholarly sources.

• Describe the differences between needs identification and defining commercial equivalents and discuss why it is preferable to separate into two stages.
• Interpret the value to the organization when early supplier involvement (ESI) is implemented effectively.
• Examine the advantages and disadvantages of specifying by performance.
• Describe how a supply professional understands strategic requirements.

Submit to your instructor your two-to-three page Word document (not including the title and reference pages). Your paper should be formatted according to APA style as outlined in the approved APA style guide, and should cite at least two scholarly sources in addition to the textbook.

1. Why is it preferable to separate need identification and defining commercial equiva- lents into two separate stages?

2. Why is early supply/supplier important? 3. Why is capital goods acquisition different from the purchase of raw materials? 4. What are some major challenges in the acquisition of services? Please use examples.

What are some effective supply methods for dealing with maintenance, repair, and operating (MRO) requirements?

6. Compare the acquisition of resale requirements to the acquisition of parts, components, or packaging.

7. Why should a supply professional acquire by brand ? 8. What are the disadvantages of specifying by performance? What are the advantages? 9. What is the difference between standardization and simplification?

10. How does a supply professional know that a certain requirement is strategic? 11. How would you determine the environmental impact of a particular acquisition?

American National Standards Institute, www.ansi.org. Askin, Ronald G., and Jeffrey B. Goldberg. Design and Analysis of Lean Production

Systems, New York: Wiley, 2001. Axelsson, Bjorn, and Finn Wynstra. Buying Business Services. West Sussex, U.K.: John

Wiley & Sons, 2002. Contino, Richard. The Complete Equipment-Leasing Handbook. New York: AMACOM,

2002. Duffy, Roberta J., and Anna E. Flynn. Services Purchases: Not Your Typical Grind.

Inside Supply Management 14, no 9, September 2003, p. 28. Ellram, L. M.; W. L.; Tate and C. Billington. Understanding and Managing the Services

Supply Chain. Journal of Supply Chain Management 40, no. 3 (2004), pp. 17–32. Managing Your Service Spend in Today’s Service Economy. CAPS Research, July 22,

2003. Ritzman, Larry P.; Lee J. Krajewski; and Robert D Klassen. Foundations of Operations

Management. Pearson Prentice Hall: Toronto, 2004. Smeltzer, Larry A., and Jeffrey A. Ogden. Purchasing Professions’ Perceived Differences