Case Study 2: Fauquier Gas Company

Case Name: Fauquier Gas Company I. Major Facts: In this case study presented by Hood (n.d.), Fauquier Gas Company is up against a timeline to supply a new construction project in the works where agricultural land was being developed into residential and commercial use. Fauquier Gas Company is looking for supplier to help with building of 3 ½ miles of new gas pipe that will go online by beginning of September. The manager of supply management Mr. Murphy is having trouble getting any purchasing request for the new pipeline from Mr. Charlie Buck and the specifications from the design team to know what he needs to order. This project is to be complete in the next five months to meet the new gasoline project. The vice-president of operations for Fauquier Gas Company has the management control over the supply organization including Mr. Murphy, construction project manager Clive Byers, design engineer Pat Wilson, and design Superintendent Charlie Buck. Mr. Murphy faced many logistical and supply problems from the very beginning of this project. Lead-time is essential for design team getting all the information on the new pipe to the Mr. Murphy so he can get the much need specification out to the need vendors to supply the correct materials for the upcoming project that need to finish by September. The biggest problem that Mr. Murphy came across was the new specifications for the new pipe were the wall thickness and length was different from previous purchases which could hurt in finding new vendor or seeing if older vendor can meet specifications on the new pipe. Pat Wilson informed Mr. Murphy the reason for the different specifications was the operation of the line would be governed by less stringent specifications and using 57-foot-length pipe versus “random double normal” (40 feet plus or minus 5 feet) would reduce welding costs. The coating for the pipe was also another problem that Mr. Murphy faced as no of team was communicating with each other on how to

References: Burt, Petcavage, and Pinkerton, Richard (2010). Supply management (8th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Hood, J. (n.d.). Institute for Supply Management and the School of Government and Business Administration. George Washington University. (Case Study).