Importance of decision-making in a purchasing context – DPS Case Study

This work project has the objective of exploring the importance of making good decisions on supplier selection, so that the purchasing department can contribute to the success of a company. For that it is presented a short bibliography review of the latest insights that were found relevant, on the subjects of purchasing, technology, outsourcing, supplier selection and decision-making techniques. For a better understating on how to deal with a decision-making situation, a case study is also presented: Digital Printing Solutions (DPS) is a Portuguese company that provides complete and integrated printing solutions and has been planning to contract a software supplier. DPS has no formal supplier-selection model and it has to choose between 2 suppliers. The case study was solved using the M-MACBETH software. I have found that complex decisions-making situations can be easily overcome by using the M-MACBETH decision model. Moreover, the usage of a model, instead of decision that follows no formal procedure, provides the decision maker with insights that can be useful to negotiate with the supplier.

Canada, a child's play

Science4you, a Portuguese developer, producer and seller of scientific and educational toys, leveraged the worldwide growth of this category to successfully expand its operations abroad. Following a recent entry into the United States market, the purpose of this report is to help the company define the next step in its international expansion. A customized scoring model, based on a set of relevant macro and micro-criteria was developed for Anglo-Saxon and Asian countries, yielding Canada as the market with the highest potential. The recommended entry mode is direct exporting via an independent distributor, being complemented with a financial and risk analysis.