Supplier Development at Deere & Company

By

Gil Lopez

An assignment submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for MGT 608
School of Business and Management
National University
Dr. Farnaz Sharifrazi
December 1, 2013

Background
Deere & Company, also known as John Deere, is a leading provider of agricultural equipment with offices, manufacturing facilities, and suppliers in over 160 countries (Company Background, 2001). In order to stay competitive and remain a leader in its industry, Deere & Company has entered into partnerships with its suppliers in an effort to reduce the suppliers’ manufacturing cycle time and help cut manufacturing costs, which would in turn benefit Deere as well. Through supplier …show more content…

Is this an ethical approach?
Although not illegal, this approach is far from being moral or even ethical. Giving such ultimatum to one’s supplier is unethical because it is forcing them to comply with certain demands that will not benefit from such deal or face going out of business if they do not give in and take the deal. Deere should approach this situation using sustainable collaboration as the preferred method rather than dictatorial collaboration because it is operationally and more ethically efficient in the long run (Drake & Schlachter, 2008).
What are some of the implications as far as human resource management is concerned? How can the group members better manage the consensus building to present an undivided front to Excelsior?
Some of the implications that will affect the human resource management piece will be the countless of man hours that will be needed to find a new supplier. In addition to being a daunting task, it will be costly as well. With countless of hours and personnel needed to find a suitable supplier, Deere will have to bare the additional costs associated with such a task. The group members do not have a consensus because most of them do not seem to agree with what Benjamin is proposing. In order for the group to better manage the consensus is to come up with a proposal that everyone in the group can agree on that would show the benefits for both Excelsior and Deere.

References