Bath towels. Televisions. Fresh produce. Uniforms. On the surface, these items may not appear to have any relationship to each other. Sure, they exist in most households, even though they were probably bought independently of one another. Yet to the supply chain manager employed in the hospitality industry, they not only have a relationship, but their purchase can be critical to gaining a competitive advantage.

QUESTIONS

1. Should Starwood maintain a cooperative orientation or a competitive orientation with its suppliers for the kind of items described here?
2. What types of information should Starwood exchange with its bed linens and terrycloth supplier? What does Starwood risk by sharing too much information?
3. How would you approach the sourcing of bed linens and terrycloth items? That is, would you use a reverse auction or request for proposal? Under what circumstances would you change suppliers?
4. In addition to performing value analysis on the services its properties offer, Starwood evaluates the performance of its suppliers against contract metrics. Using the bed linens and terrycloth supplier as an example, describe some of the metrics Starwood should use.