It is Thursday, January 5, 2023 and you and your team are the new procurement specialists at Maison Du Vin.

You were hired a month earlier as the Director of Purchasing for Maison Du Vin, a high-end store based in Montreal, Quebec. The company's president, Brantly Jennings, said that your team is to prepare a Request for Proposal to seek out a strategy to revise their current processes and procedures. Including software which would help with the issues that Maison Du Vin was facing.

Company Background

Founded in 2005 in Quebec City, Maison Du Vin became one of Canada's elite wine stores. The company operates 10 stores in 10 Canadian cities, selling wine from all over the world.

The peak sales periods are July and August, and October to December. All year round, the Maison Du Vin used marketing campaigns to promote the various types of wines.

Maison Du Vin's Buyers, located at their main store in Quebec City, issue approximately 15,000 orders a year and in most cases, are issued several months in advance. Only about 750 suppliers are used in a typical year out of their 1,500 total suppliers. Similarly, the company had approximately 2,500 stock keeping units (SKUs), but only about 50 per cent were active at any given time. In addition, some of the wine categories remained fairly stable. Changing wine trends meant introducing new wines which accounted for approximately 15-25 per cent of the SKUs ordered each year.

Maison Du Vin Purchasing Function

The buyers for Maison Du Vin place orders with suppliers, issuing between 1,250 and 2,000 orders each month. The wine is shipped to the primary distribution centre (DC) located in Toronto, Ontario. Suppliers are responsible for making the shipping arrangements, and prices are free on board (FOB) the DC. The wine is then shipped to the stores.

There are procedures and processes in place, but not followed. Some of the staff have their own processes and procedures that they follow. The company is understaffed, so there is not enough time to ensure the proper procedures and processes are followed.

Current Situation

Your team was hired by Maison Du Vin to review the current purchasing systems and processes. Collectively, the team has more than 30 years of experience in Europe and the United States.

Your first week was spent just observing the purchasing function of Maison Du Vin. Your team quickly realized that the staff spent a great deal of time preparing the purchase orders, tracking down late deliveries, and quality management. This can be very time consuming because they have global suppliers and they are dealing with cultural and language challenges, along with time differences.

The staff spent a lot of time on the phone just confirming and adjusting the previous orders with the suppliers.

The stores were always calling and looking for their inventory and the staff was constantly following up on the delivery status with both the suppliers and transportation service providers. In addition, three of the suppliers were having quality control issues. There was no time to spend building those important relationships with the suppliers or even evaluating the performance of their suppliers.

You believe that if Maison Du Vin had the proper processes, procedures, and software in place, the issues that they face would be resolved within the first year of implementation.

As a subject matter expert, you know the procurement process can take many weeks depending on the scope, and the company is losing valuable time. This work needs to be completed by their fiscal year end of March 31, 2023. To have the process completed, get the required information, solutions, and plans to meet the very tight deadlines, you must start on the process right away. A rough schedule and timeline for the procurement is posting next week, reviewing after two weeks, selection of vendor one day after review completion and contract award within six weeks for the procurement process. This gives a short turnaround time for the contractors so you will need to make sure you clearly outline what you need as noted in the questions for the RFP and your timelines.

Question: Contractors should outline in detail, the processes, and procedures for Maison Du Vin, along with the software system.