Read the case and answer the below questions

 1)Summarize the key points of the case.

 2) Describe the present purchase structure of the firm.

 3)Evaluate Make Vs Buy model for the firm.

4)If you were at Alice's place, what would you opt and why

consisting essentially of mustard ilour, sat, and other TFL employed about 120 people. It had a corporate struc- spices that could be readily bought. Water was not a ture of CEO; president; executive vice president, domestic problem because the city provided a reliable supply. sales; and national account manager and used a network of Vinegar was already a raw material that TFL ordered in bulk regularly from suppliers. Alicia therefore believed that it was a simple matter for TFL to make the mustard for its own use. TFL only needed to buy the spice blend Alicia was responsible for supply and reported direct- and add water and vinegar in the right proportions. She ly to the CEO. She had an inventory control officer, a approached a supplier who indicated that it could make buyer, and a receiver under her supervision. Purchas- the spice blend at a delivered price of $0.15 per liter for es could be classified into five different types: labels, TFL, including freight. However, it needed time for tests packaging, raw materials, commodities, and MRO sup- to ensure that the blend would be of the right quality for plies. Mustard was an important raw material used in TFL's use. Vinegar cost TFL $0.1875 per liter delivered food brokers who sold and promoted its products. THE SUPPLY AREA in 15,000 liter lots. And TFL was paying $0.025 per liter for water. Alicia also checked whether production had the time and equipment to make the mustard. Production felt that the change would not be too drastic and no ad- ditional workers would be necessary. However, it would Whenever mustard was required, the buyer e-mailed use up more of the existing workers' time. Production calculated that the change would entail a total labor and overhead cost of about $0.105 per liter of mustard using standard cost accounting for labor time and overhead many of TFL's products. CURRENT PRACTICE: PURCHASING MUSTARD EXTERNALLY the supplier and requested that it prepare the ap- propriate amount to be picked up by a truck from TFL. The purchase order would be prepared be- fore the truck left for the supplier, normally the next day. The mustard supplier used mustard seed as its charges. Alicia organized an information gathering and discus- raw material and blended in the other ingredients af- sion session involving supply, production, quality assur- ance, and distribution to discuss the proposed change. The workers were keen on the idea because this meant that they would no longer have to haul and rinse the bulky drums (water and vinegar could be easily channeled to the mix- amounted to about $8 per drum. TFL operated three ing containers using existing pipes). However, quality as- surance expressed concern about the quality of mustard if paid about $20 per hour. It took about 10 minutes of produced in-house. Because the mustard was an ingredient in many of TLF's products, such a change might adversely ter the seed had been reduced to mustard flour. Ev- ery month TFL purchased 500 drums, or 100,000 li- ters, of mustard. The cost of the mustard itself was $64 per drum. Freight costs were borne by TFL and eight-hour shifts, five days a week. Each worker was a worker's time to handle each drum. This included pouring the mustard into the processing kettle, making affect the quality and taste of these products. sure other added ingredients mixed well, and rinsing the Alicia wanted her proposal for in-house manufacture of drums. The drums were bulky and, because they could mustard to be in the company's best interest and wondered not be used in the plant for other purposes, had to be how to proceed next.