Chapter 18, Additional Case 2: Analyzing Options and Drawing Conclusions

Chapter 18, Additional Case 2: Analyzing Options and Drawing Conclusions

Background

Pioneer Construction, based in Syracuse, New York, offers a range of construction services, including feasibility studies, negotiated design construction, traditional-plan and spec-bid construction, and construction management. With more than 100 full-time employees and sales reaching $38 million annually, Pioneer builds everything from shopping centers and warehouses to restaurants and churches. In addition to heavy-duty construction equipment and vehicles, Pioneer maintains a fleet of 10 pickup trucks. Pioneer's construction supervisors use these trucks to travel to construction sites, haul tools and equipment, and transport clients.

Currently, Pioneer is using an aging fleet of trucks. Bought before many of the safety and comfort features standard in new pickups were available, these trucks do not reflect the focus on safety and quality that the company wishes to convey to clients, nor do they allow the construction supervisors to carry out their duties efficiently. At a recent meeting, a construction supervisor lamented, "My truck spends more time out of service than in service." This remark prompted dozens of other comments critical of the company's fleet. These comments only reinforced what the company president, Mattias van Noordennen, already knew: it was time to replace the company's pickup trucks.

"What type of truck should we buy?" Mattias asked.

"Ram 2500 Quad Cab," one supervisor suggested.

"I like the GMC Sierra 2500's tight turning radius," another suggested.

Someone else added, "The ground clearance of the Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD is impressive.

A fourth supervisor began, "I agree. The Silverado's 3,125-pound payload capacity—

"Wait a second," Mattias interrupted. "Do we know if we need that heavy a capacity for our pickups? I think we should first determine what we need our new trucks to be able to do. Then we can decide what we'd like them to be able to do. I know that your job duties vary, but I am confident that each of you can describe typical ways in which you use your pickup at work." Mattias then outlined how he would like to proceed: each construction supervisor will send him an email message briefly summarizing how the supervisor typically uses his or her truck.

After the meeting, Mattias stopped by your office. He asked you and your colleagues in the documentation department to help him develop evaluation criteria. "Because of your team's experience in responding to evaluation criteria in our clients' RFPs, as well as in developing criteria for our company's IFBs, I thought you could help us come up with evaluation criteria to use when we select a replacement truck for our pickup fleet. Take a look at the construction supervisors' comments and figure out what they are looking for in a pickup truck. Our budget will limit the cost of each truck to no more than $35,000." (See Document 18.1).

Your Assignment

  1. Based on the information provided by the construction supervisors (Document 18.1) and your own research on heavy-duty pickups, write Mattias a memo in which you recommend the necessary and desirable criteria the company should use to select a replacement vehicle for the pickup fleet.
  2. Create a decision matrix for company officials to use to evaluate each vehicle option systematically according to each desirable criterion you have established. Include a scoring key that lists the range of values for each criterion and explains how to use the guide to score the vehicle options objectively.
  3. Based on data from your decision matrix, write the conclusions and recommendations sections of a feasibility report on replacing the pickup fleet at Pioneer.

DOCUMENTS

Document 18.1

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