Quality Management in the Oil Industry: How BP Greases Its Machinery for Frictionless Sourcing Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

It was a cold winter in 2010 in Shanghai, and Dr. Zeb Feng becoming increasingly frustrated. As purchasing director for Asia in the British Petroleum (BP), Dr. Feng was acutely aware of the growing burden that quality control imposed for global operations of his company. Chinese suppliers were masters to reduce costs, but quality often suffers as a result, leading in turn to increased demand for testing and development. Almost five years ago, Dr. Feng established international purchasing department (IPO) in Shanghai, which served as a general service center internal clients across the organization BP worldwide. Since that time, IPO was basically non-hydrocarbon sources of goods and services, such as equipment and materials, packaging, catalysts, chemicals and additives, product marketing and commercial equipment, and services for drilling and well completion services. After a corporate board meeting with Christine De Luca, vice president of procurement and supply chain management for future operations BP, it was decided that the company will increase its global competitiveness sources. As the number one market in the world, China, of course, was a high priority for further research. Pressing points that relate to Dr. Feng was a Chinese suppliers were quite ready to deliver critical materials for oil drilling, production and refining of oil. During a recent conference call, De Luca reiterated, "Zeb, our competitors are far ahead of us in their search operations, and they have a much lower cost. Something must be done!" Dr. Feng hung up and went back to his office to collect his team at the planning meeting. He knew that the quality of food is a key issue, but how can this be resolved? "Hide
by Martin Lockstrom, Sheng Li, Shengrong Zhang Source: Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation 9 pages. Publication Date: March 28, 2012. Prod. #: W12835-PDF-ENG