After reading all the situations below, prepare a report with the answers:

Situations:

1. Your manager, Felix Young, wants to know why your estimate of the time it will take to get an MRP system up and running is so long. Young noted that you included an allowance for "potentially inaccurate bill of materials and inventory records," and he wants to know how the company could have operated as well as it has "if the records weren't pretty accurate right now." Write a one-page memo in response to Young's concerns.

2. In an effort to become more efficient and build better supplier relations, your manager, Jane Furman, has examined the company's current practice of using eight different suppliers for eight different items and considered switching to a single supplier who would supply all eight items. However, she discovered that the new supplier will handle orders only on a fixed-interval basis. Write a one-page memo to Furman outlining the cost factors that might increase, and those that might decrease, along with a brief explanation for each factor, under the proposed system.

3. Your immediate supervisor, Rhonda Waters, has raised the possibility of switching from a chase demand strategy to a level-capacity strategy for aggregate planning and wants your opinion on the merits of one versus the other. Write her a one-page memo on this matter.