Supply Chain

Solutions for our company's problem

Hi boss, here are the two possible options that available for us in order to solve our company's issue:

The first option is we voluntarily open our plant for the EPA inspector to come in and inspect. That means we comply with the EPA's new standards, pay $2 million for equipment and also reduce our profits by approximately 12% annually. Then we are done with it, and we can operate our business normally and legally.

The second option is we are not going to open our plant for the EPA inspector since our business is not operating in highly regulated industries, so they have to obtain a search warrant in order to inspect our plant. From here, the EPA will go to order a search warrant from law enforcement officers, and it's really simple for them to do so. Meanwhile, the EPA is really angry at us for not letting them in, and we are absolutely having some troubles from now on.

The EPA actions are not automatically subject to judicial review which means a court will not review our case until it is ripe for review. In order for our case to be ripe for review, we have to meet a certain requirements of standing. There are three standing requirements for us: (1) our business must have suffered or imminently will suffer an actual injury, (2) there must be a causal connection between the injury and the challenged action, (3) it must be likely, as opposed to merely speculative, that a favorable court decision will redress the injury.

The hearing procedure is very limited, so if the court refuses to hear the case, they can then evaluate both the appropriateness of the issue for judicial resolution and the hardship that our business will suffer. The probability that we can win over the EPA is really low. As a result, if we lose, we will have to pay all the costs for suing the Environmental Protection Agency, and it's going to take a long time for us to get through all the procedures of a lawsuit probably in years.

After analyzing the two options, I suggest we go for the first one. Even though, we have to pay a lot of money for new equipment and also reduce our profits every year, we can then get our business back to normal operating. As long as we can operate, we still can make profits out of it. Despite the fact that our profit is lower than before, the by-product of our manufacturing process is proved to be environmentally harmless chemical when we meet the EPA new standards. From this point, we are safe now, and we operate our business legally, so there is nothing more to worry about.

The second option will cost us a lot of money too, waste our time and also bring problems to our business when we get involve in a lawsuit, but the reality is we are not going to get anything at the end. Moreover, during the time we fight against the EPA, our business will be freezing in years, so we are not able to survive and also afford all the expenses for such a big lawsuit. It is really a disaster if we lose the case and go out of business at once.

I recommend the first option because it is the best option available to us right now. We will get back on our feet shortly when we overcome the issues and make profits since then.

(I hope you take my options into consideration, and we will soon have our way to deal with this situation).

Thuy Quach

BA 333