A commodity manager at company headquarters is given responsibility for consolidating spend among all the...

A commodity manager at company headquarters is given responsibility for consolidating spend among all the company's locations, with the goal of leveraging larger volumes. The manager collects data on spend categories, analyzes the information by supplier and type of material, and sends out goals for combining spend and reducing the number of suppliers. Several locations express reluctance to participate, saying that their needs for quality and delivery of critical parts have not been taken into consideration. Based on this situation, which of the following errors was MOST likely made by the commodity manager?