If all employees are busy, buying is attractive because it does not require adding personnel. If the item is an industry standard, a department can probably depend on the supplier's quality control and need not supervise manufacture. Also, suppliers may have economies of scale, and so can produce for less. Business Affirmative Action. C. Reasons to Make 1.
Many departments fabricate items which have no commercial counterpart.
Either Stanford makes the item from scratch, or the supplier does. In this case, a supplier may have no advantages over a Stanford department. If the department needs a high degree of quality control during fabrication, the department will probably make the item. The alternative of visiting the supplier to make inspections may not be reliable or preferable. If Stanford has experienced delivery problems with suppliers, then the department may decide to make the item.