CHAP 2

Question 1

What defines a firm’s competitive strategy?

Answer 1

Customers’ priorities

Question 2

Competitive Strategy aims to?

Answer 2

Provide products and services that satisfy these customers needs

Question 3

What does a competitive strategy target?

Answer 3

One or more customer segments

Question 4

What starts a value Chain?

Answer 4

Well it begins with new product development strategy

Question 5

What is included in a value chain?

Answer 5

New product development
Marketing and sales
Operations
Distribution
service

Question 6

What is new product development strategy (part of value chain)?

Answer 6

Creates specifications for the product
Timing of product introductions
Portfolio of products

Question 7

What relates to technologies for future operations (via patents) and set of products/services?

Answer 7

product development strategies

Question 8

Which strategy falls under Dell computers’ decisions to offer many products?

Answer 8

Product development

Question 9

Which strategy falls under IBM workstations to be the technology leader?

Answer 9

Product development

Question 10

How do marketing and sales strategies generate demand (part of value chain)?

Answer 10

Publicizing the customer priorities that the product and services will satisfy

Question 11

What does marketing strategy do (part of value chain)?

Answer 11

It brings customer input back to the new product development.
Frequently look at what discounts to offer
Coupons (look at coupons and determine if they will use it)
Relates to positioning, pricing and promotion of products/services

Question 12

Operation strategy does what in the value chain?

Answer 12

It transforms inputs to outputs based on specifications to create the product.

Question 13

What does distribution do in the value chain?

Answer 13

Either takes the product to the customer or brings the customer to the product

Question 14

Walmart decision to do EDLP (Every day low prices) falls under which strategy?

Answer 14

Marketing strategy

Question 15

Company decision to never offer more than 40% discount falls under which strategy?

Answer 15

Marketing strategy

Question 16

Bestbuy decision to demand smoothing via coupons fall under which strategy?

Answer 16

Marketing strategy

Question 17

What does service do in the value chain?

Answer 17

It responds to customer requests during or after the sale

Question 18

What supports and facilitates the functioning of the value chain?

Answer 18

Finance, accounting, information technology and human resources

Question 19

What is strategy?

Answer 19

What each process or function will try to do particularly well

Question 20

What is the product development strategy?

Answer 20

specifies the portfolio of new products that a company will try to develop

Question 21

What dictates whether the development effort will be made internally or outsourced?

Answer 21

Product development strategy

Question 22

What strategy specifies how the market will be segmented and how the product will be positioned, priced and promoted?

Answer 22

Marketing and sales strategy

Question 23

What strategy determines the nature of procurement of raw materials, transportation of materials to and from the company, manufacture of the product or operation to provide the service, and distribution of the product to the customer, along with any follow-up service and a specification of whether these processes will be performed in-house or outsourced?

Answer 23

Supply chain strategy

Question 24

What does a supply chain management strategy relate to?

Answer 24

Relates to procurement, transportation, storage and delivery

Question 25

When a firm never uses more than 1 supplier for every input falls under which strategy?

Answer 25

Supply chain management strategy

Question 26

When a firm never expedites orders just because they are late falls under which strategy?

Answer 26

Supply chain management strategy

Question 27

When a firm always uses domestic suppliers within the sales season not in advance falls under which strategy?

Answer 27

Supply chain management strategy

Question 28

Cisco’s decision to use contract manufacturers is what type of strategy?

Answer 28

supply chain strategy

Question 29

Amazon’s decision in 2016 to open bookstores and announce the opening of “convenience” stores. is what type of strategy?

Answer 29

supply chain strategy

Question 30

Amazon’s decisions to build warehouses to stock some products and to continue using distributors as a source of other products. Is what type of strategy?

Answer 30

supply chain strategy

Question 31

What does a strategic fit require?

Answer 31

Both competitive and supply chain strategies of a company have aligned goals Fit the supply chain to customer

Question 32

Consistency between the customer priorities that the competitive strategy hopes to satisfy and the capabilities that the supply chain strategy aims to build refers to?

Answer 32

Strategic fit

Question 33

Given the change in customer priorities, Dell has shifted a greater fraction of its production to a build-to-stock model to maintain _____?

Answer 33

strategic fit

Question 34

Dell’s supply chain has moved from a relentless focus on responsiveness to a greater focus on low cost.Is an example of what?

Answer 34

strategic fit

Question 35

What does a company must ensure to achieve a strategic fit?

Answer 35

a company must ensure that its supply chain capabilities support its ability to satisfy the needs of the targeted customer segments.

Question 36

What are the three basic steps to achieving strategic fit?

Answer 36

understanding the customer and supply chain uncertainty Understanding the supply chain capabilities Achieving strategic fit

Question 37

What does a company must understand in “customer and supply chain uncertainty”?

Answer 37

understand the customer needs for each targeted segment and the uncertainty these needs impose on the supply chain So for understanding the customer they would need to look at range of demand, production lot size and response time.service level, product variety, innovation, accommodating poor quality

Question 38

What does the customer needs under the “customer and supply chain uncertainty” help the company define?

Answer 38

define the desired cost and service requirements

Question 39

Why do we look at the supply chain uncertainty for (under the customer and supply chain uncertainty)”

Answer 39

helps the company identify the extent of unpredictability of demand and supply that the supply chain must be prepared for.

Question 40

What does it mean by “understanding the supply chain capabilities”?

Answer 40

Every supply chain is designed to perform different tasks that is why we must understand what each supply chain is designed to do.

Question 41

What happens if there is a mismatch between what the supply chain does particularly well and the desired customer needs?

Answer 41

company will either need to restructure the supply chain to support the competitive strategy or alter its competitive strategy.

Question 42

What is demand uncertainty?

Answer 42

reflects the uncertainty of customer demand for a product.

Question 43

What is Implied demand uncertainty?

Answer 43

is the resulting uncertainty for only the portion of the demand that the supply chain plans to satisfy based on the attributes the customer desires.

Question 44

What Is example of implied demand uncertainty?

Answer 44

firm supplying only emergency orders for a product

Question 45

Raising the service level _____the implied demand uncertainty even though the product’s underlying demand uncertainty _______

Answer 45

Increases, does not change

Question 46

In case of customer needs, range of quantity required increases causes implied demand uncertainty to ________ because a wider range of the quantity required implies ___variance in demand

Answer 46

Increase; greater

Question 47

In case of customer need, lead time decreases causes implied demand uncertainty to _______because there is ____ time in which to react to orders

Answer 47

increase; less

Question 48

In case of customer need, variety of products required increases causes implied demand uncertainty to _____ because demand per product becomes ____ predictable

Answer 48

Increase; less

Question 49

In case of customer need, required service level increases causes implied demand uncertainty to ____ because the firm now has to handle the unusual surges in demand

Answer 49

Increase

Question 50

In case of customer need, rate of innovation increases causes implied demand uncertainty to ________because new products tend to have _____ uncertain demand

Answer 50

Increase; more

Question 51

In case of customer need, number of channels through which product may be acquired increases causes implied demand uncertainty to _____ because customer demand per channel becomes ______ predictable

Answer 51

Increase; less

Question 52

What is a mission, mission statement?

Answer 52

The reason for existence of an organization

Question 53

What is strategy?

Answer 53

A plan for achieving organizational goals

Question 54

What are tactics?

Answer 54

The actions taken to accomplish strategies

Question 55

What are operations?

Answer 55

Day to day decisions to support tactics

Question 56

The ability to respond to wide ranges of quantities demanded is what?

Answer 56

Supply chain responsiveness

Question 57

The ability to meet short lead times is an example of?

Answer 57

Supply chain responsiveness

Question 58

The ability to handle a large variety of products is an example of?

Answer 58

Supply chain responsiveness

Question 59

The ability to build highly innovative products is an example of?

Answer 59

Supply chain responsiveness

Question 60

The ability to meet a very high service level is an example of?

Answer 60

Supply chain responsiveness

Question 61

The ability to handle supply uncertainty is an example of?

Answer 61

Supply chain responsiviness

Question 62

What are the six capabilities that deem a supply chain to be responsive?

Answer 62

The ability to respond to wide ranges of quantities demanded meet short lead times handle a large variety of products build highly innovative products meet a very high service level handle supply uncertainty

Question 63

What happens when we respond to wide range of quantities demanded?

Answer 63

It means capacity must be increased which increases costs

Question 64

What is supply chain efficiency?

Answer 64

is the inverse of the cost of making and delivering a product to the customer.

Question 65

What is the cost-responsivess efficient frontier?

Answer 65

Its the curve in the diagram showing the lowest possible cost for a given level of responsiveness

Question 66

What should a firm do if there are not on the efficient frontier?

Answer 66

Should improve both its respnsivenss and its cost performance by moving toward the efficient frontier.

Question 67

What should a firm do if there are already on the efficient frontier?

Answer 67

They can improve their responsiveness only by increasing cost and becoming less efficient. They make a trade-off between efficiency and responsiveness

Question 68

What is a key strategic choice for any supply chain in regards to cost-responsivenness efficient frontier?

Answer 68

Its the level of responsiveness it seeks to provide

Question 69

How is lowest cost defined in the cost-responsivess efficient frontier?

Answer 69

Defined by existing technology

Question 70

If the supply source capability has frequent breakdowns it causes the supply uncertainty to?

Answer 70

Increase

Question 71

If the supply source capability has unpredictable and low yields it cause the supply uncertainty to?

Answer 71

Increase

Question 72

If the supply source capability has poor quality it causes the supply uncertainty to?

Answer 72

Increase

Question 73

If the supply source capability has limited supply capacity causes supply uncertainty to?

Answer 73

Increase

Question 74

If the supply source capability has inflexible supply capacity causes supply uncertainty to ?

Answer 74

Increase

Question 75

If the supply source capability has an evolving production process causes supply uncertainty to?

Answer 75

Increase

Question 76

England, Inc.’s retailers allow customers to select from a wide variety of styles and promise relatively quick delivery. This is an example of what uncertainty?

Answer 76

High level of implied uncertainty on the supply chain

Question 77

By holding more raw material inventories, the company allows its suppliers to

Answer 77

Focus on efficiency which means on the supplier side they have the least implied uncertainty

Question 78

If the company decreases its raw material inventories, its suppliers must?

Answer 78

become more responsive

Question 79

What are the five key levers to deal with supply chain uncertainty?

Answer 79

Capacity Inventory Time Information Price

Question 80

A combination of ____ capacity and ____ capacity can help a supply chain deal with uncertainty.

Answer 80

Excess ; flexible

Question 81

What is this an example of : “paint mixer found in paint stores in most parts of the world. The mixers are flexible and can mix paint in a large variety of colors. This allows the paint store to deal with the uncertainty of which color a particular customer may want to buy. “???

Answer 81

Capacity

Question 82

What is one of the most common levers used in practice to deal with uncertainty?

Answer 82

Inventory

Question 83

What should you consider when using inventory lever to deal with supply chain uncertainty?

Answer 83

must consider the cost of holding inventory when using this lever to deal with uncertainty

Question 84

A combination of speedy supply and the willingness of customers to wait can help a supply chain deal with uncertainty. What lever is this?

Answer 84

Time

Question 85

What should you consider when using the time lever when dealing with supply chain uncertainty?

Answer 85

the cost of speedy supply and the potential loss of customers by making them wait when using time as a lever to deal with uncertainty.

Question 86

investing in the appropriate information can help a supply chain reduce the uncertainty it faces. Which lever are they referring to?

Answer 86

Information

Question 87

What is scope of strategic fit?

Answer 87

refers to the functions within the firm and stages across the supply chain that devise an integrated strategy with an aligned objective

Question 88

Intraoperation scope has each stage of the supply chain devising its strategy _____.

Answer 88

INDEPENDENTLY. Meaning they cared for themselves but didnt care how it would impact the other stages. Example of this is if a firm shipped full truckloads without any regard for the resulting impact on inventories or responsiveness

Question 89

What is intrafunctional view?

Answer 89

Its when firms attempted to align all operations within a function example: All supply chain functions, including sourcing, manufacturing, warehousing, and transportation, had to align their strategies to minimize total functional costs

Question 90

What is the weakness of the intrafunctional view?

Answer 90

is that different functions within a firm may have conflicting objectives.

Question 91

How to achieve the goal of interfunctional scope?

Answer 91

To achieve this goal, all functional strategies are developed to align with one another and with the competitive strategy.

Question 92

What does intercompany scope propose?

Answer 92

Instead of just forcing the inventory onto the weaker party, the two parties work together to reduce the amount of inventory required. By working together and sharing information, they can reduce inventories and total cost, thus increasing the supply chain surplus

Question 93

What is Agile intercompany scope?

Answer 93

refers to a firm’s ability to achieve strategic fit when partnering with supply chain stages that change over time.

Question 94

What scope would allow the firm to use the low cost supplier to supply the predictable portion of demand for the product with the responsive supplier being the backup who comes through when demand exceeds supply available from the low cost supplier?

Answer 94

Agile intercompany scope

Question 95

How to achieve the goal of interfunctional scope?

Answer 95

all functional strategies are developed to align with one another and with the competitive strategy