Exam 1

Question 1

Supply Chain Management

Answer 1

Planning and managing of all activities involved in sourcing, procurement, conversion and all logistics management activities.

Question 2

Two dimensions of supply chain excellence

Answer 2

Cost advantage
 Lower end-to-end delivered cost
 Value advantage
 Creating superior customer value through enhanced service

Question 3

Forces transforming supply chain

Answer 3

Relentless pressure to reduce costs
Pursuits of new markets
Product innovation to fuel growth

Question 4

Lights out facilities

Answer 4

Factories that have the capability of being run by robots that operate continuously in the dark

Question 5

Substitutability

Answer 5

Informations, Inventory and capacity/capability are all substitutes for each other in any system (The triangle)

Question 6

Fastest growing supply chain initiative

Answer 6

Sustainability

Question 7

Corporate strategy

Answer 7

defines the set of customer needs a firm seeks to satisfy through its products and services. Specifies the portfolio of new products that the company will try to develop.

Question 8

Competitive strategy

Answer 8

is defined based on how the customer prioritizes product cost, delivery time, variety, and quality

Question 9

Marketing and sales strategy

Answer 9

specifies how the market will be segmented and product positioned, priced, and promoted.

Question 10

Manufacturing and supply chain strategy

Answer 10

process of selecting, implementing and controlling operations logistics design that best provides the company with competitive advantage (meets or exceeds company’s marketing and financial goals).

Question 11

Continuum of four stages

Answer 11

Stage 1 - Internally neutral, correct the worst problems
Stage 2 - Externally neutral, adopt industry’s best practices
Stage 3 - Internally supportive, Link operations and supply chain with business strategy
Stage 4 - Externally supportive, give an operations and supply chain advantage

Question 12

Order winners

Answer 12

Characteristics or capabilities that tip a customer to purchase from one firm over another

Question 13

Order qualifiers

Answer 13

Characteristics or capabilities which allow serious consideration of product/service/firm by buyers. Does not win an order

Question 14

Order Losers

Answer 14

Things that prevent repeat sales once an initial sale has been made

Question 15

Supply chain strategies

Answer 15

Efficient supply chain - Economies of scale, low demand uncertainty, low supply uncertainty, basic apparel, food, oil
Responsive supply chain - Changing consumer needs, mass customization, build to order, High demand uncertainty, low supply uncertainty, fashion apparel, computer
Risk-hedging supply chain - Pooled services, multiple supply, share inventory, Low demand uncertainty, High supply uncertainty (hydroelectric power
Agile supply chain - responsive to changing needs, High demand uncertainty, High supply uncertainty, telecom, high-end computers

Question 16

Best manufacturing an supply chains

Answer 16

Agile - Ability to react quickly to unexpected shifts in supply, demand and disruptions
Adaptable - Ability to change supply chain configurations in response to long-term changes in the markets, political shifts, demographic trends and technology
Aligned - way in which the interests of various players involved in the supply chain align

Question 17

Efficient strategy

Answer 17

Production and distribution decisions based on long-term forecast

Question 18

Responsive Strategy

Answer 18

Production and distribution are demand driven so that they are coordinated with true customer demand rather than forecast demand.

Question 19

Supply chain strategies

Answer 19

Make to stock (MTS) - mainly a push strategy, consumer pulls from retailer
Configure to order (CTO) - Paint final configuration in store, Consumers pulls at distributer
Assemble to order (ATO) - get the order then assemble, dell computers,, usually have excess capacity, Consumers pulls from manufacturer
Make to order (MTO) - furniture, long lead times, consumers pulls from supplier
Engineer to order - Consumer pulls from engineering, product engineered just for them

Question 20

Flexibility

Answer 20

Process flexibility - ability to produce a wide variety of products, larger customization
Product Flexibility - Ability to change to new product quickly and economically
Volume flexibility - Ability to adjust and adapt quickly to size of orders

Question 21

Job shop

Answer 21

Low volume production of a great variety of non-standardized products (highly customized)
Each job is different
This process is highly flexible

Question 22

Batch

Answer 22

Low volume, many products

disconnected line but a dominant flow exists

Question 23

Assembly line

Answer 23

Higher volume
few major products
Connected line and flow

Question 24

Continuous Flow

Answer 24

High volume
High standardization
commodity products
Continuous
process segments tightly linked

Question 25

Cycle time

Answer 25

average time between completion of successive units. • operation cycle time (assumes no starvation, blockages or downtime).
• process (system) cycle time (black-box)

Question 26

Lead time

Answer 26

the time it takes to get completely through a process, from beginning to end.

Question 27

Capacity

Answer 27

how much output can be produced in a specified period of time with no losses to yield or downtime.
• operation capacity (unconstrained)
• process capacity (determined by bottleneck).

Question 28

Throughput

Answer 28

how much output is actually produced in a specified period of time.

Question 29

Utilization

Answer 29

the percentage of time spent actually working on the product or on
performing the service
Utilization = throughput/capacity

Question 30

Bottleneck

Answer 30

factor that limits the capacity of the overall process

• slowest operation (longest cycle time) • scarcest resource (material or people)

Question 31

Little’s law

Answer 31

Average WIP = Average Throughput rate * AVG lead time

Question 32

Measuring variability

Answer 32

Coefficient of variation = Std deviation / mean

Question 33

Throughput rate

Answer 33

=bottleneck utilization * bottle neck rate

Question 34

process batch

Answer 34

quantity of product processed at a resource before the resource changes to produce a different product.