Global Supply Chain Management

Question 1

Name one of the traditional Supply Chain definitions.

Answer 1

“A network of connected and interdependent organisations mutually and co-operatively working together to control, manage and improve the flow of materials and information from suppliers to end users.”

Question 2

Name one of the traditional Supply Chain definitions.

Answer 2

“a set of three or more entities (organizations or individuals) directly involved in the upstream and downstream flows of products, services, finances, and/or information from a source to a customer.”

Question 3

Name one of the More Recent Definitions of Supply Chain Management.

Answer 3

“The management of upstream and downstream relationships with suppliers and customers in order to deliver superior customer value at less cost to the supply chain as a whole.”

Question 4

Name one of the More Recent Definitions of Supply Chain Management.

Answer 4

“the systemic, strategic coordination of the traditional business functions and the tactics across these business functions within a particular company and across businesses within the supply chain, for the purposes of improving the long-term performance of the individual companies and the supply chain as a whole.”

Question 5

What is information integration?

Answer 5

Integrating the backward flow of data from customers to suppliers based on information technologies (lecture 1).

Question 6

Name the causes of the bullwhip effect.

Answer 6

Members react to market dynamics:

• Rationing game
• Price variations

Members optimize internation operations of inventory management:

• Order batching
• Demand signal processing

Question 7

What is a vanilla box?

Answer 7

A vanilla box is defined as a semi-finished product that can serve more than one final product.

Question 8

What is the definition of order picking?

Answer 8

Order picking can be defined as the process in which goods are taken from the warehouse or buffer in response to customer orders.

Question 9

State the three types of business processes.

Answer 9

1. Management processes
2. Core processes
3. Support processes

Question 10

Name the three degrees of of supply chain (as argued by Mentzer 2001)

Answer 10

• Direct supply chain
• Extended supply chain
• Ultimate supply chain

Question 11

What does it mean that supply chains consist of nodes and links?

Answer 11

• Nodes represents the different agents in the network

- Links represent the connection between the different agents, such as information, materials and finance

Question 12

What does it mean that supply chains are relative to a particular product and/or agent

Answer 12

Most agents are part of multiple supply chain, and thus the specific SC is relative to a product. Each product may have their own specific supply chain

Question 13

What is the difference between the physical and the supportive supply chain?

Answer 13

• The physical supply chain is the direct supplier and customer
• The support supply chain includes carriers, financial institutions and terminals

Question 14

What does “SCM as a Management Philosophy” imply?

Answer 14

1. A systems approach to viewing the supply chain as a whole, and to managing the total flow of goods inventory from the supplier to the ultimate customer.
2. A strategic orientation toward cooperative efforts to synchronize and converge intrafirm and interfirm operational and strategic capabilities into a unified whole.
3. A customer focus to create unique and individualized sources of customer value, leading to customer satisfaction (based on the synchronization of SC activities).

Question 15

What characterises a hierarchical, function oriented organization?

Answer 15

• It is possible to identify small, specialized work assignments
• Improvement of each assignment leads to improvement of the whole.
• There is always one best way to perform each assignment.
• Employees lack or have very little education.
• It is the task of the bosses to think

Question 16

Describe the smile of value creation

Answer 16

Pre-production activities such as R&D, design and commercialisation are high value adding activities

Production activities such as manufacturing and standard services does not create much value

Post-production activities such as marketing, advertising, specialised logistics and after-sales services create high value

Question 17

How does Carter (2015) criticise traditional notions about SC?

Answer 17

These has generally failed to explicitly take into account the many additional members of the supply chain that play a vital but indirect, supportive role in the movement, storage, and transformation of product across organizations.

Question 18

Define upstream and downstream activities

Answer 18

Upstream activities: Activities aiming towards suppliers

Downstream activities: Activities aiming towards customers

Question 19

What is sustainability?

Answer 19

Sustainable development is development that meets the need of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Question 20

Name the phases of supply chain risk management.

Answer 20

1. Risk identification
2. Risk assessment
3. Risk controlling
4. Risk monitoring

Question 21

What happens if TTS > TTR?

Answer 21

Site does not expose the firm to any risk since during the time it is recovering, the firm can still match supply with demand.

Question 22

What happens if TTS < TTR?

Answer 22

The disruption of the site will expose the firm to financial and operational problems.

Question 23

Which three types of insurance can businesses rely on in risk transfer?

Answer 23

1. Contingent business interruption insurance protects a company when the damage or cause of the problem is somewhere other than the business (Somewhere else in the supply chain)
2. A traditional business interruption insurance covers lost sales or increased costs and is triggered by a physical event, such as a fire, flood or natural catastrophe.
3. A trade credit insurance covers the risk to companies of clients running into serious financial difficulties.

Question 24

What are the aspects that is within the scope of BPMN 2.0?

Answer 24

• Definition of organizational models and resources,
• Modeling of functional breakdowns,
• Data and information models,
• Modeling of strategy,
• Business rules models.

Question 25

Define the 6 different distribution network designs

Answer 25

1. Manufacturer storage with direct shipping
2. Manufacturer storage with direct shipping and in-transit merge
3. Distributor storage with package carrier delivery
4. Distributor storage with last-mile delivery
5. Manufacturer/distributor storage with customer pickup
6. Retail storage with customer pickup

Question 26

What are some of the pros and cons of manufacturer storage with direct shipping as a network design

Answer 26

• Lower inventory costs
• Higher transportation costs
• Long response time
• Fast time to market

Question 27

What does the square root law say?

Answer 27

The square root law is a simple rule of thumb, stating that safety stocks can be reduced by the square root of the number of distribution centers.
Thus the fewer warehouses the less safety stock is required

Question 28

How is direct and indirect transportation networks optimised?

Answer 28

Direct transportation networks are designed to optimise transportation time.

Indirect transportation networks are designed to optimise transportation costs

Question 29

What are the five steps in redesigning business processes?

Answer 29

1. Develop business vision and process objectives
2. Identify processes to be redesigned: can be done from both supplier and customer perspective
3. Understand and measure existing processes: relevant KPI’s
4. Identify IT levers
5. Design and build prototype of process

Question 30

Describe the ecologically dominant logic (Montabon 2016)

Answer 30

• Economic and social issues are nested inside environmental issues.
• When trade-offs occur, the priority is to protect the environment, then society and only then to consider profits.
• Focus on long term goals

Question 31

Describe the SCOR model

Answer 31

SCOR = Supply Chain Operations Reference model

It links business processes, performance metrics, practices, and people skills into a unified structure.

Question 32

What are the three key principles in building a socially responsible supply chain (according to Wieland

Answer 32

1. Auditing: A foundation of reliable and unbiased supplier/product audits;
2. Visibility: Visibility into supply chain events supported by mobile technology
3. Collaboration: Collaboration with the community, companies in the same industry, and local universities to drive education and change in the ecosystem. W

Question 33

What is the most appropriate strategy to deal with the following risks types:

1. Low probability and low impact
2. Low probability and high impact
3. High probability and low impact
4. High probability and high impact

Answer 33

1. Risk taking
2. Risk transfer
3. Risk reduction
4. Risk avoidance

Question 34

What is a business process??

Answer 34

A set of logically related tasks performed (in the right order) to achieve a defined business outcome.

Question 35

What are the three types of processes?

Answer 35

1. Management processes: govern other processes
2. Core processes: enable goods and services and realise business goals
3. Support processes: needed for the core processes to work

Question 36

What are the three principles in circular economy?

Answer 36

Principle 1: Preserve and enhance natural capital by controlling finite stocks and balancing renewable resource flows
Principle 2: Optimize resource yields by circulating products, components and materials in use at the highest utility at all times in both technical and biological cycles
Principle 3: Foster system effectiveness by revealing and designing out negative externalities

Question 37

When did Rana Plaza collapse and how many workers died?

Answer 37

In 2013 and 1129 were killed

Question 38

What significant weaknesses are there in previous literature within sustainable SCs? (according to Montabon 2016)

Answer 38

• Backward looking logic, by focusing on what existing SC can do to become less unsustainable
• Focus has mainly been on the focal firm and not the entire SC

Question 39

Which three dimensions does the tripple bottom line cover?

Answer 39

Social, environmental and financial

Question 40

What are the 5 steps in the Gartner hype cycle?

Answer 40

1. Technology trigger: technological break-through
2. Peak of inflated expectations: media attention
3. Trough of disillusionment: interest decreases
4. Slope of enlightenment: more use-cases
5. Plateau of productivity: mainstream adoption starts