supply chain management Flashcards
Robo Boots sells its shoes exclusively to wholesalers. What role do wholesalers play in the corresponding supply chain - from the perspective of Robo Boots? (Multiple answers possible)
- first tier customers
- third tier customers
- downstream customers
- downstream suppliers
- second tier suppliers
- second tier customers
- third tier suppliers
- upstream customers
- upstream suppliers
- first tier suppliers
- first tier customers
- downstream customer
Cow Inc supplies leather to Ohio Leather Inc. Ohio Leather Inc processes leather for shoe production and has Robo Boots as its customer that again sells its shoes exclusively to wholesalers. What role does Cow Inc play in the supply chain from the wholesalers’ point of view? (Multiple answers possible)
- downstream supplier
- downstream customer
- first tier customer
- second tier customer
- second tier supplier
- upstream supplier
- third tier customer
- upstream customer
- first tier supplier
- third tier supplier
- upstream supplier
- third tier supplier
What is the essence of the Postponement strategy?
Group of answer choices
- Consistent use of identical parts and shifting of the Product Configuration Point
- Consistent use of common parts
- Moving the Product Configuration Point downstream
- A better assessment of the needs of individual countries
Moving the Product Configuration Point downstream
What is the major advantage of applying the Postponement strategy?
- Ability to react to booms and recessions in demand for individual countries
- Distribution can be done over a single warehouse
- Products are already configured at an early stage
- Keep target inventory high
Ability to react to booms and recessions in demand for individual countries
Determine the Optimal Order Quantity (which equals the Optimal Inventory Level in this example) and the corresponding Optimal Costs of alarm clocks for CL Technologies on the basis of the specified data - with and without Postponement.
You will find the necessary information in an Excel sheet under the following link: 3.2.c_Postponement_A_Exercise.xlsx
Calculate the values and enter the results requested below rounded to whole numbers.
Without Postponement - Optimal Order Quantity:
???
Without Postponement - Optimal Costs:
???
With Postponement - Optimal Order Quantity:
???
With Postponement - Optimal Costs:
???
A) 44885
B) 91 586
C) 40955
D) 51 077
When is late product configuration not an appropriate strategy?
- If the affected product has a modular structure
- If the final configuration process is extremly time consuming
- With high uncertainty of demand
- With a high added value in the Product Configuration Point
If the final configuration process is extremly time consuming
Moving the Product Configuration Point means…
- a reduction in the risk of product obsolescence.
- an improvement of customer service and delivery capability
- improving customer service and delivery capability, reducing the risk of obsolescence and reducing inventory.
- a reduction in inventory.
- improving customer service and delivery capability and reducing inventories.
improving customer service and delivery capability, reducing the risk of obsolescence and reducing inventory.
What are the potential negative consequences or disadvantages of a late product configuration strategy (Postponement) for a European manufacturer of computer hardware?
Which answers are correct or rather apply best (multiple answers possible):
- Resource-intensive investments in equipment and personnel.
- Employees must be specifically trained to be able to create different product configurations.
- Responsibilities (e.g. for defect resolution) are unclear and processes along the supply chain become more complex.
- The European warehouse must be equipped in a way that different product configurations can be created in the warehouse itself.
all are correct
What characterizes the bullwhip effect?
Which answers are correct or rather apply best (multiple answers possible):
Group of answer choices
- The ever faster changing needs of customers lead to strong fluctuations in demand, so that the capacity of manufacturers is often insufficient and stockouts occur.
- Demand forecasts turn fluctuating demand into more fluctuating orders, which in turn represent demand for the next stage in the supply chain.
- Fluctuations occur along the entire supply chain, and the further one moves in the supply chain from the end customer to the manufacturer, the weaker the fluctuations become.
- Retailers often have a relatively constant demand, wholesalers have bigger fluctuations and manufacturers have even larger fluctuations.
b und d
High fluctuations in demand can lead to the following economical disadvantages (multiple answers possible):
- Low customer satisfaction
- Low availability of the products up to stockout
- Low capacity utilization
- High inventory costs
all are true
What countermeasures can be taken to prevent negative effects of the demand forecast? Select the correct statement(s). (multiple answers possible)
- Share of information: If, for example, discount campaigns of retailers are communicated to manufacturers at an early stage, they can adapt better to the upcoming fluctuations in demand.
- Reduce the number of forecasts: Joint forecasts or VMI (Vendor-Managed Inventory) reduce the risk of creating a Bullwhip Effect.
- Optize forecast quality: The demand forecast in itself is not a problem. However, often inadequate procedures are used in practice. The application of the Moving Average, for example, is particularly problematic.
- Selection of suppliers with short delivery times: The shorter the delivery times, the lower the safety stock can be. In addition, fluctuations in demand that are passed on are also decreasing.
a,b,d
Determine the impact of forecasting on the basis of the following data:3.3.b_Bullwhip_B_Exercise.xlsx
Use the same forecast (Moving Average with T = 3) and estimation methods as in the video example.
- Actual Demand - Mean:
???
- Actual Demand - Variance:
???
- Orders - Variance:
???
- Orders - Mean:
???
- Bullwhip Effect:
???
1: 1’036
2: 43’963
3: 900
4: 336’271
5: 8
Which statement regarding lot size formation (optimizing order quantities) is not correct?
Group of answer choices
- Lot size formation generates variability in demand, even if end customer demand is actually constant.
- Fluctuations increase if lot size optimization is performed at each stage of the supply chain.
- Lots are created taking order costs or setup costs into account.
- Lot size formation generates variability in demand, but only if end customer demand is not constant.
d
What countermeasures can be taken to prevent negative effects of lot size formation? Select the correct statement(s). (multiple answers possible)
Group of answer choices
- Automated Orders: Automation reduces fixed order costs and information is processed more efficently, thus reducing the incentive for larger lot sizes.
- Coordinated Orders: If several retailers coordinate their orders in such a way that the manufacturer has an almost constant demand, there is considerably less variability.
- Price Negotiations: Unit costs should be low to reduce negative effects.
- Coordinated Delivery: It can pay off to transport several products of a manufacturer in one truck in order to reduce the fixed order costs per product.
- a
- b
- d
Which statement regarding manufacturer discounts is not correct?
Group of answer choices
- In practice, fluctuations in demand usually result from price fluctuations.
- Retailers order more until the additional inventory costs exceed the cost savings through discounts.
- With manufacturer discounts, retailers are tempted to order more.
- Retailers tend to order high volumes in case of a discount, but in the following days and weeks they order nothing or significantly less.
- a
As part of a supply chain simulation, 400 different cost scenarios were calculated, and the resulting total costs were displayed in a three-dimensional graph depending on the parameters Reorder Point and Order Quantity. Which of the following statements regarding the cost trade-offs with regard to supply chain management are true in the given graph?
- At minimum cost, we optimize the trade-off between holding, out-of-stock and ordering costs.
- With increasing order quantity and higher Reorder Point our total costs increase because we have to store surplus goods. Accordingly, ceteris paribus, the total costs increase due to the storage costs.
- With a very small reorder point and a small order quantity, out-of-stock situations often occur which cause disproportionately high total costs due to the stockout costs.
- High order quantities always make sense. This enables us to reduce fixed order costs and optimise costs.
a,b,c
