Supply Chain Management Midterm Question and Answer

Supply Chain Management Midterm The course syllabus contains the following statement: Rollins policy states you are expected to invest a minimum of three hours of out-of-class time for every contact hour. As a four semester hours course, you should plan to devote at least seven and one-half hours of out-of-class time to this class each week. - False The required textbook for this class is Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning, and Operations (1st edition) by S. Chopra and P. Meindl. - True The course syllabus contains the following statement: Rollins Attendance Policy is that students are expected to attend all scheduled classes and be prepared for every class. - True According to the course syllabus, if you are traveling back to school from a holiday break and your travel is delayed due to severe weather conditions which causes you to miss class, this situation is considered an "excused" absence. - False The objective of every supply chain should be to maximize the overall value (or supply chain surplus) generated. - True Successful supply chain management requires which of the following decision phases? - (a) Supply chain strategy/design (strategic planning). (b) Supply chain planning (tactical planning). (c) Supply chain operation (execution). Which of the following is a stage within a typical supply chain? - (a) Customers. (b) Retailers. (c) Wholesalers/Distributors. (d) Manufacturers. For any supply chain, the source of revenue is generated by: - the customer. The value of a final product may vary for each customer and can be estimated by the maximum amount the customer is willing to pay for it. The difference between the value of the product and its price remains with the customer as: - consumer surplus he learning objectives for Chapter 1 -- Understanding the Supply Chain in the textbook include - (a) Discuss the goal of a supply chain and explain the impact of supply chain decisions on the success of a firm. (b) Identify the three key supply chain decision phases and explain the significance of each one. The course syllabus states: Expect weekly quizzes - to be completed in class every week. No opportunity will be given to "make up" a missed quiz. If you miss a quiz, you will receive a zero (0) score for that quiz, unless the absence is excused, in which case the quiz score is null. Your two (2) lowest quiz scores will be dropped from the total score. - True A company's competitive strategy defines the set of customer needs that it seeks to satisfy through its products and services. - True The value chain emphasizes the close relationship between all the functional strategies within a company. - True Supply chain strategy specifies what the operations, distribution, and service functions, whether performed in-house or outsourced, should do particularly well. - True To achieve complete strategic fit, a firm must ensure that all functions in the value chain have consistent strategies that support the competitive strategy. - True The first step in achieving strategic fit between competitive and supply chain strategies is to understand customers and supply chain uncertainty. - True The degree of supply chain responsiveness should be consistent with the implied uncertainty. - True To retain strategic fit, supply chain strategy must not be adjusted over the life cycle of a product and as the competitive landscape changes. - False The following situation would likely work well. A situation in which marketing is publicizing a company's ability to provide a large variety of products very quickly; simultaneously, distribution is targeting the lowest cost means of transportation. - False Many challenges, such as rising product variety and shorter product life cycles, have made it easier for supply chains to achieve strategic fit. - False The course syllabus states: The organizations that make up the supply chain are "linked" together through physical flows and ___________ flows. Physical flows involve the transformation, movement, and storage of goods and materials. They are the most visible piece of the supply chain. But just as important are ___________ flows. ___________ flows allow the various supply chain partners to coordinate their long-term plans, and to control the day-to-day flow of goods and material up and down the supply chain. - Information The competitive strategy is defined based on how the customer prioritizes - a. product cost. b. delivery time. c. variety. d. quality. A company's marketing and sales strategy: - specifies how the market will be segmented and how the product will be positioned, priced, and promoted. A company's supply chain strategy: - determines the nature of procurement and transportation of materials as well as manufacture and distribution of the product. The uncertainty of customer demand for a product is the: - demand uncertainty. The uncertainty that exists due to the portion of demand that the supply chain is required to meet is the: - implied demand uncertainty. The primary value proposition of __________ was to deliver content in the form of a recently released DVD very close to the customer. __________ offered customers a cheap and easy way to rent movies through its vending machines that were located in high-trafficked locations such as fast food restaurants and supermarkets. - Redbox __________ started as a mail-order DVD rental service that later turned into a mail-based subscription service (eventually with a greater focus on streaming) that offered customers greater choice in the variety of movies they were able to rent and watch. __________ focused on adding value through inventory aggregation (for DVDs), search efficiency, and content aggregation (for video on demand). - Netflix __________ started with the business model of having physical storefronts in high-traffic neighborhood locations. The store operations were streamlined by a computerized system for inventory control and checkout. Its primary value addition was to bring recent content close to the customer in the form of a VHS tape (originally) or DVD. By building stores that were larger than existing mom-and-pop rental stores, __________ offered customers a wider choice of movies and better availability on recent releases. - Blockbuster The Ford River Rouge Complex in the 1920s and 1930s is a classic example of _______________, an arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is owned by that company. - vertical integration. The major drivers of supply chain performance are customers, facilities, inventory, transportation, and information. - False Two main types of production facilities are product-focused and functional-focused. - True For warehouses and distribution centers (DCs), firms must decide whether they will be primarily cross-docking facilities or storage facilities. - True The high-utilization facility will have little difficulty responding to demand fluctuations. - False Inventory is an important supply chain driver because changing inventory policies can dramatically alter the supply chain's efficiency and responsiveness. - True Inventory exists in the supply chain because of a match between supply and demand. - False