SCO 3001 Exam Questions and Answers Fully Solved Latest Version 2025-2026
What is Supply Chain? - Answersconsists of a network of organizations outside the firm that supply the
materials and services to the firm and distribute the product or service to the ultimate customer
What is Operations Management? - Answersmanaging the production of goods and services
What is Supply Chain Management? - Answersdeals with managing the flow of materials, information,
and money across multiple organizations from the suppliers to operations to distribution to the final
customer, along with reverse flows
What is Operations and Supply Chain Management? - Answersdeals with the sourcing, production and
distribution of the product or service along with managing the relationships with supply chain partners
What is Sourcing? - Answersworks with manufacturing and service suppliers of the firm and is part of
the larger definition of operations and supply chain management
What is Distribution? - Answersconcerned with transporting materials into operations and taking the
output of operations to the ultimate customer
What is Productivity? - Answers- the amount of output form a given amount of inputs or vice versa
- output divided by inputs, all in constant dollars
- productivity = output / (capital + labor)
Three aspects of Operations and Supply Chain Management - Answers1. Decisions
2. Function
3. Process
Five Major Decision Responsibilities - Answersprocess, quality, capacity, inventory, and supply chain
4 Ps of Marketing - AnswersProduct, Price, Place, Promotion
What is Analytics? - Answersthe analysis of data to make better decisions; used in operations and supply
chains for a variety of decisions, including quality control, forecasting, capacity, scheduling, inventory,
logistics, and sourcing
Three Primary Functions in an Organization - Answers1. Marketing
- typically responsible for creating demand and generating sales revenue
2. Operations
- responsible for the production and distribution of goods or services (generating supply)
3. Finance
,- responsible for the acquisition and allocation of capital
What are example of Social Sustainability? - Answershiring diverse workforce, ethical practices,
providing equal opportunity, and safe working conditions
What is Economic Sustainability? - Answersmaking a sufficient profit for firm survival into the future
Operations Strategy - Answersis a consistent pattern of decisions for operations and the associated
supply chain that are linked to the business strategy and other functional strategies, leading to a
competitive advantage for the firm
What is Corporate Strategy? - Answersdefines the business that the company is pursuing
What is Business Strategy? - Answersfollows from the corporate strategy and defines how each
particular business will compete
3 Generic Business Strategies - AnswersDifferentiation: associated with a unique and frequently
innovative product or service
Low cost: pursued in commodity
Focus: refers to the geographical or product portfolio being narrow or broad in nature; can be combined
with either a differentiation of a low-cost strategy
4 common objectives of operations - AnswersCost: a measure of the resources used by operations,
typically the unit cost of production or the cost of goods or services sold
Quality: the conformance of the product or service to the customers' requirements
Delivery: providing the product or service quickly and on time
Flexibility: ability to rapidly change operations
* should be long range oriented (5 tp 10 years) to be strategic in nature and should be treated as goals
What are Strategic Decisions? - Answersdetermine how the operations objectives will be achieved
What is a Product Imitator (low cost) Business Strategy? - Answerstypical of a mature, price-sensitive
market with a standardized product or service
What is a Product Innovator Business Strategy? - Answersused in emerging and possibly growing
markets where advantage can be gained by bringing to market superior quality products in a short
amount of time
What is an Order Winner? - Answersan objective that will cause customers in a particular segment that
marketing has selected as the target market to choose a particular product or service
, What is an order Qualifier? - Answersthe company must have acceptable levels of these three objectives
to qualify to get the customer order. Insufficient levels of performance on order qualifiers can cause the
business to lose the order, but higher performance on order qualifiers cannot by themselves win the
order
What is Reshoring? - AnswersThe act of reintroducing domestic manufacturing to a country. It is the
reverse process of offshoring.
What is Supply Chain Strategy? - Answersincludes consideration of customers, suppliers, sourcing, and
logistics in addition to operations. It requires a focus on flows of inventory, materials, and information
throughout the supply chain from the suppliers to the ultimate customer
2 Fundamental Supply Chain Strategies - AnswersImitation: have products/services similar to those of
their competitors and are oriented toward efficiency and low cost as a way of competing; imitative
products are like commodities - they have predictable demand and low profit margins (ex: toothpaste,
oil, standard automobiles, most food)
Innovation: differentiate their product or service as their way of competing and can charge higher
prices; have unpredictable demand and high profit margins; they need a flexible and fast supply chain to
deal with uncertainty in demand (Ex: fashion clothing, electric cars, new electronic products)
What is the Triple Bottom Line? - Answersenvironmental, social, and economic sustainability
What are the 3 different ways to introduce new products? - Answers1) Market Pull
2) Technology Push
3) Interfunctional View
Market Pull - Answersmarket is the primary basis for determining the products a firm should make, with
little regard for existing technology. Customer needs are determined, then the firm organizes the
technology, resources, and processes needed to design a product and supply the consumer
Technology Push - AnswersTechnology is the primary determinant of the products the firm should make,
with little regard for the market. The firm pursues a technology-based advantage by developing superior
technologies in their materials and components. The products are pushed into the market, and
marketing's job is to create demand for these new products. Since the products have superior
technology, they will have a natural advantage in the market
Interfunctional View - Answerscombines some of the advantages from Market Pull and Technology
Push, with products that fit the market needs (new/existing markets) and have a technical advantage as
well. To accomplish this, all functions (marketing, engineering, operations, finance, etc.) should
collaborate to design the new products needed by the firm. Often, this is done by forming cross-
functional teams that are responsible for the development of a new product. This is the most appealing
What is Supply Chain? - Answersconsists of a network of organizations outside the firm that supply the
materials and services to the firm and distribute the product or service to the ultimate customer
What is Operations Management? - Answersmanaging the production of goods and services
What is Supply Chain Management? - Answersdeals with managing the flow of materials, information,
and money across multiple organizations from the suppliers to operations to distribution to the final
customer, along with reverse flows
What is Operations and Supply Chain Management? - Answersdeals with the sourcing, production and
distribution of the product or service along with managing the relationships with supply chain partners
What is Sourcing? - Answersworks with manufacturing and service suppliers of the firm and is part of
the larger definition of operations and supply chain management
What is Distribution? - Answersconcerned with transporting materials into operations and taking the
output of operations to the ultimate customer
What is Productivity? - Answers- the amount of output form a given amount of inputs or vice versa
- output divided by inputs, all in constant dollars
- productivity = output / (capital + labor)
Three aspects of Operations and Supply Chain Management - Answers1. Decisions
2. Function
3. Process
Five Major Decision Responsibilities - Answersprocess, quality, capacity, inventory, and supply chain
4 Ps of Marketing - AnswersProduct, Price, Place, Promotion
What is Analytics? - Answersthe analysis of data to make better decisions; used in operations and supply
chains for a variety of decisions, including quality control, forecasting, capacity, scheduling, inventory,
logistics, and sourcing
Three Primary Functions in an Organization - Answers1. Marketing
- typically responsible for creating demand and generating sales revenue
2. Operations
- responsible for the production and distribution of goods or services (generating supply)
3. Finance
,- responsible for the acquisition and allocation of capital
What are example of Social Sustainability? - Answershiring diverse workforce, ethical practices,
providing equal opportunity, and safe working conditions
What is Economic Sustainability? - Answersmaking a sufficient profit for firm survival into the future
Operations Strategy - Answersis a consistent pattern of decisions for operations and the associated
supply chain that are linked to the business strategy and other functional strategies, leading to a
competitive advantage for the firm
What is Corporate Strategy? - Answersdefines the business that the company is pursuing
What is Business Strategy? - Answersfollows from the corporate strategy and defines how each
particular business will compete
3 Generic Business Strategies - AnswersDifferentiation: associated with a unique and frequently
innovative product or service
Low cost: pursued in commodity
Focus: refers to the geographical or product portfolio being narrow or broad in nature; can be combined
with either a differentiation of a low-cost strategy
4 common objectives of operations - AnswersCost: a measure of the resources used by operations,
typically the unit cost of production or the cost of goods or services sold
Quality: the conformance of the product or service to the customers' requirements
Delivery: providing the product or service quickly and on time
Flexibility: ability to rapidly change operations
* should be long range oriented (5 tp 10 years) to be strategic in nature and should be treated as goals
What are Strategic Decisions? - Answersdetermine how the operations objectives will be achieved
What is a Product Imitator (low cost) Business Strategy? - Answerstypical of a mature, price-sensitive
market with a standardized product or service
What is a Product Innovator Business Strategy? - Answersused in emerging and possibly growing
markets where advantage can be gained by bringing to market superior quality products in a short
amount of time
What is an Order Winner? - Answersan objective that will cause customers in a particular segment that
marketing has selected as the target market to choose a particular product or service
, What is an order Qualifier? - Answersthe company must have acceptable levels of these three objectives
to qualify to get the customer order. Insufficient levels of performance on order qualifiers can cause the
business to lose the order, but higher performance on order qualifiers cannot by themselves win the
order
What is Reshoring? - AnswersThe act of reintroducing domestic manufacturing to a country. It is the
reverse process of offshoring.
What is Supply Chain Strategy? - Answersincludes consideration of customers, suppliers, sourcing, and
logistics in addition to operations. It requires a focus on flows of inventory, materials, and information
throughout the supply chain from the suppliers to the ultimate customer
2 Fundamental Supply Chain Strategies - AnswersImitation: have products/services similar to those of
their competitors and are oriented toward efficiency and low cost as a way of competing; imitative
products are like commodities - they have predictable demand and low profit margins (ex: toothpaste,
oil, standard automobiles, most food)
Innovation: differentiate their product or service as their way of competing and can charge higher
prices; have unpredictable demand and high profit margins; they need a flexible and fast supply chain to
deal with uncertainty in demand (Ex: fashion clothing, electric cars, new electronic products)
What is the Triple Bottom Line? - Answersenvironmental, social, and economic sustainability
What are the 3 different ways to introduce new products? - Answers1) Market Pull
2) Technology Push
3) Interfunctional View
Market Pull - Answersmarket is the primary basis for determining the products a firm should make, with
little regard for existing technology. Customer needs are determined, then the firm organizes the
technology, resources, and processes needed to design a product and supply the consumer
Technology Push - AnswersTechnology is the primary determinant of the products the firm should make,
with little regard for the market. The firm pursues a technology-based advantage by developing superior
technologies in their materials and components. The products are pushed into the market, and
marketing's job is to create demand for these new products. Since the products have superior
technology, they will have a natural advantage in the market
Interfunctional View - Answerscombines some of the advantages from Market Pull and Technology
Push, with products that fit the market needs (new/existing markets) and have a technical advantage as
well. To accomplish this, all functions (marketing, engineering, operations, finance, etc.) should
collaborate to design the new products needed by the firm. Often, this is done by forming cross-
functional teams that are responsible for the development of a new product. This is the most appealing
