BCOR 360 Exam 5 Questions and Answers Already Passed
Why do companies exist - Answers to create a customer
Strategic business plan - Answers -long term 2-10 years
-Who are your customers?
-What are their needs—i.e., what motivates their purchase decisions?
-How is your company going to meet their needs better than anyone else
Integrated business planning - Answers -S&OP + CPFR
-Intermediate planning 6-18 months
-the process used to get every member of your value-added team to pull in the same
direction—that is, to make decisions using a single shared, agreed upon forecast
Aggregate planning - Answers identifies the resources needed to support the sales and
marketing plan over the next 6 to 18 months
-2 strategies are level and chase
master production scheduling - Answers disaggregates—that is, breaks down—the aggregate
plan to create a schedule for producing individual end items (aka, SKUs). You typically update
your MPS weekly (or even daily). By the time you get to the MPS process, you are starting to get
into the nuts-and-bolts details of making things
Materials requirements planning - Answers Materials requirements planning determines the
period-by-period plans for producing or buying all of the components that you need to produce
the end items in your MPS. You update your MRP weekly (or even daily).
Shop Floor Scheduling - Answers The operations group plans and controls the flow of work in
the production process. The purchasing team manages the flow of materials into the company.
These activities are managed on a continual basis.
Production and purchasing control - Answers Once you know what you need to produce or buy
and when you will need it, you actually have to schedule production or issue purchase orders
Chase strategy - Answers In a chase strategy, you attempt to maintain output rates that match
what the market demands. You do this largely by changing how you employ your workforce. If
demand fluctuations are relatively small, you might be able to align capacity by increasing or
decreasing overtime. If demand changes are more dramatic, you will need to hire or lay off
workers to align your production rate to demand for your product. By using labor to chase
demand, you are able to maintain your inventory levels—primarily safety stocks—constant.
, -Pros. A chase strategy helps you minimize inventory. So, if your products are expensive or
perishable, or you operate in a make-to-order setting, take a close at chasing demand.
-Cons. You need an available and flexible workforce. If the work is hard to master or training is
expensive, costs are high. You need to take a close look at all of the costs related to talent
acquisition. For instance, it is easy to forget the costs of poor morale, a common side effect of
layoffs, furloughs, and reduced work hours.
Level strategy - Answers In a level production strategy, you produce the same output each
period. The result: You maintain a stable production rate and a constant workforce. You adjust
for demand changes by building or depleting inventory. This is the ice-cream example above.
Alternatively, you might employ back orders to compensate for demand surges. However,
backorders are often very costly. Sometimes, disappointed customers never come back. To
make a level strategy work, you need to know what your demand pattern looks like.
-Pros. Workforce stability is your top benefit. Your operating plan is also simple and
straightforward, a nice benefit.
-Cons. Level production only works if your demand pattern is predictable and you can effectively
use excess capacity to build enough inventory. Naturally, your carrying costs or stock out costs
are high.
Hybrid Strategy - Answers a strategy that combines the chase and level strategies in different
degrees
Your challenge is to mix and match the various capacity and demand management tools in your
toolkit to minimize total costs even as you provide high service levels.
Aggregate Planning Options - Answers You may be thinking, "What tools do companies use to
balance supply and demand at the aggregate level?" Your options come in two flavors: Capacity-
focused tools and demand-focused tools.
Capacity focused options - Answers More often than not, as an OSCM professional, your
instinct is to focus on what you and your team can do match supply to demand. These options
involve managing your workforce. To help you understand your options, let's identify them,
share an example, and highlight the tradeoffs you need to keep in mind.
-hours worked, Subcontracting or Temporary Workers, hiring and firing, inventory
Hours worked - Answers Asking your workers to put in some extra hours is usually the easiest,
and least disruptive, way to increase production capacity.
Subcontracting or Temporary Workers - Answers If you expect your demand surge to be short
lived but too large to meet via overtime, you might turn to either temporary workers or
subcontracting.
Why do companies exist - Answers to create a customer
Strategic business plan - Answers -long term 2-10 years
-Who are your customers?
-What are their needs—i.e., what motivates their purchase decisions?
-How is your company going to meet their needs better than anyone else
Integrated business planning - Answers -S&OP + CPFR
-Intermediate planning 6-18 months
-the process used to get every member of your value-added team to pull in the same
direction—that is, to make decisions using a single shared, agreed upon forecast
Aggregate planning - Answers identifies the resources needed to support the sales and
marketing plan over the next 6 to 18 months
-2 strategies are level and chase
master production scheduling - Answers disaggregates—that is, breaks down—the aggregate
plan to create a schedule for producing individual end items (aka, SKUs). You typically update
your MPS weekly (or even daily). By the time you get to the MPS process, you are starting to get
into the nuts-and-bolts details of making things
Materials requirements planning - Answers Materials requirements planning determines the
period-by-period plans for producing or buying all of the components that you need to produce
the end items in your MPS. You update your MRP weekly (or even daily).
Shop Floor Scheduling - Answers The operations group plans and controls the flow of work in
the production process. The purchasing team manages the flow of materials into the company.
These activities are managed on a continual basis.
Production and purchasing control - Answers Once you know what you need to produce or buy
and when you will need it, you actually have to schedule production or issue purchase orders
Chase strategy - Answers In a chase strategy, you attempt to maintain output rates that match
what the market demands. You do this largely by changing how you employ your workforce. If
demand fluctuations are relatively small, you might be able to align capacity by increasing or
decreasing overtime. If demand changes are more dramatic, you will need to hire or lay off
workers to align your production rate to demand for your product. By using labor to chase
demand, you are able to maintain your inventory levels—primarily safety stocks—constant.
, -Pros. A chase strategy helps you minimize inventory. So, if your products are expensive or
perishable, or you operate in a make-to-order setting, take a close at chasing demand.
-Cons. You need an available and flexible workforce. If the work is hard to master or training is
expensive, costs are high. You need to take a close look at all of the costs related to talent
acquisition. For instance, it is easy to forget the costs of poor morale, a common side effect of
layoffs, furloughs, and reduced work hours.
Level strategy - Answers In a level production strategy, you produce the same output each
period. The result: You maintain a stable production rate and a constant workforce. You adjust
for demand changes by building or depleting inventory. This is the ice-cream example above.
Alternatively, you might employ back orders to compensate for demand surges. However,
backorders are often very costly. Sometimes, disappointed customers never come back. To
make a level strategy work, you need to know what your demand pattern looks like.
-Pros. Workforce stability is your top benefit. Your operating plan is also simple and
straightforward, a nice benefit.
-Cons. Level production only works if your demand pattern is predictable and you can effectively
use excess capacity to build enough inventory. Naturally, your carrying costs or stock out costs
are high.
Hybrid Strategy - Answers a strategy that combines the chase and level strategies in different
degrees
Your challenge is to mix and match the various capacity and demand management tools in your
toolkit to minimize total costs even as you provide high service levels.
Aggregate Planning Options - Answers You may be thinking, "What tools do companies use to
balance supply and demand at the aggregate level?" Your options come in two flavors: Capacity-
focused tools and demand-focused tools.
Capacity focused options - Answers More often than not, as an OSCM professional, your
instinct is to focus on what you and your team can do match supply to demand. These options
involve managing your workforce. To help you understand your options, let's identify them,
share an example, and highlight the tradeoffs you need to keep in mind.
-hours worked, Subcontracting or Temporary Workers, hiring and firing, inventory
Hours worked - Answers Asking your workers to put in some extra hours is usually the easiest,
and least disruptive, way to increase production capacity.
Subcontracting or Temporary Workers - Answers If you expect your demand surge to be short
lived but too large to meet via overtime, you might turn to either temporary workers or
subcontracting.
