Decision Phase of Supplychain free essay sample

TOPIC 1 SAQ1. Explain the three decision phases (categories) that must be made in a successful supply chain? Three design phases are: †¢Supply Chain Strategy and Design. †¢Supply Chain Planning. †¢Supply Chain Operation. †¢Supply Chain Strategy and Design –. During this phase, a company decides how to structure the supply chain over the next several years. Involves the allocation of resources and what processes will be undertaken. †¢Supply Chain Planning – For decision made during this phase, the time frame considered is a quarter to a year. Look at things like demand forecasting and market identification, inventory size and marketing. †¢Supply Chain Operation – The time horizon here is weekly or daily, and during this phase companies make decisions regarding individual customers orders. Deals with day to day operations set due dates and allocate inventory/production. Set delivery schedules or replenish stock levels. SAQ7. In what way do supply chain flows affect the success or failure of a firm like Amazon? List two supply chain decisions that have a significant impact on supply chain profitability? Amazon an online website introduced to sell books and other products over the Internet. Amazon started by filling all orders using books purchased from distributor in response to customer orders. So there is no need of an retailer anymore and all customer order and replenishment cycle at Amazon can be classified as pull processes. The operation of Amazon is different from traditional book store, as in a bookstore books are purchased directly from the publisher and are stored in anticipation to customer’s orders. Since Amazon sells books directly from distributor to customer, lots of costs such as transportation fee, loading/unloading fee, hiring people to serve in bookstore and other retailer running fees could be reduced. It also must ensure that the distribution network is efficient and reliable, as costs for return of mistaken or lost orders would be high. TOPIC 2 SAQ 3 List and discuss the abilities/factors that should be considered in supply chain responsiveness? Factors to be considered in supply chain responsiveness are: Respond to wide range of quantities demanded : They should be able to provide This means that when the amount of products ordered or bought by the customer increases or decreases that the supply chain either speeds up to create more or slows down to stem the flow of goods and hence excess. Meet short lead times: They must be swift in getting the orders and completing them as quick as possible to reduce lead time, which in turn will result in the company being more responsive. Handle a large variety of products: Responsiveness will be far better, if they can produce large variety of products. If the company can’t handle large varieties then the production will not be responsive to the market. Build highly innovative products: Building highly innovative products means that they are responding to the market with new and fresh ideas. Therefore there time delay for a product going to market will be small meaning high responsiveness due to the initial undertakings. Meet a very high service level: Changes or alterations made by the customer need to be dealt with quickly. If these are seen to be overcome with much haste then the company will meet the high service level. Handle supply uncertainty::When the markets are uncertain the company need to be able to handle unsteady or uneven flow of orders along with stock in their warehouses. Therefore, higher uncertainty lead to higher responsiveness which is beneficial, were as low uncertainty can have a lower responsiveness. SAQ 5. Consider a high-end department store: †¢How would you characterize its competitive strategy? For a high-end department store to, the strategy for success over competitor is: 1. Quality 2. Availability 3. Customer service 4. Variety 5. pricing †¢What are the store? s likely characteristics in terms of consumer and supply chain uncertainty? 1. High operation cost 2. Expensive products 3. High inventory 4. Better customer service. †¢Where would you place the demand faced by the store on the implied demand uncertainty spectrum? Why? The demand faced by a high-end department store could be placed at the middle of the implied uncertainty spectrum. It can have a predictable supply and uncertain demand. These stores can control the supply system and make it more efficient, but the demand is uncertain due to the variety of products that they offer. †¢What level of responsiveness would be most appropriate its supply chain? The high-end department store should focus on efficiency over the responsiveness, but it should keep an adequate level of responsiveness in terms of product accessibility; likewise, an important driver of sales is the lower cost in the supply chain. †¢What should the supply chain be able to do particularly well? The supply chain in a high-end store should be able to reach the balance between responsiveness and efficiency by maintaining customers demand stable even when the prices vary, keeping low inventory levels and exploiting economies of scale. Topic 3 SAQ1. 1. Explain the measures of customer service that are influenced by the structure of the distribution network? †¢Response time: It is the time taken from the order being placed by the customer to the order received by the customer. †¢Product variety: the variety of products a customer can choose from within the distribution network. Product availability: It is the probability of having a product in stock when a customer orders it. †¢Customer experience: it refers to the ease with which a customer can make and get an order. †¢Time to market: it is the time taken to bring a new product to the market †¢Order visibility: is the ability of tracking orders from placement to delivery. †¢Returnability: How easily can customers return unsatisfactory merchandise and the ability of the network to handle such returns. Plant D should be located at the location coordinate 6521. 77256