L6M9 Supply Network Design Questions and Answers

Andrea is the Chief Financial Officer at Big Corporation and is completing a Variance Analysis . She has reviewed the production costs of creating item B, and this month’s costs show a variance to budget of £-200 . What does this mean?

Which of the following appear in the concept of Theory of Constraints ? Select ALL that apply.

Alexandra is the new Chief Procurement Officer at Wet Lettuce Incorporated, a manufacturing organisation that uses a tiered supply structure. She has asked to see the contracts with all the suppliers and has been told that it is not common practice to have contracts with the full range of suppliers. What should Alexandra do?

A car manufacturing organisation organises formal, regular meetings with its tier one suppliers for the purpose of collaborating on improvements and changes to the final product. What is this arrangement known as?

Which of the following capacity planning strategies is the least conservative ?

Which of the following is a technique for continuous improvement that employs a full-time specialist improvement team ?

Maxi Ltd is a medium-sized manufacturing organisation in the automotive industry that creates engines for cars. It has traditionally worked well with its suppliers, with strong relationships and regular meetings. There are currently around 15 suppliers who provide parts to Maxi Ltd.

Due to changing customer demands, Maxi Ltd will, from next month, modify the manufacturing of some of its products. Product X is being made more environmentally friendly, with output of CO2 being reduced by 32%. The product will take longer to produce, but there will be no additional cost to customers for this.

Maxi ltd are considering outsourcing the manufacturing of Product Y as it is not a product which is routinely ordered by customers. This will allow Maxi Ltd to focus on other products which generate higher revenues for the company. The concern within the Board of Directors is that if demand increases for this product, an outsourced company may not be able to cope with higher numbers of orders.

Product Z is an extremely popular item and oftentimes Maxi Ltd does not have the capacity to fulfil all orders. Consideration has been given to increasing the size of the factory, but this has been discarded as risky as demand is not guaranteed. The product has been available on the marketplace for a short amount of time and sales are continuing to increase, but the company believes this will soon plateau. To deal with current demand, the marketing team is working on campaigns to invite customers to make orders for this product at certain times of the year when product X is not being created in the factory. This means resources can be reallocated to the creation of product Z.

What area of the product lifecycle is product Z in?

What is the purpose of supplier development ?

Which of the following examples of a supplier would be suitable for Strategic Supplier Business Reviews ? Select ALL that apply.

Paul is the Operations Manager at a button factory. Buttons are incorporated into many different fashion garments, and as they are currently 'on trend,' there is a high demand for more buttons. Paul is concerned that the factory cannot produce the number of buttons that is being demanded in the marketplace. He has calculated that each team within the factory only has the capacity to create 1,000 buttons per day, and he will decline any requests for buttons that exceed this amount. In terms of Capacity Loading, what is this called?

Maxi Ltd is a medium-sized manufacturing organisation in the automotive industry that creates engines for cars. It has traditionally worked well with its suppliers, with strong relationships and regular meetings. There are currently around 15 suppliers who provide parts to Maxi Ltd.

Due to changing customer demands, Maxi Ltd will, from next month, modify the manufacturing of some of its products. Product X is being made more environmentally friendly, with output of CO2 being reduced by 32%. The product will take longer to produce, but there will be no additional cost to customers for this.

Maxi ltd are considering outsourcing the manufacturing of Product Y as it is not a product which is routinely ordered by customers. This will allow Maxi Ltd to focus on other products which generate higher revenues for the company. The concern within the Board of Directors is that if demand increases for this product, an outsourced company may not be able to cope with higher numbers of orders.

Product Z is an extremely popular item and oftentimes Maxi Ltd does not have the capacity to fulfil all orders. Consideration has been given to increasing the size of the factory, but this has been discarded as risky as demand is not guaranteed. The product has been available on the marketplace for a short amount of time and sales are continuing to increase, but the company believes this will soon plateau. To deal with current demand, the marketing team is working on campaigns to invite customers to make orders for this product at certain times of the year when product X is not being created in the factory. This means resources can be reallocated to the creation of product Z.

What capacity strategy is being used for product Z?

Which of the following are benefits of optimising the supply chain ? Select ALL that apply.

According to Foster's Model of Operational Balance , how should business strategy be developed?

Which of the following is a difference between a supply chain and a supply network? Select ALL that apply.

Maxi Ltd is a medium-sized manufacturing organisation in the automotive industry that creates engines for cars. It has traditionally worked well with its suppliers, with strong relationships and regular meetings. There are currently around 15 suppliers who provide parts to Maxi Ltd.

Due to changing customer demands, Maxi Ltd will, from next month, modify the manufacturing of some of its products. Product X is being made more environmentally friendly, with output of CO2 being reduced by 32%. The product will take longer to produce, but there will be no additional cost to customers for this.

Maxi ltd are considering outsourcing the manufacturing of Product Y as it is not a product which is routinely ordered by customers. This will allow Maxi Ltd to focus on other products which generate higher revenues for the company. The concern within the Board of Directors is that if demand increases for this product, an outsourced company may not be able to cope with higher numbers of orders.

Product Z is an extremely popular item and oftentimes Maxi Ltd does not have the capacity to fulfil all orders. Consideration has been given to increasing the size of the factory, but this has been discarded as risky as demand is not guaranteed. The product has been available on the marketplace for a short amount of time and sales are continuing to increase, but the company believes this will soon plateau. To deal with current demand, the marketing team is working on campaigns to invite customers to make orders for this product at certain times of the year when product X is not being created in the factory. This means resources can be reallocated to the creation of product Z.

What type of supply chain does Maxi Ltd currently have?

XYZ Ltd is a manufacturing organisation that buys raw materials from ABC Ltd, including rare materials such as rubies and gold. XYZ Ltd accepts all orders from ABC Ltd as the materials are rare, making the relationship one-sided . Which type of network best describes this relationship?

When designing a supply network, which of the following stages should be completed first ?

Which of the following are examples of investment appraisal techniques? Select ALL that apply.

Who are the four business players in the Value Net ? Select ALL that apply.

The operations department of ABC Ltd has recently launched a new product. The product is manufactured within a large factory and then sent to retailers for sale. The department has a system in place which details the components required for the product and the quantities required to fulfil customer demand. The system works online and links to other areas of the business including HR and finance.

So far, several large orders have been placed for the product from different retailers. The Chief Operations Officer (COO) has decided to programme the completion of the orders based on when the orders were placed. The benefit of this strategy is that it will give each customer a similar lead time. Thus far no buffer stock has been created as products are only created when orders are received.

Three teams are required to make the product and the product flows from team one to team two to team three, each team adding a component to the product. Unfortunately, team two are short staffed and are completing their work at a slower rate than the other two teams. This is a huge consideration for the COO as it will impact upon the capacity of the organisation.

The retailers have all signed contracts with ABC Ltd and the COO is extremely happy that they are long term contracts. Contract 1 is with retailer X and the price is set for three years. Contract 2 is with retailer Y and is a five year contract where the price will be reviewed annually in line with CPI. Contract 3 has a variable pricing mechanism based on the volume of products ordered.

What production method is used by ABC?

Which of the following are Porter's strategies that can help an organisation create competitive advantage in the marketplace? Select ALL that apply

Scenario:

Blue Bear Ltd is a multifunctional manufacturing organisation with a global supply chain and customers in over 30 different countries . Each function within the company has different supply networks and relationships.

For each function , select the correct Value Chain Activity and Supply Network Type from the given options.