The use of a seasonal workforce requires that the workforce be multi-skilled and easily
adapt to being moved from line to line.
Improperly structured sales force incentives are a significant obstacle to coordination in
the supply chain.
Quantity discounts lower the unit cost and tend to increase the required batch size.
Sharing of POS data helps reduce the bullwhip effect because it allows each stage of the
supply chain to use orders from the previous stage to forecast future demand.
A supply chain can use a high level of product availability to improve its
responsiveness and attract customers, thus increasing revenue for the supply chain.
If the technology is flexible, it becomes more difficult to consolidate manufacturing in a
few large facilities.
An increase in consumption of the product either from new or existing customers is
A) market growth.
B) stealing share.
C) forward selling.
D) forward buying.
The process by which a company determines levels of capacity, production,
subcontracting, inventory, stockouts, and even pricing over a specified time horizon is
A) aggregate planning.
B) detail planning.
C) inventory planning.
D) sales planning.
The student chapter of the Association of Information technology Professionals (AITP)
notices the success that the APICS student chapter has with their traditional barbecue
sauce fundraiser. Blinded by their jealousy, the club officers decide to sell a competing
product, clocks made out of junk computer parts that the club sponsor whips up in his
garage. Club officers set up a card table in the atrium of the business building and take
turns staffing it for the duration of the computer clock season, which is four months.
Twenty-five years of experience have revealed that demand varies depending on the
month of the season. Customer demand in the first month can be described as 20-p1, in
the second month as 20-1.4p2, in the third month 20-1.8p3, and in the fourth month
20-2.2p4.
The components needed to produce a computer clock cost twenty-five cents. What
should the price of the computer clocks be in the first month of the selling season?
A) $5.68
B) $7.27
C) $10.13
D) $14.52
An online book store has a distinct disadvantage over a traditional model in the area of
A) Product variety
B) Transportation
C) Product availability
D) Flexible pricing
Supply chain responsiveness includes the ability to do which of the following?
A) Handle supply uncertainty
B) Understand customers and supply chain uncertainty
C) Match supply chain responsiveness with the implied uncertainty of demand
D) Ensure that all functional strategies within the supply chain support the supply
chain’s level of responsiveness
The most important operational decision related to transportation in a supply chain is
A) minimizing cost of transportation.
B) maximizing profitability of the supply chain.
C) reducing the level of cycle inventory.
D) the routing and scheduling of deliveries.
Transforming forecasts into plans of activity to satisfy the projected demand is known
as
A) supply chain coordination.
B) forecasting.
C) aggregate planning.
D) revenue management.
The lack of information sharing between the retailer and manufacturer
A) improves supply chain coordination.
B) minimizes the fluctuation in manufacturer orders.
C) leads to a large fluctuation in manufacturer orders.
D) leads to smaller fluctuations in suppliers’ orders.
The traditional fundraiser for the student chapter of APICS is pint mason jars filled with
a tangy barbecue sauce that the club sponsor whips up in his kitchen. Club officers set
up a card table in the atrium of the business building and take turns staffing it for the
duration of the barbecue season, which is four months. Eighteen sad years of experience
have revealed that demand varies depending on the month of the season. Customer
demand in the first month can be described as 400-p1, in the second month as
400-1.4p2, in the third month 400-1.8p3, and in the fourth month 400-2.2p4.
What is the expected revenue if the student APICS chapter uses dynamic pricing?
A) $83,975.47
B) $84,349.06
C) $84,719.84
D) $85,209.84
Which of the following would be a characteristic of a facility with little excess
capacity?
A) Allows a facility to be very flexible and to respond to wide swings in the demands
placed on it
B) Costs money and therefore can decrease efficiency
C) Requires proximity to customers and the rest of the network
D) Will likely be more efficient per unit of product it produces
A(n) ________ in supply uncertainty can help ________ safety inventory required
without hurting product availability.
A) reduction, increase
B) increase, reduce
C) reduction, reduce
D) reduction, cancel
The advantage of maintaining enough manufacturing capacity to meet demand in any
period is
A) very low inventory costs because inventory needs to be carried from period to
period.
B) very low inventory costs because no inventory needs to be carried from period to
period.
C) very high inventory costs because no inventory needs to be carried from period to
period.
D) very high inventory costs because expensive capacity would go unused during most
months when demand was lower.
Serving a high density of customers at a short distance is best done using
A) an LTL carrier.
B) a cross dock distribution center with milk runs.
C) a package carrier.
D) a private fleet with milk runs.
Economies of scale are illustrated by
A) a company declaring that they will not have sales, but will maintain very low prices
all the time.
B) the price of a taxi ride service increasing after 2 a.m.
C) a supplier using a third party logistics firm.
D) a supplier waiting until enough demand has built up to send a full truckload
shipment to their customer.
Advanced planning systems for aggregate planning rely heavily on ________ to deliver
their full potential.
A) forecasting
B) the supply chain
C) constraints
D) data accuracy
Describe managerial levers to increase profitability within a supply chain.
Weekly demand for 12″ hot dogs at Mutt’s Amazing Dogs is normally distributed with a
mean of 2850 and a standard deviation of 425. The store manager continuously
monitors inventory and currently orders 500 hot dogs each time the inventory drops to
6000 frames. The manufacturer currently takes two weeks to fill an order. How much
safety inventory does the store carry?
Sketch the generic value chain for a company and briefly describe the contributions of
each of its elements.
List and define the six major drivers of supply chain performance.
Discuss the relationship between transportation strategy and competitive strategy.
Explain how tailored postponement can improve profitability.
What are some metrics that can be used to measure sustainability for a supply chain?
Historical demand for Peeps is as displayed in the table.
Develop forecasts for June through October using these techniques: moving average of
two period, simple exponential smoothing with an alpha of 0.8, and Holt’s method. For
the exponential smoothing model assume that the forecast for May is the actual demand
for May. Comment on the use of these three methods to generate a forecast in this
situation.
What is the bullwhip effect and how does it relate to lack of coordination in the supply
chain?