ANSWERS
What is Supply Chain? - ANS consists 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? - ANS managing the production of goods and services
What is Supply Chain Management? - ANS deals 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? - ANS deals with the sourcing,
production and distribution of the product or service along with managing the relationships
with supply chain partners
What is Sourcing? - ANS works with manufacturing and service suppliers of the firm and is
part of the larger definition of operations and supply chain management
What is Distribution? - ANS concerned with transporting materials into operations and taking
the output of operations to the ultimate customer
What is Productivity? - ANS - the amount of output form a given amount of inputs or vice
versa
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,- output divided by inputs, all in constant dollars
- productivity = output / (capital + labor)
Three aspects of Operations and Supply Chain Management - ANS 1. Decisions
2. Function
3. Process
Five Major Decision Responsibilities - ANS process, quality, capacity, inventory, and supply
chain
4 Ps of Marketing - ANS Product, Price, Place, Promotion
What is Analytics? - ANS the 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 - ANS 1. 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? - ANS hiring diverse workforce, ethical practices,
providing equal opportunity, and safe working conditions
What is Economic Sustainability? - ANS making a sufficient profit for firm survival into the
future
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, Operations Strategy - ANS is 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? - ANS defines the business that the company is pursuing
What is Business Strategy? - ANS follows from the corporate strategy and defines how each
particular business will compete
3 Generic Business Strategies - ANS Differentiation: 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 - ANS Cost: 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? - ANS determine how the operations objectives will be
achieved
What is a Product Imitator (low cost) Business Strategy? - ANS typical of a mature, price-
sensitive market with a standardized product or service
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