Management Coursework: Supply Chain Management

Exam 1
Student's Name
PENN STATE UNIVERSITY ABINGTON
FALL 2020
Subject: Supply Chain Management Topic: Exam I
Instructor: Dr. Joseph JangDue Date: 9/23/2020 @12:00 Midnight
PLEASE ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS. EACH IS WORTH 10 POINTS.
1a. Compare and contrast anticipatory and responsive business models. Why has responsiveness become popular in supply chain strategy and collaboration?
Anticipatory and responsive business models are geared towards the fulfillment of consumers' needs. The anticipatory business model entails forecasting or predicting the products that customers will need. The supplies produce those products after they predict base on the market. Anticipatory Logistics represents an exchange of information through technologies to determine reliable information regarding the anticipated customer's needs. It allows the suppliers to provide adequate service production to meets clients' expectations and needs. Such precision, forecast, or anticipation is achieved via data analysis of customer product or service searches, shopping narratives, and wish-lists, among others. The manufacturer or suppliers produces products by leveraging on market forecasts, distributors, and retailers' inventories. Most of the work in an Anticipatory Model directly links to the anticipation of future events, making the model highly risky for businesses. Anticipatory business models are likely to go wrong in some cases because there is uncertainty regarding products to produce or what the customer demands will be in the future. As a result, anticipatory business models in the supply chain may cause waste and losses.
However, a responsive business model is a solution to the uncertainty found in anticipatory business models. The responsive business model facilitates the rapid exchange and harmonization of the information between the stakeholders in the supply chain. The Responsive Business Model does not rely on forecasts, but it exploits planning, and data exchange amongst firms within the supply chain systems. It has a different sequence of events; for instance, it has selling activity as the first task instead of the anticipatory business model, which has forecasting as the starting activity.
The responsive business model is gaining popularity because it is a more customized and flexible model.the products can be customized at any given time to meet customers' needs. For example, tastes and sizes of the products can be altered to rhyme with clients' needs. This observation contrasts with the anticipatory business model of supply where may have limited freedom of choice regarding a product.
b. Describe one of the consumer disruptors, and one of the technology disruptors will impact supply chain design and strategy.
Pandemics like Coronavirus disease constitute critical disruptors in supply chains. Supply and logistical activities entail the mobility of products locally, nationally, and globally. When the COVID-19 disaster strike, the mobility of people and goods were significantly restricted, and this impacted negatively on the movement of goods from one place to another, which disrupted any form of product supply mode, or strategy.
2a. Discuss how blockchain and tracking systems provide value to a firm's customers.
The current supply chain and the logistic system is sophisticated. It is marked by multiple layers of operations and parties, making it challenging to track all the processes. The emerging technologies like blockchain are well-positioned to bring more clarity and proper tracking within the supply chain systems. The integration of blockchain will lead to increased supply chain transparency, enhanced traceability, and reduced administrative costs. Blockchain technologies, for example, bitcoin, facilitate record-keeping and keeping track of intricate interactions in price, quality, certifications, location, and dates in the supply chain cascade. Thus, clients can enjoy more benefits by using such technologies, including favorable pricing and enhanced quality. Besides, blockchain technologies would help reduce issues of fraud and eliminate counterfeit goods. The enhanced transparency, which is enabled by blockchain technology, increases confidence among the customers or consumers of products.
b. Discuss how supply chain information systems can provide a competitive advantage for the firm.
Supply chain information systems provide indispensable data for firms. It helps the firm to know the precise customer needs: this will allow firms to produce and supply products and services that meet are customized according to the user's needs. This customer-centered practice will ensure that firms limit the possibility of wastes and losses associated with products that do not meet market requirements. The knowledge of the supply chain system is crucial because it enables the firm s to exploit gaps and niches within the supply system to their advantage through proper forecasts and anticipations. Thus, the information on the supply chain gives a market advantage to firms over their competitors.
3. Discuss the fundamental similarities and differences between procurement, manufacturing support, and customer accommodation performance cycle as they relate to logistical control.
Procurement is the process of obtaining goods or services, more often for business purposes. Procurement refers to the final act of purchasing, but it encompasses all processing that leads to purchasing decisions. Thus, procurement is fundamentally a process that entails finding and agreeing on specific terms in the context of acquainting goods and services from external sources, as implemented via tendering or bidding. Manufacturing support is an essential component of procurement because the manufacturer or the firm establishes a relationship with an external party, often called the third party, to seek specialized services from a third party for its specific manufacturing processes. Thus, in the logistical cycle, it can be argued that procurement is a larger holistic system while manufacturing support is an example of a procurement subset, which mainly focuses on specialized knowledge, skills, and experiences, that would support specific manufacturing processes in the company. Customer accommodation in logistical control refers to transferring finished products from the supplier or manufacturer to the consumer. Manufacturing support focuses on managing work-in-process inventory as it moves between stages of manufacturing. At the same time, procurement describes purchasing and organizing the inbound movement of materials, parts, or finished inventory from suppliers and distributors into manufacturing plants, warehouses, or retail stores. The pr...