Q. Draw a schematic diagram of company’s supply chain logistics structure (Recall Direct, Echelon, Combined structures as examples from your readings).
Q. What are major criteria considered while selecting supply chain partners (both upstream and downstream partners)
Q. An overview of company’s facility locations (including plants/factories and warehouses).
Identify the reasons/justifications for selecting these locations.
Q. A simple flow diagram of material flow WITHIN a factory/plant. Q. What are key manufacturing and warehouse capacity limitations? Also identify storage and handling facilities being used within factories/plants. Q. How are production planning and scheduling decisions made?
Q. What is the company’s inventory policy?
1. What to purchase/source and what to produce in-house (you may take items included in company’s most common BOMs.) 2. When to purchase/source or produce (Trigger points for inventories, Reorder points for different items above) 3. How much quantities (of the above).
Discuss in terms of EOQs
Q. what factors more critically contribute to the company’s inventory carrying cost? (Possible examples: Capital, Taxes, Insurance, Obsolescence, Storage etc)
Q. Discuss and discover if the managers use any formal forecasting method for their demand forecasts. Present an analysis showing any benefits if that can be obtained by using such a technique (Try to get some data for 2,3 months and apply any relevant forecasting technique)
The Essay on Inventory Management 3
Companies often suffer because they are unable to meet demands due to a shortage of inventory or from large, expensive inventory maintenance costs. Problems occur due to uncertainties and lack of coordination between the company and its suppliers, partners and customers. Demand can be influenced by prices, competition, weather, fashion trend, technological developments which leads to uncertainties ...
Q. Get an overview of the information systems used by the company to support its supply chain logistics (Ref: any use of ERP/MRP systems or customized planning software etc)
Q. For transportation, how are mode and carrier choice decisions made for each shipment?
Q. What types of legal documents/ compliance certificates are involved in smooth running of supply chain logistics operations? (if any)
