Exam 13: Supply Chain Logistic Networks

Table 13.3 Durham Toy, Inc. has five distribution centers at the location coordinates given as follows. The monthly demand at each center is also given. -Use the information in Table 13.3. If the plant is located at the center of gravity, what is the load-distance score, assuming rectilinear distance?

Table 13.9 Sagebrush Company has four warehouses (A, B, C, and D) that require monthly shipments of 250, 200, 300, and 200 units per month, respectively. Its three plants (1, 2, and 3) have monthly capacities of 300, 400, and 250, respectively. Plant capacities, warehouse needs and shipping costs (in $) are shown in the following initial transportation method tableau. For example, the shipping cost from Plant 1 to Warehouse A is $17 per unit. -Use the information in Table 13.9. Which of these statements regarding the problem is correct?

Repeated onsite expansion ultimately leads to diseconomies of scale.

Table 13.7 Nuts-and-Bolts, Inc. wishes to find the best location for a plant that will satisfy customer demand in the following five areas. -Use the information in Table 13.7. If the plant is located at the coordinates (5, 5), what is the total load-distance score, assuming rectilinear distance?

Table 13.5 Paul's Pretzels manufactures and distributes gourmet pretzels for limited retail sales. Paul has determined the "demand points" and their relative locations as follows: -Use the information in Table 13.5. If Paul desires to locate a manufacturing facility at the center of gravity, what would be the x and y coordinates of the facility?

Which of the following location factors was not found to dominate location decisions for new U.S. manufacturing plants?

Five sources exist for the civet cat coffee favored by True coffee connoisseurs. The four processing centers for these coffee beans are scattered about the country, each with a different level of demand. The five sources all face different cost structures for transporting their beans, the prices in the table reflect a dollar cost per 50 pound bag of coffee beans. The total amounts supplied by each source and demanded by each destination are also shown in the table, and as luck would have it, the total supply equals the total demand. What is the optimal shipping scheme such that the total transportation cost is minimized?

The Dhaba Restaurant wishes to locate a new facility. Based on the following subjective criteria, where should the new facility be located? (Very good = 5, Good = 4, Fair = 3, Poor = 2, and Very poor = 1)

One disadvantage of centralized placement is increased shipping costs from the distribution center to the customer.

Consider any two factors that a service operation assigns the greatest weight when making a location decision. Using those two factors, identify one local service operation that likely used one of those factors as their top priority and a different service operation that likely used the other of your two factors as their dominant criterion. Briefly describe the business and justify your assignment of each factor as the overriding concern.

Table 13.3 Durham Toy, Inc. has five distribution centers at the location coordinates given as follows. The monthly demand at each center is also given. -Consider the location of four distribution centers, A, B, C, and D, with the following location coordinates and shipping requirements per week. Management is considering locating a new plant at the site of one of the four distribution centers. What is the load-distance score if the plant is located at distribution center A? (Use rectilinear distance.)

The transportation method is customarily used to minimize transportation costs between sources of supply and sinks of demand. How could this model be used in other areas of operations management to maximize profit? Provide examples.

What are the dominant factors that a manufacturing firm must consider when making a location decision?

Widgets, Inc. wishes to locate two new manufacturing facilities. Based on the following subjective criteria, where should the new facilities be located? (Excellent = 5, Very good = 4, Good = 3, Fair = 2, Poor = 1)

If the customer must be physically present at the process, location is an important issue.

Table 13.8 An operations manager has narrowed down the search for a new plant for Tim! to three locations. Fixed and variable costs follow. -Excel Products is planning a new warehouse to serve the Southeast. Locations A, B, and C are under consideration. Fixed and variable costs follow. For what range of volume is each location the best?

As legend has it, Buddhist monks trained monkeys to deftly gather the youngest leaves from the tops of wild tea trees. The monkey-harvested leaves are unbroken and evenly sized to create the finest oolong tea in the world. There are five plantations that use monkeys for this task and four tea centers where the leaves must be shipped. The cost to send a kilogram of leaves from each plantation to each tea center is shown in the table. Note that supply equals demand in this scenario. What is the optimal shipping scheme such that the total transportation cost is minimized?

A favorable labor climate might include all of the following except:

The center of gravity method considers a greater number of location factors than the break-even analysis.

Table 13.2 A single facility is needed to meet the demands of four markets. The locations and demands of these four markets are shown below. -Use the information from Table 13.2. What are the x and y coordinates for the center of gravity?