Companies in a particular supply chain can work together to eliminate costs from the supply chain. In many cases, these cost savings are not shared evenly among the companies in the supply chain. Using research resources on the Web or in your library, identify an industry in which savings are not shared equally. In two or three paragraphs, explain why some supply chain participants in your chosen industry can obtain more benefit than others from cost reductions in the supply chain.
Q. 2A number of standard-setting organizations offer memberships to business firms. You are working for Grace Henry, chief information officer (CIO) of Flex-Electric, a midsize company that manufactures components for electronic medical and laboratory instruments. Flex-Electric uses EDI to process transactions with both its vendors (purchases) and customers (sales). The company is also exploring ways in which it might use RFID tags to track its inventories. Grace asks you to learn more about the international supply chain standard setting organization, GS1. Prepare a memo to Grace of about 300 words in which you outline the purposes of the organization and identify how it might be useful to Flex-Electric. In your memo, identify at least one other standard-setting organization that might be useful to Flex-Electrics RFID tag initiative.
Q. 3Internet access from mobile devices (especially smartphones and tablets) has greatly improved the work environment of long-distance truck drivers in recent years. Using your favorite search engine, identify at least three apps that a trucker might use to do two or more of the following: obtain routing information, manage fuel consumption, find truck stops or truck-friendly rest areas, record what they have hauled and where they have hauled it, track required permits, locate Department of Transportation weigh stations, maintain electronic log books, or find potential loads and place bids to carry them. For each app you identify, write a paragraph that explains what the app does, how much it costs, and on what type of devices it runs.
Q. 4You have just started work as an intern in the purchasing department of Westridge Systems, a manufacturer of electronic control systems for manufacturing assembly lines. You do not know much about electronic equipment, but your supervisor has given you the task of identifying vendors who sell oscilloscopes that interface with personal computers. Use the ThomasNet Web site to locate at least three vendors who offer such a product. For each company, determine whether it offers products for sale on a Web site that discloses prices and details about the products specifications. Summarize what you have learned from your research about how each vendor sells its oscilloscopes online in a report of approximately 150 words.
Q. 5Using your library or your favorite search engine, identify the main reason a large transportation company might want to use p-cards for its MRO spending. Summarize your findings in two or three paragraphs.
Q. 6Some business and political leaders argue that offshoring is dangerous because it can move jobs from developed countries to less-developed countries. Others argue that although offshoring might displace workers in the short run, in the longer term, everyone benefits by having developing economies create new industries, products, and markets for products and services that create high-level service and managerial jobs in the developed world. In recent years, some economists have argued that offshoring today is having a negative impact on service and professional employment in highly developed countries. Using resources in your library or online, present two arguments for and two arguments against a U.S. company offshoring the management of its customer relationships to technical and managerial personnel in a less developed country.
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