【正文】 cilityh. tax effects 5. All of the following are ponents of inventory decisions e. cycle inventory.f. safety inventory.g. seasonal inventory.h. sourcing.6. Which of the following are obstacles to achieving strategic fit?f. Increasing variety of productsg. Decreasing product lifecyclesh. Increasingly demanding customersi. Fragmentation of supply chain ownershipj. Difficulty executing new strategiesk. GlobalizationEssay/Problems1. List and define the four major drivers of supply chain performance.Answer: Facilities are the places in the supply chain network where product is stored, assembled, or fabricated. The two major types of facilities are production sites and storage sites.Inventory is all raw materials, work in process, and finished goods within a supply chain. Inventory is an important supply chain driver because changing inventory policies can dramatically alter the supply chain’s efficiency and responsiveness.Transportation entails moving inventory from point to point in the supply chain. Transportation can take the form of many binations of modes and routes.Information consists of data and analysis concerning facilities, inventory, transportation, and customers throughout the supply chain. Information is potentially the biggest driver of performance in the supply chain as it directly affects each of the other drivers.2. Explain the basic tradeoff between responsiveness and efficiency for each of the major drivers of supply chain performance.Answer: The fundamental tradeoff when making facilities decisions is between the cost of the number, location, and type of facilities (efficiency) and the level of responsiveness that these facilities provide the pany’s customers.The fundamental tradeoff when making inventory decisions is between responsiveness and efficiency. Increasing inventory will generally make the supply chain more responsive to the customer. This choice, however, es at a cost as the added inventory decreases efficiency. Therefore, a supply chain manager can use inventory as one of the drivers for reaching the level of responsiveness and efficiency the petitive strategy targets.The fundamental tradeoff for transportation is between the cost of transporting a given product (efficiency) and the speed with which that product is transported (responsiveness). The transportation choice influences other drivers such as inventory and facilities. When supply chain managers think about making transportation decisions, they frame the decision in terms of this tradeoff.Good information systems can help a firm improve both its responsiveness and efficiency. The information driver is used to improve the performance of other drivers and the use of information is based on the strategic position the other drivers support. Accurate information can help a firm improve efficiency by decreasing inventory and transportation costs. Accurate information can improve responsiveness by helping a supply chain better match supply and demand.3. Explain the role of each of the major drivers of supply chain performance.Answer: Facilities are the where of the supply chain if we think of inventory as what is being passed along the supply chain and transportation as how it is passed along. They are the locations to or from which the inventory is transported. Within a facility, inventory is either processed or transformed into another state (manufacturing) or it is stored before being shipped to the next stage (warehousing).Inventory exists in the supply chain because of a mismatch between supply and demand. An important role that inventory plays in the supply chain is to increase the amount of demand that can be satisfied by having product ready and available when the customer wants it. Another significant role inventory plays is to reduce cost by exploiting any economies of scale that may exist during both production and distribution. Inventory is spread throughout the supply chain from raw materials to work in process to finished goods that suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers hold.Inventory is a major source of cost in a supply chain and it has a huge impact on responsiveness. The location and quantity of inventory can move the supply chain from one end of the responsiveness spectrum to the other. Inventory also has a significant impact on the material flow time in a supply chain. Material flow time is the time that elapses between the point at which Another important area where inventory has a significant impact is throughput. Inventory and flow time are synonymous in a supply chain. Managers should use actions that lower the amount of inventory needed without increasing cost or reducing responsiveness, because reduced flow time can be a significant advantage in a supply chain.Transportation moves product between different stages in a supply chain. Like the other supply chain drivers, transportation has a large impact on both responsiveness and efficiency. Faster transportation, whether in the form of different modes of transportation or different amounts being transported, allows a supply chain to be more responsive but reduces its efficiency. The type of transportation a pany uses also affects the inventory and facility locations in the supply chain. Information could be overlooked as a major supply chain driver because it does not have a physical presence. Information, however, deeply affects every part of the supply chain. Its impact is easy to underestimate as information affects a supply chain in many different ways. Information serves as the connection between the supply chain’s various stages, allowing them to coordinate and bring about many of the benefits of maximizing total supply chain profitability. Information is also crucial to the daily operations of each stage in a supply chain. For instance, a production scheduling system uses information on demand to create a sched