Week 12/ Chapters 8 & 9 7
5. How does supply chain visibility help an organization react to external events?
Supply chain visibility refers to the ability to track products as they move through the supply chain but also to foresee external events. Being able to see where a shipment is at any given time can be of tremendous help, especially when using JIT methods or when maintaining low inventory levels. For example, knowing where a shipment is and being able to expedite it can help in not losing a sale or help in taking away a sale from a competitor. Further, knowing where a supplier’s facilities are located can help to anticipate and react to issues arising from adverse weather conditions, natural disasters, or political issues
6. Contrast supply chain effectiveness and supply chain efficiency.
Supply chain efficiency is the extent to which a company’s supply chain is focusing on minimizing procurement, production, and transportation costs, sometimes by sacrificing excellent customer service. In contrast, supply chain effectiveness is the extent to which a company’s supply chain is focusing on maximizing customer service regardless of procurement, production, and transportation costs.
7. What is XML, and how does it impact SCM?
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a data presentation standard first specified by the World Wide Web Consortium, an international consortium of companies whose purpose is to develop open standards for the Web. Companies can use XML to create an application for doing Web-based ordering, for checking on and managing inventory, for signaling to a supplier that more parts are needed, for alerting a third-party logistics company that a delivery is needed, and so on. All these various applications can work together using the common language of XML.
8.What is RFID, and how does it impact SCM?
RFID is the use of the electromagnetic energy to transmit information between a reader (transceiver) and a processing device, or RFID tag. RFID systems offer advantages over standard bar code technologies in that RFID eliminates the need for line-of-sight reading. RFID also does not require time-consuming hand scanning, and RFID information is readable regardless of the entity’s position or whether the tag is plainly visible. RFID tags can also contain more information than bar codes. Further, a company can program any information that it wants or need onto an RFID tag, enabling a vast array of potential uses. Thus, it is possible to retrieve information about an entity’s version, origin, location, maintenance history, and other important information and to manipulate that information on the tag. RFID scanning can also be done at greater distances than can bar code scanning.
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