Posted: November 7th, 2015

BUSINESS AND MATHS SOLUTIONS NEED.

1 You must provide references for any use of material or data that is not your own. You may not use “private” references (e.g., “My friend at Amazon told me their logistics costs are $X billion”). Start each question on a fresh page. All answers must be typewritten with at least 1.5 spacing and font size 12. Figures (if used) may be hand drawn but must be clear and legible in the submitted pdfs. Write your name in CAPITALS on each sheet. Do not submit EXCEL sheets. Only pdfs are acceptable. Ensure that all font sizes are 12 or above! (i.e., at Least as big as the font on this line) All formulate used should be shown. State all assumptions clearly. Define all variables and parameters used. Short explanations of your answer and reasoning process must be given. Units must be stated in all numerical answers. Neatness and legibility will be rewarded! Good Luck! 2 Q.1 (40 points; Time: 2—3 hours) What are some of the key challenges in transportation and logistics that Supply Chain leaders currently face or will face in the near future? (Identify at least five (5) and explain each) How would you go about preparing for each of the above challenges? (For each, provide at least 3 concrete actions that a company could take or examples of what companies are doing) (Limit your answer to 2—3 pages. You can use clear bullet points instead of detailed sentences if you like. Provide references for all the external material you use in your answer) Q.2 (40 points; Time 2—3 hours) Amazon is rapidly expanding in Europe. As of November 2013, Amazon had distribution centers in the top five markets (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain) as shown below. Ignore Italy for this question. Country Population (Millions) Total E Commerce Revenue in 2012 (Bil. Euro) E commerce growth in 2012 Number of Amazon Distn Centers Number of Amazon Distn Centers Built after 2008 Amazon Distn Centers Total Square Meters Germany 81 45 +27% 9 6 850,000 UK 62 90 +14% 8 6 470,000 France 65 46 +22% 4 4 270,000 Spain 47 11 +20% 1 1 30,000 Sources: European Multichannel and Online Trade Association, MWPVL International Supply Chain Consulting, Wikipedia Amazon is evaluating alternative locations for new distribution centers in Spain. You are the planning director for Amazon Europe. (A). Identify at least ten key factors that will be driving your recommendation for these new distribution centers in Spain (the factor, how you will collect the data required, the probability of accuracy of the data, and the priority for this factor. Priorities are of Type 1 – absolutely key in the decision making; Type 2 – very important; Type 3 – nice to know but not a key driver. As an example a couple of factors are listed below (do not reuse them – you will not get points for repetition!) Factor Data Collection Prob of accuracy Priority Other Notes Demand History for 2011 and 2012 50% (historical demand forecast accuracy) 2 (Ideally demand but for overall e commerce E commerce is growing rapidly – no real history and growth forecasts 3 demand, population is a good substitute) are uncertain Distance between potential DCs and demand locations Spanish road map files 99% — highly accurate, unlikely to have major new highway construction 1 Use top 50 population centers as surrogate for demand locations (B) Briefly (short sentences or bullet points) list the key steps of the process you will go through in order to make this decision on the number and location of the Spanish Distribution Centers for Amazon. FOR THIS ENTIRE QUESTION YOU MUST COLLECT ALL THE DATA YOU USE FROM PUBLISHED SOURCES AND REFERENCE THE SOURCES IN YOUR ANSWER. YOU MAY NOT CONTACT ANY INDIVIDUAL (IN ANY COMPANY, ORGANIZATION OR CAPACITY) TO REQUEST DATA. Q.3 (30 points) (1—2 hours) You are in charge of Logistics for GH Ltd. GH is a large manufacturing company in Denmark that produces plastic bottles and packaging for the pharmaceutical industry. Last night your Blackberry died from unnatural causes and you arrived this morning at work at 8 am to find the following 5 emails (among 25 other not so important ones) in your in—box. 1) From Customs Broker (midnight): A container is stopped in the harbour at Hamburg with a shipment of rare earth minerals from China because the paperwork you filed isn’t in order. (Note: These minerals are scheduled to be used in new experimental packaging for one of your largest customers who will be arriving in three days to test the packaging.) 2) From Manufacturing Manager(6am): Where in the hell is that damn premium freight of Resin 59G??? We shut down Line 4 at noon if it doesn’t get here !!!! 3) From Crisis Center(7am): There is a call for a general strike in Germany tomorrow with potential blockading of major highways and rail stoppages. There are currently 100 trucks with material inbound to GH and 75 outbound shipments on rail and truck scheduled to be passing through Germany tomorrow. 4) From Quality Manager(7:30am): Where are you? Stopped by your office after special VP Quality mtg at 7. She has decided to hold all production from yesterday for re—inspection after further analysis confirmed potential contamination in the sample bottles. Where can I hold the 1000+ pallets and where can I locate the re—inspection team? 5) From CFO’s assistant(8:00am): We need the logistics numbers for the planned warehouse in Amsterdam. When can we expect them? How do you go about addressing these? In what order? What tasks do you assign to the 4 people on your staff? What additional information do you request? How do you follow—up? [Note: I’m looking for prioritization, concise, specific actions, assignment of responsibility and follow—up. Just a few bullet points and no more than 1—2 pages in total]