Information Systems homework help.  
General Instructions (applicable to all problems)

  • All work on examination must be completely your own, except for research that must be properly attributed and cited. You must not receive any help from anyone or give any help to anyone while doing this examination.
  • Be sure to use and document a structured problem-solving approach, and create tables, diagrams, and graphs where appropriate. In particular, the plan or approach to solve the problem must clearly and explicitly document all steps and equations used.

Reading (0.5 hours)

Review your solution to the midterm. Correct all mistakes and omissions on your midterm. You will need some of the results from midterm in the problems below. On each problem below, if you use the results from midterm, then clearly state which results are been used and the numerical values.

Problem 1: Planning (0.5 hours, 5 points)

Create a plan and time-schedule for completing the final exam. Use an appropriate table (see Problem 7 below) to track how well you execute your schedule and make notes on any obstacles and problems you encounter.

Problem 2: SCM Design/Analysis Framework (1.0 hour, 10 points)

You have been hired as a consultant by Poly (formerly Plantronics), a medium-sized company “headquartered” in Santa Cruz, which is the world leader in communication head-sets. You have been asked to design their supply chain all the way from “high-level” concerns (e.g., competitive strategy, “alignment”), through analysis/procedures (e.g., inventory management models) to the actual integrated software that will be used to manage their Supply Chain.
Before you start, Poly has asked you to do the following:

  1. Describe the high-level framework (process) for performing supply chain management from strategy to planning to operations for a typical high-tech product.
  2. Create appropriate diagrams to help them visualize the structure of your framework and associated procedures.

Problem 3: Optimal Lot Size and Cycle Inventory for Specialty Packaging Company (SPC) (0.5 hours, 10 points)

If, in Problem 4 of the midterm, the holding cost h = 0.20 (rather than h = 0.15), what is optimal lot size and the required cycle inventory for polystyrene resin? Use these new numerical values in the problems below.

Problem 4: Safety Inventory for Polystyrene Resin at SPC (1 hour, 20 points)

Use the results from Problem 3 for all calculations.
 
Answer the following questions about safety inventory for polystyrene resin at SPC:

  1. Why should SPC have a safety inventory? What is the average weekly demand for black plastic (and therefore polystyrene resin) for 2007? If the coefficient of variation (cv) for black plastic is 0.25, what is the standard deviation in the weekly demand?
  2. The polystyrene supplier has a lead-time of 2 weeks. SPC would like its Cycle Service Level (CSL) to be 0.95. Determine the necessary safety inventory (safety stock) level for polystyrene resin for a continuous replenishment policy. What is the Re-order Point (ROP)? What is the fill rate? What is the average inventory? What is the average flow time?
  3. Create a diagram that shows all the relevant quantities from part (b).
  4. In general, is the demand during the lead-time greater than or less than the lot size? Explain your answer with the help of the diagram from part (c).

Problem 5: Sourcing for SPC (0.5-1.0 hour for reading; 0.5-1 hour to solve the problem; 25 points)

Read the first four sections on Sourcing Decisions in a Supply Chainfrom the textbook (Sections 14.1-14.4 Third Edition/Fourth Edition). Use the results from Problem 3 for all calculations.
 
Julie Williams needs to make a choice between the following 2 suppliers of polystyrene resin:

  • Supplier 1: unit cost = $20 per unit (1 unit =1000lb.); average lead time= 1 week; standard deviation of lead time = 0.5 week; Batch or lot size =3000 units
  • Supplier 2: unit cost = $15 per unit (1 unit =1000lb.); average lead time= 2 weeks; standard deviation of lead time = 1 week; Batch or lot size = 5000 units

 
Answer the following questions:

  1. Which supplier should Julie choose, based on minimizing total cost, if her inventory holding cost h = 0.20 and her desired target CSL = 95%?
  2. Create a supplier scorecard that Julie can use to compare different suppliers. (Hint: Use the Utility Function approach developed in CSE 171A/270A for choosing between alternatives, as well as ideas from the text.)

Problem 6: Transportation Design for SPC (1-1.5 hours; 25 points)

Read the section on Trade-offs in Transportation designfrom the textbook (Section 13.5 in Third Edition/Fourth Edition)
 
Answer the following questions about transportation design for transporting polystyrene resin (PR) from the PR supplier to SPC:

  1. Create the appropriate table in Excel for comparing rail versus truck delivery options for modes of transportation.
  2. Use the table from (a) to select the optimal mode of transportation. Provide quantitative evidence to support your selection. (Make the appropriate assumptions about transportation and other costs).

Problem 7: Execution of Your Plan (0.5 hours, 5 points)

Use a table to compare your plan from Problem 1 (column 1) with its execution (column 2). Indicate the reasons for the difference between the plan and its execution (column 3).
Add additional columns to capture recommendations for improved execution of your plans in the future. Write down three key lessons you learned in this course.

(CSE 270B only) Problem 8: Pricing (2 hours for reading; 0.5 hours to solve the problem; 10 points)

Read the first two sections on Pricing and Revenue Management in a Supply Chain from the textbook (Sections 15.1, 15.2 in Third Edition/Fourth Edition).
 
Summarize the key lessons learned from Section 2. Create a process for pricing a product for multiple customer segments. (While CSE 171B students are encouraged to do this problem, but they will NOT receive extra credit for it.)

Extra Credit (5 possible points): Project SCM Software Application

  • Apply the SCM software developed in your group project to solve all the quantitative problems on the Midterm and Final Exams. What was your contribution to the development of the SCM software?
  • Explain how the company from your group project could use the SCM software to manage their supply chain. You may want to start with the supply chain network (diagram) from your project to describe the information inputs and outputs for the SCM software.
  • Develop an IT architecture (networks, databases, servers, etc.) for your SCM software to manage the information (driver) for your supply chain. How would you use this IT system to minimize the bull-whip effect?

Information Systems homework help