The Winfield Distributing Company has maintained

Question 1

The Winfield Distributing Company has maintained an 80% service level policy for inventory of string trimmers. Mean demand during lead time is 170 trimmers, and the standard deviation during lead time is 60 trimmers. The annual cost of carrying one trimmer in inventory is $6. The area sales people have recently told Winfield's management that they could expect a $400 improvement in profit (based on current figures of cost per trimmer) if the service level were increased to 99%. Is it worthwhile for Winfield to make this change?

Your response should be at least 200 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.

Question 2

How are outsourcing and vertical integration related? Can a single firm successfully do both?

Your response should be at least 200 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.

Question 3

In some inventory models, the optimal behavior occurs where ordering costs and carrying costs are equal to one another. Provide an example of a model where this rule does not hold; explain how the model's results are optimal anyway.

Your response should be at least 200 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.

Question 4

As the corporate and operations management strategies vary from low cost to response to differentiation, how does this impact the criteria used for selecting suppliers?

Your response should be at least 200 words in length. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.