Facility Location Decisions Overview
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Questions and Answers

What is the primary objective of facility location decisions?

To maximize the benefit of the location to the firm.

What are the two main types of costs affected by facility location decisions?

Fixed and variable costs.

List two factors that should be considered in a Factor Rating System for location decisions.

Proximity to customers and total costs.

How does the presence of suppliers influence location decisions?

<p>Proximity to important suppliers supports lean production.</p> Signup and view all the answers

Why is it important to consider political risk in location decisions?

<p>Political risk can impact both the country of location and the host country.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What advantage do free trade zones provide in facility location decisions?

<p>They allow foreign goods to be delivered without normal customs requirements.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What does the Factor Rating Method involve when evaluating site locations?

<p>Sites are rated against factors, and points are computed to select the best location.</p> Signup and view all the answers

How does environmental regulation impact facility location decisions?

<p>It influences the suitability of a given location for certain industries.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is logistics and why is it important in supply chain management?

<p>Logistics is the art and science of obtaining, producing, and distributing materials and products in the correct places and quantities. It is crucial for controlling the movement of goods through the supply chain efficiently.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the key differences between logistics and warehouse design alternatives?

<p>Logistics focuses on the movement and distribution of goods, while warehouse design deals with the layout and organization of storage facilities to optimize space and handling. Logistics is about the flow, whereas warehouse design is about storage efficiency.</p> Signup and view all the answers

How do logistics-driven location decisions impact supply chain efficiency?

<p>Logistics-driven location decisions influence the proximity of facilities to markets and suppliers, affecting transportation costs and delivery times. Better location choices enhance overall supply chain responsiveness.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What factors should be considered when choosing a transportation mode?

<p>Factors include speed, cost, capacity, and the nature of the goods being transported. The right mode balances these trade-offs to meet specific logistics needs efficiently.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the advantages of intermodal transportation?

<p>Intermodal transportation offers flexibility and convenience by using multiple transport modes under one service provider, which can reduce costs. It enables efficient shipping of large volumes across varied distances.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the role of Third Party Logistics (3PL) in modern supply chains?

<p>3PLs manage logistics functions from purchasing to distribution, providing services such as shipment tracking and risk reduction. They help businesses outsource logistics to focus on their core operations.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What considerations must businesses evaluate when deciding to insource or outsource logistics?

<p>Businesses should evaluate cost, control, quality of service, and flexibility in operations. The decision impacts overall supply chain effectiveness and responsiveness.</p> Signup and view all the answers

How do cost factors affect logistics decisions in international transportation?

<p>Cost factors like component pricing and transport expenses guide logistics decisions, with total landed cost becoming crucial for evaluating options. Businesses must balance costs with agility and speed.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the primary advantages of outsourcing in logistics?

<p>Outsourcing provides better coordination of multimodal capabilities and a deeper understanding of local and emerging markets.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What factors could lead a company to choose insourcing over outsourcing?

<p>Proprietary or security issues and the need for a stable supply chain can favor insourcing.</p> Signup and view all the answers

How does co-location enhance supply chain efficiency?

<p>Co-location allows supplier personnel to make real-time decisions to meet customer needs without needing to be consulted.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What role does data play in determining supply chain location?

<p>Data provides contextual insights that assist decision-makers in identifying optimal location strategies.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of a warehouse in a hub-and-spoke distribution model?

<p>In a hub-and-spoke model, the warehouse (hub) sorts large shipments into smaller ones for local delivery.</p> Signup and view all the answers

How does cross-docking improve inventory management in logistics?

<p>Cross-docking minimizes the need for inventory in warehouses by directly transferring goods from incoming to outgoing shipments.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What types of data sources are typically used in logistics decision-making?

<p>Syndicated data, primary research, and POS data are commonly used sources of data in logistics.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What key factors should businesses consider when locating distribution centers?

<p>Businesses should consider geographic boundaries, market demand, and logistics costs when locating distribution centers.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the significance of industry alliances in logistics?

<p>Industry alliances can provide better negotiation power and improved logistics efficiencies.</p> Signup and view all the answers

How does having a dedicated account support team benefit logistics management?

<p>A dedicated account support team improves customer relations and drives cost-saving initiatives.</p> Signup and view all the answers

Which site, A or B, has the highest total score based on major factors for site location?

<p>Site B has the highest total score of 544.</p> Signup and view all the answers

In the context of the transportation method, what is the primary objective of utilizing this method?

<p>The primary objective is to minimize shipping costs or maximize profit when transporting units to multiple destinations.</p> Signup and view all the answers

According to the centroid method, what two coordinates are essential to compute the centroid location?

<p>The essential coordinates are Cx (X coordinate) and Cy (Y coordinate).</p> Signup and view all the answers

What assumption is made in the centroid method regarding inbound and outbound transportation costs?

<p>It assumes that inbound and outbound transportation costs are equal.</p> Signup and view all the answers

Which factor has the lowest score in site location for both Site A and Site B?

<p>The water supply factor has the lowest score, with Site A scoring 4 and Site B scoring 5.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the formula for calculating the X coordinate of the centroid?

<p>The formula is $C_x = \frac{\sum d_{ix} V_i}{\sum V_i}$.</p> Signup and view all the answers

Identify the major factors that contribute to the decision for site location in this analysis.

<p>Major factors include fuels in the region, power availability, labor climate, living conditions, transport, water supply, climate, and tax policies.</p> Signup and view all the answers

How many total points did Site A receive for the labor climate factor?

<p>Site A received a total of 54 points for the labor climate factor.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What technique is used when locating single facilities based on existing facilities and goods volume?

<p>The technique is known as the centroid method.</p> Signup and view all the answers

Which site is deemed the 'Best Site' based on the criteria provided?

<p>Site B is identified as the 'Best Site'.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the formula used to compute the X-coordinate of the centroid for the given volumes and coordinates?

<p>The formula is $Cx = \frac{\sum(V_i \cdot d_{ix})}{\sum V_i}$.</p> Signup and view all the answers

How is the Y-coordinate of the centroid calculated according to the given data?

<p>The Y-coordinate is calculated using $Cy = \frac{\sum(V_i \cdot d_{iy})}{\sum V_i}$.</p> Signup and view all the answers

Given the volumes and coordinates, what would be the X-coordinate of the centroid for Buy.com?

<p>The X-coordinate is $Cx = \frac{200(30) + 100(90) + 100(130) + 200(60)}{200 + 100 + 100 + 200} = 65$.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What would be the Y-coordinate of the centroid for Buy.com based on the provided data?

<p>The Y-coordinate is $Cy = \frac{200(120) + 100(110) + 100(130) + 200(40)}{200 + 100 + 100 + 200} = 78$.</p> Signup and view all the answers

Why is the centroid method useful for positioning a new warehouse?

<p>It minimizes the total distribution costs by optimizing the location based on demand and coordinates.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What coordinates would you suggest for positioning the new warehouse to serve the four cities?

<p>The suggested coordinates for the new warehouse are approximately (65, 78).</p> Signup and view all the answers

Discuss how changing the volume of one location affects the centroid's coordinates.

<p>Increasing a location's volume will shift the centroid closer to that location's coordinates, affecting both the X and Y values.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What might be the limitations of using the centroid method for warehouse location?

<p>The centroid method assumes uniform demand distribution and does not consider transportation costs or geographical barriers.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the coordinates of the centroid for the service facilities in the given data?

<p>(66.7, 93.3)</p> Signup and view all the answers

Calculate the total volume served by Buy.com based on the given data.

<p>600</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the relationship between service facility location decision and market selection?

<p>The location decision is closely tied to the market selection decision.</p> Signup and view all the answers

Define competitive clustering in the context of service facility locations.

<p>Competitive clustering involves competitors in the same service industry locating close together to attract more customers.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is saturation marketing and how does it segment an area?

<p>Saturation marketing involves multiple facilities of the same company locating close together to segment a high-density area into focused markets.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are freight terms and their significance in business transactions?

<p>Freight terms define when legal title to goods passes from seller to buyer, impacting ownership during transit.</p> Signup and view all the answers

List two examples of competitive clustering in service industries.

<p>Urgent Care centers and Fast-Food chains.</p> Signup and view all the answers

Why are new service facilities more common than new factories or warehouses?

<p>New service facilities are much less expensive to establish than factories or warehouses.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What does the centroid calculation of (66.67, 93.33) represent in this context?

<p>It represents the average center of gravity for all service facilities based on their volumes and coordinates.</p> Signup and view all the answers

How does saturation marketing offset potential cannibalization?

<p>It offsets potential cannibalization by allowing closer proximity to more customers.</p> Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Location, Logistics, and Distribution

  • This chapter covers location, logistics, and distribution, a crucial aspect of business operations.
  • Key topics include defining logistics, contrasting logistics and warehouse alternatives, and analyzing logistics-driven location decisions.
  • Logistics encompasses the art and science of obtaining, producing, and distributing materials and products in the right quantities and location throughout the supply chain. This involves managing the movement of goods and services.

What is Logistics?

  • Logistics is the art and science of obtaining, producing, and distributing materials and products to the correct place at the correct time.
  • It involves managing the movement of goods through the supply chain.
  • Important decisions involve determining the best transportation mode, facility location, and overall system design.
  • These decisions are crucial for effective supply chain management.

Modes of Transportation

  • Key tradeoff: Speed versus cost. Different modes offer varying balances between speed and cost.
    • Highway: offers great flexibility but is slow.
    • Water: high capacity and lower cost but slow.
    • Air: fast but costly.
    • Rail: low cost, but slow and variable.
    • Intermodal: combines different modes (e.g., rail and truck).
    • Pipeline: specialized for liquids, gases, and solids.
    • Hand delivery: often the final step.
  • Various transportation modes have different characteristics in terms of cost, speed, reliability, and reach.

Transportation Modes

  • A table details characteristics of different transportation modes, including cost, speed, on-time dependability, product type, shipment volumes, and geographic reach.
    • Railroads: medium cost, slow speed, medium dependability, high reach, and high capacity
    • Trucks : high cost ,fast speed, high dependability, high reach, and medium capacity
    • Pipelines : low cost ,fast speed, highest dependability and lowest reach and high capacity
    • Ships (water): lowest cost, slowest speed, lowest dependability, low reach and highest capacity
    • Airplanes: highest cost , fastest speed, low dependability, medium reach, and medium capacity

Truck

  • Truck transportation is the dominant mode in the US.
  • Three main segments include:
    • Truck Load (TL): full truck regardless of quantity.
    • Less than Truck Load (LTL): charged per quantity.
    • Parcel (FedEx/UPS): charged per package.

Intermodal

  • Intermodal transportation has grown significantly, increasing with the use of containers.
  • Intermodal transportation is often more convenient for shippers as one entity handles the entire process.
  • The key challenge is coordinating information exchange between different transport modes.

Logistics Outsourcing and 3PL

  • Approximately 80% of international transportation is outsourced to third-party logistics providers (3PLs).
  • 3PLs handle the entire logistics process for companies.
  • Outsourcing logistics functions allows companies to focus on core competencies. Tracking, notification, and risk reduction are tasks commonly outsourced.

Third-Party Logistics (3PL)

  • Third-party logistics revenue has increased considerably in recent years. Cost, speed, and capabilities are key factors for businesses. Cost data plays a vital role in location decisions.

Insource or Outsource Logistics

  • Choosing whether to insource or outsource logistics depends on various factors:
    • Outsource: Understanding local markets, global presence, coordination of multi-modal capabilities, core competencies.
    • Insource: Proprietary or security concerns, stable supply chains, controlling logistics, industry alliances, favorable cost structures.

Dedicated Team of Highly Skilled Freight Management Experts

  • Companies that choose to manage their freight in-house can do so with significant effort and resources such as dedicated teams of highly skilled freight managers.
  • Key elements of managing freight in-house include: Cost savings, monitoring, multi-level customer support, dedicated account support, and overall management solutions.

Warehousing and Distribution

  • Warehousing and distribution are crucial for efficient goods movement.
  • Key concepts include co-location, cross-docking, and hub-and-spoke systems.

Location of Supply Chain

  • Collaboration, or supply chain optimization and management (SC&OM) among businesses is desired to create higher customer value.
  • Co-location of suppliers with customer facilities allows for better decision-making and addressing of customer needs proactively. Supplier personnel can play a more effective role in customer relations.

Obtaining Data

  • Data sources include syndicated data (at a cost), primary research, and point-of-sale (POS) data.
  • Most business data (approximately 80%) has location contexts that inform decision-making for distribution.

Warehouse Activities

  • Cross-docking involves breaking down large shipments rapidly for efficient local delivery to minimize warehouse inventory.
  • Hub-and-spoke systems utilize a central warehouse (the hub) to sort and consolidate goods for distribution to individual destinations (spokes). This method is beneficial when targeting multiple destinations.

Cross-Docking

  • A diagram illustrates the process, contrasting the before and after cross-docking models and detailing the flow of materials and supplies.

Hub-and-Spoke

  • This distribution model utilizes multiple local warehouses to consolidate goods for final delivery. A central hub warehouse organizes the shipment flow to specific destinations. A diagram illustrates the model.

Distribution Center Location Tools

  • Important tools for deciding warehouse locations are covered in this section.

Where to Locate Facilities

  • This section focuses on deciding where to geographically locate the facilities.

Distribution Objectives

  • Criteria for locating distribution facilities include ease of entry into the market, cost leadership, financial risk, and profit margins.

Facility Location Decision Attributes

  • Such decisions are crucial, as they are long-term commitments affecting fixed and variable costs, and they require careful consideration. These decisions must maximize location benefits for the company.

Plant Location Methods

  • This module covers various methods for determining plant locations, including the factor-rating system, transportation method of linear programming, and the centroid method.

Factor Rating System

  • This method involves developing a list of factors, assessing each site against these factors, and calculating point values to rank potential locations. Relevant factors for business location decisions include customer proximity, business climate, infrastructure, labor quality, suppliers, and other facilities.

Facility Location: Factor Rating System

  • This section outlines the steps in using the factor-rating system. It provides an example of how to use the system to determine the best location for a refinery. It also showcases a methodology example with hypothetical refinery locations, listing important factors such as fuel availability, labor climate, and transportation.

Linear Programming - Transportation Method

  • This method aims to minimize transportation costs. It can be applied to shipping units to various destinations and finding optimized routes to minimize cost. An example showcases potential locations (A, B) and shipping destinations (1, 2, 3) with associated costs.

Example 14.1

  • The example provides a table of shipping costs from multiple factories to different warehouses.

Centroid Method

  • This approach calculates the optimal location considering existing facilities, distances between them, and volumes of goods transported. It assumes equal inbound and outbound transportation costs, not including special shipping costs. Formulas for calculating the optimal coordinates are included.

Centroid Method Example

  • An example uses coordinate locations of showrooms and sales volumes to illustrate the centroid method in determining the optimal warehouse or storage facility location.

Centroid Method Formulas

  • This section lists the important formulas used to compute the centroid location coordinates.

Plant Location Methodology - Centroid Method

  • Provides a brief summary and example for finding the optimal location for a warehouse or storage facility. Coordinates of existing facilities and their sales figures are used, and a simplified formula is illustrated in reaching the answer.

Centroid Method

  • Locating a new warehouse or temporary storage facility using only distance and volume of sales per month, calculating the weighted average coordinates of the other facilities to find the optimal location.

Internal Warehouse Operations

  • Management of warehouse activities and operations is dealt with extensively.

Service Facility Location

  • The process of locating new service facilities, which differ from factories and warehouses, and are more common and much less expensive, is described.

Service Facility Location

  • Service facility locations are often intertwined with targeted markets, the aim being profit maximization rather than minimizing costs.

Service Location Approaches

  • Approaches like competitive clustering (competitors locate close together) and saturation marketing (multiple company facilities close to each other) are discussed.

Examples

  • Examples are given of competitive clustering (urgent care, gas stations) and saturation marketing (integrated delivery networks, retail).

Freight Terms

  • Freight terms of sale deal with the responsibility of various parties regarding transportation when two entities conduct business.

Freight Terms of Sale

  • Two major categories exist: domestic and international freight terms. The terms of sale determine who pays for transportation, routes freight, insurance, and bears the risk for goods during transit.

Domestic Freight Terms

  • Key freight terms like FOB (Free On Board), Prepaid, collect are covered, illustrating the responsibilities of buyers and sellers throughout the transportation process. Illustrative examples include diagrams depicting the transfer of ownership during transit

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Explore the critical elements of facility location decisions in supply chain management. This quiz covers various factors impacting location choices, including costs, logistics, and political risks. Assess your understanding of concepts like the Factor Rating Method and the role of Third Party Logistics (3PL).

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