Title: Exercises to prepare the written examination

Q: In which way do you have to extend the widely respected definition of

Logistics = Material Management + Distribution

to get the supply chain?
A: Supply Chain = Suppliers + Logistics + Customers

(As an extension to this idea the supply chain covers an even broader scope of the business area. This includes the supply of raw materials and components as well as the delivery of products to the final customer.)

Part I, p. 6

Q: Which part of logistics deals with used products?
A: Reverse logistics

Part I, p. 8

Q: What's the main advantage of the conceptual model of service quality?
A: To be able to identify the service gaps.

Part I, p. 44

Q: Which general factors do you know that can influence the planning framework for logistics?

(There is an analysis which is named by the first 6 letters of the factors.)
A: • Political
• Economic
• Socio-cultural
• Technological
• Environmental
• Legal

Part II, p. 5

Q: Complete the value chain model by Michael Porter.
A: Support activities:

• Firm infrastructure
• Human resource management
• Technology development
• Procurmenent

Primary activities:

• Inbound logistics
• Operations
• Outbound logistics
• Marketing and sales
• Service

Result of all activities: Margin

Part II, p. 12

Q: Name five reasons to start a logistics network planning.
A: • Increased or decreased capacity needs

• Buildings and technical facilities are outdated and are to be modernized

• Several production sites are to be merged for cost reasons

• Regional demand focuses have shifted

• To implement the "just-in-time" principle, suppliers should be located close to the factory

• Because of the increase in costs, countries with lower costs should be preferred

• For strategic reasons, the aim is to enter new international markets;
local production facilities are designed to circumvent trade restrictions

Part II, p. 41

Q: Name five possible quantitative data that can be used for logistics network planning.
A: • major product flows
• transport modal split for the major flows
• demand by region, by major product group, by customer type, etc.
• market segmentation
• customer service goals and achievements
• carrier analysis
• inventory holding profile
• product profile
• customer profile
• expected growth rates

Part II, p. 45

Q: Which data are necessary to solve the so called "facility location problem" ?
A: • geographical data of the locations
• demand and production capacity of every location
• distances between all locations
• fix cost per production location
• transportation cost per unit

Part II, p. 48

Q: What is the name of the most used standard for electronic data interchange in the logistics sector?
A: UN/EDIFACT (United Nations Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport)

Part III, p. 11

Q: What are the six steps of the value benefit analysis?
A: 1. Create a catalog of assessment criteria (5 to 8) that must be independent of
each other and define their metrics

2. Establish a grading scale to assess the degree of fulfillment of the
assessment criteria

3. Derive the relative weights of the individual assessment criteria from their
relevance for the company

4. Grade the assessment criteria for the available solutions according to the
degree of fulfillment

5. Calculate the total utility value by summing the assessment scores
multiplied by the weights

6. Sensitivity analysis of total utility values versus changes in rating and
weighting of key assessment criteria

Part IV, p. 8

Q: What are the reasons to make a sensitivity analysis as last step of the value benefit analysis?
A: The process of value benefit analysis should be used with care. The calculated utility values of two or even three solutions are in many cases relatively close to each other, as the different valuations of the individual criteria often balance each other out.

Sensitivity analysis often reveals that small changes in weighting and valuation lead to a shift in the ranking of solutions.

Part IV, p. 11

Q: You have to transport

a) 1 pallet from Wilhelmshaven to Oldenburg
b) 1 20 ft container from Wilhelmshaven to Milano
c) 1 40 ft container from Wilhelmshaven to Shanghai

1. Which tranport mode do you choose for a), b) and c)?

2. Draft a decision matrix with two criteria and the three solutions from 1.
A: 1. a) road; b) road and train; c) sea

                             -----------------------------------
                              |          |          |          |    c)   |
                              -----------------------------------
Size of                  |          |          |    b)   |          |
order/load             -----------------------------------
                              |   a)    |          |          |          |
                              -----------------------------------
                              short medium long very long
                                    Delivery distance

Part V, p. 22