Chapter 2
Supply Chain Performance: Achieving Strategic Fit and Scope

True/False

1. A company’s competitive strategy defines the set of customer needs that it seeks to satisfy through its products and services.
Answer: True
Difficulty: Easy

2. The value chain emphasizes the close relationship between all the functional strategies within a company.
Answer: True
Difficulty: Moderate

3. A company’s product development strategy defines the set of customer needs that it seeks to satisfy through its products and services.
Answer: False
Difficulty: Moderate

4. A company’s product development strategy specifies the portfolio of new products that it will try to develop.
Answer: True
Difficulty: Easy

5. A company’s supply chain strategy specifies how the market will be segmented and how the product will be positioned, priced, and promoted.
Answer: False
Difficulty: Easy

6. A company’s supply chain strategy determines the nature of procurement and transportation of materials as well as the manufacture and distribution of the product.
Answer: True
Difficulty: Easy

7. The degree of supply chain responsiveness should be consistent with the implied uncertainty.
Answer: True
Difficulty: Easy

8. The degree of supply chain responsiveness does not need to be consistent with the implied uncertainty.
Answer: False
Difficulty: Moderate

9. To achieve complete strategic fit, a firm must ensure that all functions in the value chain have consistent strategies that support the competitive strategy.
Answer: True
Difficulty: Moderate

10. To achieve complete strategic fit, a firm must ensure that all functions in the value chain have diverse strategies that support functional goals.
Answer: False
Difficulty: Moderate

11. Because demand and supply characteristics change, the supply chain strategy must change over the product life cycle if a company is to continue achieving strategic fit.
Answer: True
Difficulty: Easy

12. The supply chain strategy must be established at the beginning of the product life cycle and not changed if a company is to continue achieving strategic fit.
Answer: False
Difficulty: Easy

13. To retain strategic fit, supply chain strategy must be adjusted over the life cycle of a product and as the competitive landscape changes.
Answer: True
Difficulty: Moderate

14. The intercompany scope of strategic fit is essential today because the competitive playing field has shifted from company versus company to supply chain versus supply chain.
Answer: True
Difficulty: Moderate

15. The intercompany scope of strategic fit is no longer relevant today because the competitive playing field has shifted from company versus company to supply chain versus supply chain.
Answer: False
Difficulty: Easy

16. The intercompany scope of strategic fit requires firms to evaluate every action in the context of the entire supply chain.
Answer: True
Difficulty: Moderate

17. There is a close connection between the design and management of supply chain flows and the success of a supply chain.
Answer: True
Difficulty: Easy

Multiple Choice

1. A company’s competitive strategy
a. defines the set of customer needs that it seeks to satisfy through its products and services.
b. specifies the portfolio of new products that it will try to develop.
c. specifies how the market will be segmented and how the product will be positioned, priced, and promoted.
d. determines the nature of procurement and transportation of materials as well as manufacture and distribution of the product.
e. determines how it will obtain and maintain the appropriate set of skills and abilities to meet customer needs.
Answer: a
Difficulty: Moderate

2. A company’s product development strategy
a. defines the set of customer needs that it seeks to satisfy through its products and services.
b. specifies the portfolio of new products that it will try to develop.
c. specifies how the market will be