Logistics and Supply Chain Management: Student's Guide
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10 cards
Question: What is the first step in the retail supply chain cycle described in the Wal‑Mart example?
Answer: A customer buys a product from a retail store.
Question: What immediate event in the store triggers replenishment in the described retail supply chain?
Answer: The cashier scans the product at checkout, which generates a signal to reorder.
Question: In the Wal‑Mart process, what reads the identification on each incoming box?
Answer: An electric eye reads the bar codes on each box.
Question: How are boxes sorted to go to specific stores in the distribution centre?
Answer: Conveyor streams feed a main belt; electric arms guide boxes off the main belt into smaller streams ordered for particular stores.
Question: What happens to the boxes after they are sorted into the smaller streams for each store?
Answer: They are swept onto a waiting Wal‑Mart truck that delivers them to the designated store.
Question: How does the supplier know to produce and ship another item after a sale?
Answer: The sale scan sends a signal across Wal‑Mart’s network to the supplier’s computer, prompting production and shipment.
Question: Describe the continuous nature of the retail supply chain shown in the passage.
Answer: It operates 24/7/365 in a repeating cycle of delivery, sorting, packing, distribution, buying, manufacturing, reordering, and delivery with no final e
Question: What role do suppliers’ trucks play at the distribution centre?
Answer: Suppliers’ trucks drop off boxes of merchandise at loading docks, feeding the distribution centre’s conveyor streams.
Question: Why is the distribution centre compared to a ‘river’ and ‘streams’ in the passage?
Answer: Because many small conveyor streams join into a large main flow (river) and then split again into many smaller streams to route products to specific s
Question: What key advantage does linking a store’s point‑of‑sale scanning directly to suppliers provide?
Answer: It creates immediate, automated replenishment signals so suppliers can quickly produce and ship replacements, reducing stockouts and inventory lag.