Determine supply chain's competitive strategy (You can read the sion on textbook about different competitive strategies in some example supply chains)

1. Once you determine competitive strategy than you areed to select a distribution network design (You can select one of the six designs. distribution network design.
2. You are required to select a product family consisting of four products for your distribution network, products(s) should be simple assemblies with a basic bill of material structure. You can choose simple products consisting of only a handful of components. For example a bill of material for Office table is given below, if your part family consists of four parts with each part being a different Office table, for example 
3. Part A: Short Office table, 
4. Part B: Wide Office Table, 
5. Part C: Four-Legged Table and 
6. Part D: Long Office Table.

A. Once the product, distribution network, and product(s) are selected you are required to select one or more suppliers for each of the product components.

B. As part of the homework assignment you are required to submit :

1. A paragraph-long competitive strategy for supply chain.
2. What is the product family that you are planning to produce. What are the individual products in that product family. (For example: If your product family consists of respirator type of masks than perhaps you have four product types N95, FPP3, FPP1,FPP2 with individual components and bill-of-material each creating a product family). Present the bill-of-material of one of the products in your product family.
3. Having a product family consisting of multiple products in your supply chain is important as you will use them for aggregate planning and master production scheduling later on.
4. A short description about implied demand uncertainty and supply uncertainty about your supply chain
5. A short description about how responsive or efficient do you believe your supply chain will be within the responsiveness/efficiency spectrum.
6. How many retail locations (if your model contains any of the following), pickup sites, manufacturers, cross-docking distribution centers, warehouses does your model include.
7. What is the transportation mechanism (Package carrier delivery or your own fleet etc.)
8. Do you have a bricks-and-mortar retail store (physical store) approach or do you have online sales? A description of your retail mechanism.
9. How many suppliers do you think is necessary for each product and overall. Where will your suppliers be located?
10. How many manufacturing plant locations are you considering for your product. Are you going to open a single high capacity plant or several manufacturing plants with low capacities?
11. Map the locations of your supply (suppliers) and demand regions (retail stores) on the map of the country in which your supply chain will be located. Since you will be using these locations in the next part of the homework.

Supply Chain Management Strategy, Planning, and Operation sixth edition Sunil Chopra • Peter Meindl -- Global edition
 

Bill of Material for Office Table Table Final Assembly Top Assembly (1 required) Support Assembly (1 required) Wood Screw (48 required) Center Support (1 required) Side Support (2 required) Bracket (6 required)