Operations Management

FedEx chose Memphis, Tennessee, for its central location, or "hub," primarily because of the incentives offered by the city of Memphis and the state of Tennessee

• True

• False

Industrial location analysis typically attempts to:

• minimize costs.

• maximize sales.

• focus more on human resources.

• avoid countries with strict environmental regulations.

• ignore exchange rates and currency risks.

A location decision for an appliance manufacturer would tend to have what type of focus?

• cost focus

• focus on finding very highly skilled technicians

• revenue focus

• environmental focus

• education focus

Which of the following is most likely to affect the location strategy of a manufacturing firm?

• appearance/image of the area

• utility costs

• purchasing power of drawing area

• competition in the area

• parking availability

Traffic counts and demographic analysis of drawing area are associated with:

• the center-of-gravity method.

• manufacturing location decisions.

• service location decisions.

• the transportation model.

• locational cost-volume analysis.

The location decisions of goods-producing firms will generally pay more attention to parking, access, and traffic counts than will service location decisions.

• True

• False

Suppose that a bus company is deciding where to locate its central hub. There are 6 possible destinations for the buses. Suppose that the center of town will be used as the reference for describing the possible destinations. A is located 5 miles South and 3 miles West. B is located 3 miles North and 2 miles East. C is located 1 mile South and 5 miles East. D is located 2 miles North and 3 miles West. E is located exactly in the center of town. F is located 10 miles North and 5 miles East. Assume that traffic to each destination will be equal. Where should the hub go so that travel time is minimized?

(a)  

A grocery chain is deciding on where to locate its new distribution center (DC). The new DC will serve four grocery stores, each with a demand of 10,000 units. If the coordinates of the stores are (112,108), (110,50), (40, 85), and (10, 25) where should the DC be located? Suppose now that each store instead had demand of 20,000 units. Where should the DC go in this case?

(a)  

A school district is considering four locations for a new high school. There are four factors the district is considering (cost of land, distance to students, land size, and traffic flow). The higher the factor score, the better. The district would like to compare results using two weighting systems. The first system would give each factor equal weight and the second would give the factors weights of .4, .2, .1, and .3 respectively. Use the factor rating method to determine which location is best for each weighting system. Which site should be selected under W(1) and W(2).

(a)  

Every month, a distribution center will deliver 14,000 units to Retailer A at coordinates (20, 10), 12,000 units to Retailer B at coordinates (30, -15), and 20,000 units to Retailer C at coordinates (4, 4). Assuming no constraints on location, at what coordinates should the distribution center be located (rounded to two decimal places)?

(a)