AS = Agree Strongly
Your answers should reflect the extent to which each statement is accurate. For example, the first statement below concerns your firm selling tangible items rather than intangible services. A grocery retailer would probably answer Agree Strongly because a grocery store makes almost all of its revenue from selling tangible items – items that the customer can pick up and carry home. A barber, in contrast, would probably answer Disagree Strongly because most customers at a barbershop do not leave with any tangible items (unless the barber sells a lot of hair care products). A restaurant would probably fall somewhere in the middle because its customers do purchase tangible products - the food - but also pay for intangible services, atmosphere, and so forth.
Section B: Your Firm's Business Environment
B1. Most of our sales revenue and purchases from suppliers are earned from selling and purchasing tangible items – products, parts, raw materials, ingredients, repair items, supplies, etc. – instead of intangible services.
B2. Our sales demand varies dramatically from period to period in an unpredictable way and is very difficult to forecast correctly.
B3. Our customers are very demanding, placing many last-minute rush orders and pressuring us for better prices, special services, more rapid delivery, higher quality, etc., forcing the same demands on our suppliers.
B4. Poor supplier performance – late deliveries, long lead times, inability to fill last-minute rush orders, poor quality, etc. – would severely hurt our firm’s success.
B5. Most of what we sell could be viewed as a commodity – relatively standard products or services also available from many of our competitors.
B6. A significant percentage of our sales and/or our purchases involve customers or suppliers from outside the U.S.
B7. The vast majority of what we sell is sold to other businesses or government agencies rather than to the general public/consumers.
Section C: Characteristics of your firm's key leaders
C1. The leadership (key leaders) has a significant amount of formal education,
with many of them possessing college degrees.
C2. The leadership (key leaders) tends to be proactive rather than reactive –
they will aggressively initiate new activities to gain an advantage over our
competitors rather than just reacting to the competitors' moves.
C3. The leadership (key leaders) tends to embrace new ideas and programs
rather than resisting change and they encourage our firm to be as
innovative as possible.
C4. The leadership (key leaders) tends to be proficient with computer
technology and recognize the potential benefits that such technology can
provide.
Section D: Your firm's implementation of supply chain management (SCM) activities
D1. Your firm's preparation for supply chain management
We have a well-defined strategy that tells us what we need to do well in
order to attract customers and what our suppliers need to do well in order
to help us attract customers.
D2. We have installed computer, communication and internet technology to
facilitate improved communication with our customers and suppliers.
D3. We have taken significant action to improve the coordination and
communication between our firm's various processes or departments by
improving our procedures, processes or technology - sales, inventory,
purchasing, customer service, production, shipping, supplies, etc..
Section E: Your firm's relationships with suppliers
E1. We work regularly with our key suppliers to jointly solve problems such
as low quality, high costs or late deliveries.
E2. We work with our key suppliers to jointly plan and coordinate future
activities such as sales promotions, production volume changes,
movements into new markets, new strategic initiatives, processes,
development of new products or services, procedures, etc.
E3. We regularly share sensitive demand-related information with our key
suppliers (information such as our sales results, inventory levels and future
promotions) and they share sensitive supply - related information (price
reductions, supplier delayed orders, future supply shortages, impending
supplier price or product line changes, etc.).
E4. We place significant effort into reducing the number of suppliers from
which we order, keeping the best suppliers and weeding out the less
effective ones.
E5. We put significant effort into building strong relationships and increased
trust with our key suppliers, hoping to develop steadily improving
relationships that will last for a very long time.
E6. We use the internet to place most of our orders with suppliers.
E7. We have significantly revised our processes, procedures and/or technology
to achieve greater coordination and cooperation with our suppliers.
Section F: Your firm's relationships with customers
F1. We work regularly with our key customers to jointly solve problems such
as low quality, high costs or late deliveries and assist them in designing
new products or services, selecting technology, developing product lines,
improving their processes.
F2. We work with our customers to jointly plan future activities such as sales
promotions, production volume changes, movements into new markets,
new strategic initiatives, etc.
F3. Our key customers regularly share sensitive demand-related information
with us (information such as their sales results, inventory levels and future
promotions) and we share sensitive supply related information (price
reductions, shortages, price changes, scheduling problems, etc.).
F4. Most of our customers use the internet to place orders with us.
Section G: Benefits obtained from the supply chain management activities being performed
In the previous section you specified the extent to which your firm is performing various supply chain activities to
improve coordination with suppliers and customers. Please respond to the statements below concerning the impact
of those activities on your firm's performance.Your firm's relationships with customers
G1. The supply chain management activities that we perform have enabled us
to significantly reduce our costs.
G2. The supply chain management activities that we perform have enabled us
to significantly improve our ability to serve our customers.
G3. The supply chain management activities that we perform have led to
dramatic growth for our firm.
G4. The supply chain management activities that we perform have led to
significant increases in profitability for our firm.
G5. The activities that we perform have resulted in greater trust and
collaboration between our organization and our customers and/or suppliers
– we can count on them to behave in ways that leads to mutual success
rather than taking advantage of our company.
Section H: Factors encouraging your implementation of supply chain management activities
When you began performing the various supply chain management activities that you are now performing, what were the main factors that caused you to begin implementing these activities? Please check all that apply. If you are not performing any supply chain management activities at all, please skip to the next question.
Section I: Factors discouraging you from implementing supply chain management activities
For the supply chain management activities that you are NOT performing or you are performing in only a limited way, what are the main factors discouraging more comprehensive utilization? Please check all that apply.
Section J: Methods and techniques about which your firm would like to learn more
Would you like to see workshops offered or action taken on any of the following topics? If so, please check all that apply.