Question

Ford is highly focused on the drivers of the Supply Chain. These elements help to ensure that more responsive approach is taken. Ford must meet consumer demand based on fashion products, there is a need to be more responsive within the market.  Critical view of supply chain drivers.  Product times are important.  Transportation costs maintained.  Facility location costs need to be reviewed. Define these point please. Especially "facility location costs analysis"

Answer 1

Product Time - Product time is defined as the time taken by the organization to bring a product from the concept table to its launch in the market. It includes concept, design and development time, manufacturing time, marketing time and launch time. Product times are important as it ensures first-mover advantage for the organization which helps in capturing the biggest market share.

Transportation costs - Transportation costs are the costs associated with bringing the product from the factory to the customer's doorstep or a retail outlet. Transportation costs have to be kept as low as possible. The organization can handle the transportation itself or outsource to a third-party logistics provider based on its cost assessment and requirements.

Facility Location costs - Facility location costs are the costs associated with the location where the facility is present. The location of the factory is important as the factory needs to be closer to markets, must have access to labour and needs to have easy shipping routes. If the factory is present away from such resources, the transportation charges, labour charges, employee costs will increase. All these costs come under the factory location costs. Some factory locations also need their suppliers to be located nearby. This reduces the transportation costs of raw materials and indirectly reduces factory costs.