CPL CPL Customer Service & Logistics Network Design 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: The term 'landed cost' in logistics network design refers to:
- The cost of leasing a distribution center
- The total cost of a product including purchase price, freight, duties, insurance, and handling (Correct answer)
- The freight cost for domestic shipments only
- The cost of ground transportation to the final delivery point
Correct answer: The total cost of a product including purchase price, freight, duties, insurance, and handling
Landed cost represents the complete cost of getting a product to its destination, encompassing product price, international freight, customs duties, insurance, and all handling fees.
Question 2: Which customer service metric measures the proportion of orders that can be filled immediately from available stock?
- Fill rate (Correct answer)
- Perfect order rate
- On-time delivery rate
- Cash-to-cash cycle time
Correct answer: Fill rate
Fill rate measures the percentage of customer demand that is satisfied from on-hand inventory without backorders or lost sales.
Question 3: A logistics network that uses a central hub connected to multiple spoke locations for consolidating and distributing freight is called:
- Point-to-point network
- Hub-and-spoke network (Correct answer)
- Direct injection network
- Milk run network
Correct answer: Hub-and-spoke network
A hub-and-spoke network routes shipments through a central hub where they are sorted and redistributed to destination spokes, enabling consolidation efficiencies.
Question 4: When a logistics provider uses 'zone skipping,' they are primarily trying to:
- Avoid customs inspections at international borders
- Reduce parcel carrier costs by bypassing intermediate sort facilities (Correct answer)
- Skip quality checks to speed up order processing
- Eliminate one distribution tier from the network
Correct answer: Reduce parcel carrier costs by bypassing intermediate sort facilities
Zone skipping consolidates parcels and injects them directly into a carrier's regional network closer to the final destination, reducing the number of handling zones and associated costs.
Question 5: Which of the following is the primary objective of a logistics network optimization study?
- Maximizing warehouse square footage utilization
- Identifying the optimal number, size, and location of facilities to minimize total supply chain cost while meeting service requirements (Correct answer)
- Reducing the number of SKUs in the distribution network
- Selecting the lowest-cost transportation carrier
Correct answer: Identifying the optimal number, size, and location of facilities to minimize total supply chain cost while meeting service requirements
A network optimization study uses modeling to determine the best facility configuration that balances cost efficiency with customer service level requirements.
Question 6: A customer satisfaction score specifically measuring how effortlessly a customer can get an issue resolved is called:
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
- Customer Effort Score (CES) (Correct answer)
- Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
- Order Fill Rate
Correct answer: Customer Effort Score (CES)
Customer Effort Score (CES) measures how much effort a customer must expend to have a request fulfilled, issue resolved, or product returned.
The term 'landed cost' in logistics network design refers to: