Exercise Assignment #4

Companies are increasingly segmenting their supply chains to match customer needs in order to improve service levels and responsiveness. The following exercise lets you look at the steps involved in this process.

1. Identify a company and its product line in a particular market segment (pick a company you are familiar with (e.g. food items; gaming; retail)).
2. Identify unique segments and describe the customer characteristics.
3. What are the priorities that matter most in each segment? For each segment that you have identified decide whether the company needs standard or unique capabilities to satisfy customers in that segment.

Tip: Refer to the Chapter’s Supply Chain Leader’s Box (textbook page 73). A case of Gap Inc. is discussed.  Your report write-up will be similar to this (but more in detail).