Expert Answers

14. New trade theory explains why earlier entrance inthe market is critical for the success of a firm.
A) True       B) False

140. One of the principles of sound stockholder relations is___________________.

1. 	a.	only disclose bad news when forced by ruling
   	b.	encourage investment from people predisposed to support yourcompany
   	c.	provide only the required information to stockholders y>
   	d.	All of these
   	e.	None of these

14.2.2 Understanding Mazo Group Keys

The core business process offered by Mazo Group is deliveringperishable goods through national and international transportservices. Its main objective is to fulfil the delivery times andqualities required by the customers.

Mazo Group is classified within the logistics area as aninternational operations organization due to its internationalstrategy and development. The company offers quality service andflexibility supported by cost-effectiveness. Mazo began as a smalllocal company. Today the Group’s expectations are not becoming a‘global logistics operator’ but achieving a relevant internationalposition based on a European strategic relocation. Mazo’s currentapproach to its business is based on better rearrangement of itsexisting resources rather than acquiring more assets.

The company offers a balanced portfolio of transport services,using bespoke deliveries and reduced costs to its regularcustomers. Cost reduction tries to achieve ‘zero kilometres’completed without carrying freight by every single lorry and is thekey element in decision-making.

The Mazo Group core customers are some of the biggest Europeancompanies in terms of food distribution, for example supermarkets,hypermarkets and similar very large grocery suppliers. This type ofclients, like other big-box stores, typically has business modelsfocusing on high-volume, low-margin sales.

The relationship between Mazo Group and its customers isconsistent and involves long term trade. This collaborativerelationship drives Mazo Group to provide all the routes andservices that the regular customers require from them.

The consistent size of the Group’s customers means the companyfrequently explores new markets and locations which necessitatesimplementation of new routes. The longstanding cooperation betweenthe group and its customers means that the customer who needs thenew transport route will supply Mazo with an estimate of thefreight volume that will be required from this new destination.

The usual procedure deployed by Mazo is to establish a newtransport route based on two main principles in order to achievethe main and cost-reducing objectives explained above:

• First, Mazo exploits its flexibility to accomplish the newtarget to ensure that the main objective – delivery time andquality – will be achieved.

• If customers ask Mazo to carry freights from its base inAlzira (Valencia) to a new destination (for instance to centralEurope), there are usually no assurances about possible freight forthe return trip. In this instance Mazo utilizes the economies ofscale principle in order to reduce the number of kilometrescompleted without freight from the new destination to Valencia(cost-reducing objective). This involves analysing transportopportunities in terms of refrigerated products that the newdestination market offers for returning another freight to Mazo’sbase.

If both objectives are balanced the customer and Mazo achieve ahighly competitive new route.

When a regular route is already working, delivery times are setdown by Mazo customers but are based on their previous experienceand so are achievable. However, every single order has to beconfirmed depending on the amount of available resources each time(lorries and drivers). In order to manage resources two importantaspects are taken into account:

• A relevant factor in terms of transport network design isaffected by legislation concering European transport regulationwith regard to driving times and breaks. The Group tries to bringall of its drivers back to Alzira if possible so that they canspend the weekly driving break at home. This policy also reflectsalso security and motivational reasons rather than mere observanceof the law.

• The perishable goods that Mazo carries as its core businessare also seasonal products which adds a new element of complexityto the logistics. The Group has a high level of demand located inthe same months every year. If a new customer asks Mazo toimplement a new route during the high demand season (when 100 percent of resources are in use) it is unlikley that they would beabel to meet the request.

The company achieves flexibility by collecting products at theirpoint of origin, and this is evident in the multi-productcollection and multi-point delivery service they have developed.This process consists of one lorry acquiring a number of productsalready packed on Euro-pallets from different provider warehouses.The collected pallets are located inside the trailer depending onthe order of delivery requested by the customers at differentdestinations. The company has implemented a system for collectingin origin based on its experienced drivers.

Mazo is always pursuing a high level of efficiency in itsoperations. Multi-collecting in origin means that the company hasto manage a multi-vehicle capacity routing problem every day aspart of a complex logistic operation. The number of employees hasgrown considerably in quality and in number of operativedepartments. Expertise is Mazo’s most valuable tool.

Mazo Group owns one of the biggest fleets of refrigeratedlorries specializing in perishable goods within the region ofValencia and probably in the entire country: 600 refrigeratedtrailers and 240 tractor units, all of which are renewed everythree years. The company also outsources 40 extra lorries withdrivers during the high demand period in order to fulfil orderswithout increasing its permanent resources to remain flexible andcompetitive.

Mazo Group is a specialized transport service company, due toits business in perishable goods. Since 1989 they have hadextensive experience of delivering refrigerated freight by ship orferry to different destinations. Their expertise in transportingperishable and seasonal goods with refrigerated trailers by roadand sea from mainland to islands gives them a considerablecompetitive advantage

What are the main strengths of Mazo Group?

1400 words (APA Referneces)

Research the requirements for starting a corporation in theUnited States, India, and China. What are the basic requirements?Is the process easy or difficult for each country? How do you thinkthe ease or difficulty of forming a corporation affects theeconomic efficiency of each country?

14.2.3 Introducing Innovations in Mazo’s Centre EuropeNetwork Design

What follows is an example that will illustrate Mazo’s networktransport design. The example shows how the capacity to incorporateinnovation in the network design is a key factor for transportationcompanies.

This example of intermodal transport network design is based onthe cutting edge strategic positioning of the Group in terms ofEuropean transport trends, and how they implement it to improvetheir competitiveness. It will show how current central Europeanroutes are beginning to be modified due to the combined use of roadand train. The case introduced is based on the product flow fromthe Valencia area in Spain to Central Europe. The example shows howthe use of intermodal transport provides good results in terms ofcost reduction, availability of resources and reduction of CO2emissions.

The central European network background, motivations andobjectives

The Mazo Group is constantly exploring alternative approaches inorder to extend its business options. The three key pointsinfluencing its international positioning are:

1. Alignment with European transport trends

2. Specialized service in refrigerated freights transport

3. Market offer and demand analysis

The European logistics environment is being significantlyredesigned due to a probable overload within road transport in theshort term. The European Commission is promoting alternative meansof transport such as rail and ship. The double objective pursued bypoliticians is reduce the number of lorries driven through Europeand to improve the sustainability of the goods transported usingmodes of transport with lower CO2 emissions through collectivemodes.

All traffic must pass through France when travelling from Spainto Europe by road and France is announcing the implementation of anew tax in the short term for goods crossing this country by road.This directly affects the international transport service providedby Mazo from Morocco and Spain to the centre of Europe (Belgium,Netherlands, Luxembourg and so on).

Mazo foresaw that utilization of alternative forms oftransportation would enable it to overcome this difficulty and toalign more its operations with future expectations. They decided tobecome the first specialized Spanish company in refrigeratedfreight transport to use international intermodal transport inEurope in order to gain a competitive advantage.

Mazo’s approach to intermodal transportation in centralEurope: tactical development

Mazo is looking for alternative modes to deliver perishablefreight from its base in Valencia to the centre of Europe in orderto comply with European transport frameworks and policies. The mainconstraint is the delivery time requested by its customers andrefrigeration conditions. The critical transport characteristics(see Table 14.1) they would need to adopt when using an alternativetransport mode were speed, reliability and cost efficiency. Thetransport mode alternative which accomplishes all three featureswith ease (besides roads) is transport by rail. Transport by shipmode was also studied intensively because of Mazo’s extensiveexperience in carrying freight by ship to different islands. Thistransportation mode has many drawbacks. Among others: scantyexistence of offers, higher costs and longer transportation timesfrom Spain to Central Europe – for example, from Santander to Pooleharbour is more than three days in good weather conditions. Theduration of the trip is not a significant problem for perishablegoods: intermodal transport allows transportation of the wholetrailer with the electrical engines connected to the power insidethe ship. Temperature, humidity and air conditions inside thetrailer remain optimum for the fruit and vegetables. This optionwill become an interesting alternative in the medium term if theshort sea shipping potential improves.

Mazo’s difficulty lies in determining how to supply products toits customers with at least the same level of quality and deliverytime. After several transportation combinations were analyzeddepending on the type of goods, Mazo opted to use road and rail andstarted their first in-depth studies with one of the few railtransportation companies operating along the international routesthat were useful for this project.

Mazo chose the most suitable point to connect the route by roadwith rail to achieve a shorter delivery time between Valencia andcentral Europe: the French town of Le Boulou, located very close tothe Spanish border. The new intermodal transport network is definedbelow (see Figure 14.2):

• From Valencia (origin) to Le Boulou (first intermediate node):by road 6.5 hours

• From Le Boulou to Bettembourg (second intermediate node): byrail 18 hours

• From Bettembourg to the end customer (destination): byroad.

How do European environmental tendencies influencetransportation?

145. What does the flow chart begin with?

Select one:

a. Process details

b. Decision activity

c. Inputs

d. Trigger activity

146. What is the primary benefit of plotting dots in a scatterdiagram?

Select one:

a. There is no benefit. It should be easy to understand.

b. It makes the graph more attractive.

c. It makes printing easier.

d. It makes correlation easier to see.

147. When is planning and documentation particularly critical toreduce error introduction?

Select one:

a. Recording Outside assumptions regarding the experiment

b. When working through the Design of Experiment steps.

c. All of the above

d. When documenting instructions from the operator of theexperiment.

148. What does “between sample variance” mean?

Select one:

a. The variance that occurs within internal samples and externalsamples being analyzed.

b. The variance that occurs within a single sample or group.

c. The variance that occurs across portions of samples beinganalyzed.

d. The variance that occurs across all of the samples beinganalyzed.

149. When does a within sample variance occur?

Select one:

a. Within a single sample or group

b. Only within groups

c. Within multiple samples or groups

d. Only within samples

150. Fundamentally, what is the equation to which all processescan be ultimately distilled?

Select one:

a. Y = f(x) equation

b. f=Y(x)equation

c. v=x(y)equation

d. X=Y(f)equation

15. Crunchy Cream Donuts is an LLC. The business is thriving,and its owners want to raise capital to expand into other citiesaround the country, and to build a factory to mass producedoughnuts. Unfortunately, the owners have few assets and littleability to secure credit. The most advisable option is: