all based on information given by the question

(a) Construct a table to compare the performance characteristics of the four popular transportation modes namely, air, water, truck and rail, in terms of speed, reliability, loss and damage, and cost of service. Suggest the most appropriate transportation mode(s) for transporting a shipment of fresh tuna, a high-value perishable fish for sushi, from a fish market in Japan to a Hong Kong sushi restaurant (6 marks) (b) A grocery chain is attempting to set the customer service level, measured in terms of in- stock probability at stores, for its best-selling item. Annual sales of the item are 200,000 units. The item costs $1000 per unit and its trading margin is $10 per unit. The demand during replenishment lead time is normally distributed with a standard deviation of 10,000 units. Annual inventory carrying cost rate is 40 percent. It is assumed that the sales response rate, expressed in terms of percentage increase in sales volume for every 1 percent increase in the in-stock probability, is constant. The z-values for various in-stock probabilities are given below. In-stock 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 probability Z-value 1.28 1.34 1.41 1.48 1.55 1.65 1.75 1.88 2.05 2.33 (i) Discuss the four common methods for estimating the sales response rate (6 marks) Find the optimal customer service level for the case of sales response rate=0.1. Discuss the major factors that affect the optimality of the service level found. (6 marks) Discuss, with a numerical example, the impact of increasing sales response rate on the optimal service level. (4 marks) (iii) (iv) Suppose that the grocery chain has set the customer service level at 95%. Find the sales response rate such that the service level set is the optimal one