BACKGROUND

Dell Computers does not manufacture their own devices, instead, Dell shifted to a demand$-$pull supply model some years ago that defined their role as a customer oriented sales and logistics firm.

Dell's products are provided to them by third$-$party manufacturers whom Dell resells the customer order to$.$

CUSTOMER

Customer selects product$($s$)$

Customer can modify and customize

Customer places order

Customer reviews order $($terms and conditions, shipping details$)$

$---$ Dell has an SLA $($Service Level Agreement$)$ that all customer orders will be completed within $7-10$ business days.

Customer pays

ORDER PROCESSING

The Customer order is received by the Dell Order Processing System $($OPS$)$

The Dell OPS indexes and saves the order to the central Order Management Database

The Order Management Database is only accessed by one other system, the Order Management System $($OMS$)$ which is used by Dell's Analysts for Sales Forecasting and Corporate Strategy

OPS then notifies customer, through email, that the order has been received

OPS adds the customer's customized order to a product portfolio for resale

$---$ A Product Portfolio is a bundle of products that are focused on a single domain of knowledge or utilize an overlapping group of resources. This reduces resource waste and duplication of efforts

$---$ Dell does not maintain a product inventory, as such, they do not keep any stock on hand. As such they cannot provide a customer with a product immediately

$---$ Dell sells bundles of customer orders as a Product Portfolio through a reverse auction system

OPS has two set thresholds for when a product portfolio will be posted for resale to a third$-$party manufacturer:

$---1)$ Once $1000$ orders have been received, they are bundled and sold

$---2)$ Once $3$ business days have passed from first order, bundles must be sold

RESALE

Dell's OPS automatically posts the Product Portfolio onto a Reverse Auction system which we will reference as Dell Reverse Auction Extranet $($DRAE$)$

DRAE utilizes an extranet site to post products which is only available to Dell's primary manufacturers

Manufacturers may enter the site and bid over the course of $24-$hours in a silent auction

Manufacturer bid parameters are:

$-$ Price

$-$ Time to build

$-$ Time to ship

$---$ All of these items are listed in the bid

Dell OPS will collect all relevant data $($bids$)$ from DRAE and compare overall build time vs price and select the cheapest manufacturer bid that will be built and delivered in$-$time

Dell OPS will automatically select the winning bid and notify the winning manufacturer

ORDER COMPLETION

The manufacturers build to meet the specifications provided by Dell

The manufacturers ship the products back to Dell

Dell reships the products from the Dell Distribution center to customers

Dell sends an email to the customer with the delivery information

Question $1$ options:

A$)$

Manufacturers

B$)$

Dell Analysts

C$)$

Dell

D$)$

DRAE

E$)$

Customer

F$)$

Extranet Site

G$)$

SLA

H$)$

OPS

I$)$

Order Management System

J$)$

Order Management Database