Scenario 13.2:
Star Supplies, Inc. manufactures commercial-grade floor cleaners, such as vacuums and floor polishers. The firm has recently begun manufacturing other janitorial-related product lines, such as paper products and chemical cleaners. Star Supplies distributes its products in two ways. It sells its vacuum, floor polisher, and janitorial supply products to an independent business that takes title to the products and then sells them to various small businesses throughout the region. Also, Star has a list of large businesses that it distributes to directly, on an as-needed basis. These businesses keep very little inventory and purchase janitorial supplies in small quantities. Recently, Star has decided to add two new service produc lines-paper shredding and a uniform rental service.

Clint Rodriguez, the marketing manager, is conducting a meeting to discuss the ways in which Star can strategically manage these new businesses. Star has the choice of marketing the paper shredding service to their large business clients, by picking up the paper as they drop off the other janitorial supplies, or they can buy a small paper shredding business and market to both large and small business customers. With regard to the uniform rental service, Star can either pick up and deliver the uniforms to the small businesses themselves, or contract that out to a third party. Refer to Scenario 13.2. Clint's suggestion for the uniform rental service was either picking up and delivering the uniforms themselves, or contracting this to a third party. If Star decides to pick up and deliver the uniforms with its own trucks, this is an example of a(n) channel. If Star contracts this action to a third party, it is called .

A. long; industrial distribution
B. direct; industrial distribution
C. long; outsourcing
D. direct; outsourcing
E. exclusive; outsourcing

Blue computers, a major pc manufacturer in the united states, currently has plants in kentucky and pennsylvania. the kentucky plant has a capacity of 1 million units a year and the pennsylvania plant has a capacity of 1.5 million units a year. the firm divides the united states into five markets: northeast, southeast, midwest, south, and west. each pc sells for $1,000. the firm anticipates a 50 perc~nt growth in demand (in each region) this year (after which demand will stabilize) and wants to build a plant with a capacity of 1.5 million units per year to accommodate the growth. potential sites being considered are in north carolina and california. currently the firm pays federal, state, and local taxes on the income from each plant. federal taxes are 20 percent of income, and all state and local taxes are 7 percent of income in each state. north carolina has offered to reduce taxes for the next 10 years from 7 percent to 2 percent. blue computers would like to take the tax break into consideration when planning its network. consider income over the next 10 years in your analysis. assume that all costs remain unchanged over the 10 years. use a discount factor of 0.1 for your analysis. annual fixed costs, production and shipping costs per unit, and current regional demand (before the 50 percent growth) are shown in table 5-13. (a) if blue computers sets an objective of minimizing total fixed and variable costs, where should they build the new plant? how should the network be structured? (b) if blue computers sets an objective of maximizing after-tax profits, where should they build the new plant? how should the network be structured? variable production and shipping cost ($/unit) annual fixed cost northeast southeast midwest south west (million$) kentucky 185 180 175 175 200 150 pennsylvania 170 190 180 200 220 200 n. carolina 180 180 185 185 215 150 california 220 220 195 195 175 150 demand ('000 units/month) 700 400 400 300 600