By concentrating on the unique requirements and needs of the internal stakeholders, payoff analysis can be profitable and productive over the long-term. References:

Juan Alberto Aragon-Correa, & Enrique a Rubio-Lopez. (2007). Proactive Corporate Environmental Strategies: Myths and Misunderstandings. Long-Range Planning, 40(3), 357.

Jacobs, Robert, & Chase, Richard. (2010). Operations and Supply Chain Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: McGraw Hill Higher Education. 13th Edition.

MacMinn, Richard D., & Han, Li-Ming. (1990). Limited Liability, Corporate Value, and the Demand for Liability Insurance. Journal of Risk and Insurance, 57(4), 581.

6. What strategies are used by supermarkets, airlines, hospitals, banks, and cereal manufacturers to influence demand?

There is an abundance of strategies used by retailers and members of distribution channels, healthcare providers, service providers and consumer packaged goods manufacturers to influence, shape and drive demand for their products, services and upsell programs (Jacobs, Chase, 2010). The most common of these strategies is to concentrate on selling solutions and benefits over just features and price. This strategy concentrates on value over just price alone.

Influencing demand through the use of customer endorsements is also considered one of the most effective strategies each of these types of companies rely on to influence demand. Endorsements convey trust and invite prospective customers to see their unique requirements also reflected in the needs of customers who have already bought the products as well. Customer testimonials are very powerful as a means to influence demand through trust and relevance.

A third approach all of these businesses rely on to influence demand is their reliance on the unique experiences each of these businesses and their products and services offer (Tynan, McKechnie, 2009) . Each of these companies attempt to influence demand by providing well-communicated marketing messages that describe the experiences their products or services deliver. They are each attempting to influence demand through the marketing of exceptional experiences using their products or services, leading to trust being created with the brand (Tynan, McKechnie, 2009). Ultimately, each of these companies is attempting to become a trusted advisor in the markets they compete in (Urban, 2005).

References:

Jacobs, Robert, & Chase, Richard. (2010). Operations and Supply Chain Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: McGraw Hill Higher Education. 13th Edition.

Tynan, C., & McKechnie, S.. (2009). Experience marketing: a review and reassessment. Journal of Marketing Management, 25(5/6), 501.

Glen L. Urban. (2005). Customer Advocacy: A New Era in Marketing. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 24(1), 155-159.

7. In discussing characteristics of efficient plants, Goodson, developer of rapid plant assessments, suggests that numerous forklifts are a sign of poor space utilization. What do you think is behind this observation?

Dr. Goodson is the former CEO of Oshkosh Truck and has decades of experience in defining lean manufacturing and fulfillment systems throughout the automotive industry. Based on his previous experiences and the insights he delivers in Read a Plant -- Fast, an article he published in the Harvard Business Review in 2002 (Goodson, 2002) his contention is correct. In that article he argues that when there are many smaller components being used throughout a production process, hand-carts or automated fulfillment systems would be a better choice. He also contends that forklifts are expensive to operate, maintain and pose safety risk to those working in the warehouse area as well. All of these factors point to a systemic problem with the efficient use of space (Jacobs, Chase, 2010).

I agree with his assessment due to the following observations. First, forklifts are often purchased as capital assets and are therefore very expensive, maintain and depreciate over time (Metalworking Production Management, 2005). Having too many of them can cost a company more than the benefits these devices deliver. Second, Dr. Goodson is correct that this indicates a lack of efficiency in the use of space and signals that a distribution or warehouse center could be made significantly more efficient. Third, the use of automated systems for retrieving parts from inventory would have a higher ROI than a forklift investment as there would be no ancillary costs to adding additional production shifts. Dr. Goodson is correct in his assessment.

References:

R Eugene Goodson. (2002, May). Read a plant - Fast. Harvard Business Review, 80(5), 105-113.

Jacobs, Robert,...

(2010). Operations and Supply Chain Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: McGraw Hill Higher Education. 13th Edition.
Metalworking Production Management (2005). How good is your plant?. Metalworking Production, 149(1), 9.

8. In which way does the time horizon chosen for an aggregate plan determine whether it is the best plan for the firm?

The time horizon chosen for an aggregate production plan must reflect and take into account the constraints of the business model itself, the available resources to complete the plan's specific build requirements, and the variation in demand (Jacobs, Chase, 2010). All three of these factors must be quantified as much as possible for the aggregate production plan's time horizon to be accurate and lead to a profitable operation over time (Lim, Ozelkan, 2010). Aggregate production plan time horizons vary significantly across industries and across market leaders vs. mainstream companies within an industry as well. There is no single best practice or metric that defines the optimal aggregate production plan. Instead, the triangulating of demand sensing, constraints on resources, and the business model characteristics all must be taken into account (Jacobs, Chase, 2010). . In optimizing to these three strategic constraints, companies are able to attain the best possible time horizon for their unique requirements. The use of the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process as a means to optimize for these constraints is also pervasively being used (Ivert, Jonsson, 2010). S&OP is also increasingly being used to anticipate and response to demand variation including the development of accurate build forecasts and faster inventory turns based on better in-production synchronization of plans. In this way, the S&OP process gives a company the opportunity to manage their aggregate production plan time horizons with greater precision than they have in the past.