CTSC practice question 8 of 25
One main goal of pursuing a digital supply chain transformation is:
Full set: 151 questionsThe primary, overarching goal of a digital supply chain transformation is strategic. It involves leveraging integrated digital technologies and capabilities to create a resilient, agile, and visible supply chain that provides a sustainable competitive advantage. This advantage is achieved not just through efficiency gains but by enabling new business models, enhancing customer value, and creating a system that is difficult for competitors to replicate. The focus is on long-term strategic positioning rather than purely operational metrics.
A. Achieving perfect order fulfillment is an important operational key performance indicator (KPI), but it is a component of the larger strategic goal, not the main goal itself.
C. Integrating tools to increase operational efficiencies is a means to an end, not the ultimate strategic purpose of the transformation.
D. Maximizing sales through a specific channel like e-commerce is a tactical business goal, not the main driver for transforming the entire end-to-end supply chain.
1. APICS CTSC Learning System, Module 1, Section C, Chapter 1, "Digital Supply Chains." This chapter frames digital transformation as a path to creating new competitive advantages and business value.
2. Büyüközkan, G., & Göçer, F. (2018). Digital Supply Chain: Literature review and a proposed framework for future research. Computers in Industry, 97, 157-177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2018.02.010. The paper emphasizes that digital transformation aims to create intelligent, connected, and agile supply chains for competitive advantage.
3. Rogers, D. S. (2016). The Digital Supply Chain: A Guide to the Next-Generation of Supply Chain Management. CSCMP. The text discusses how digital transformation is not just about technology adoption but about fundamentally changing how supply chains create value and competitive differentiation.
Question breakdown
Key idea: Digital transformation aims to create lasting competitive advantage by integrating capabilities across people, process and technology, not to optimize one metric or channel.
How to reach the answer
- The words 'main goal' point to a strategic purpose, not an operational result.
- Options A, C and D each narrow the goal to one metric, to technology integration, or to one sales channel.
- Transformation is about strategy-driven, integrated capabilities that competitors find hard to copy.
- B is the only option framed at that strategic level.
Each option
Common trap: Option C sounds like a digital initiative, which leads candidates to confuse technology integration with transformation.
In practice: Executives sponsoring a digital program judge it on whether it strengthens a differentiating capability, such as responsiveness or customization, not on how many systems were connected.
Remember: Transformation is about durable advantage through integrated capabilities, and technology is only the means.
Drafted with AI assistance and checked against the answer key.
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