The supply chain refers to the network of companies, activities, and resources involved in the creation and delivery of a product or service from supplier to customer. It encompasses all stages of production, from sourcing raw materials to delivering the finished product to the customer.
Effective supply chain management is crucial for businesses to ensure the efficient and timely delivery of products, as well as to control costs and improve profitability.
With the increasing globalization of trade and the growth of e-commerce, the supply chain has become a critical component of many businesses and a popular topic for trivia. Here are some questions to test your knowledge of supply chain:
111 Supply Chain Trivia Questions Ranked From Easiest to Hardest (Updated for 2024)
- Warehouse workers know that the acronym "LIFO" stands for which inventory control method?
Answer: Last in, first out.
- In April 2021, what U.S. automaker paused production on its popular Bronco line due to COVID-19-related supply chain issues?
Answer: Ford
- What is practice of placing a purchase order to a supplier for a product that’s temporarily out of stock in your warehouse and has already been ordered by your customers?
Answer: Back Ordering
- 3PL refers to having an outsider handle supply chain functions like warehousing or using a trucking company for transporting. What does 3PL stand for?
Answer: Third Party Logistics
- Which four-letter acronym is used for a method of inventory management in which stock is issued and charged out on the basis of the age of the inventory?
Answer: FIFO
- If “downstream” refers to the demand side of the supply chain, what would you call the supply side?
Answer: Upstream
- In what country can one find the Wolfsburg Plant, the world's largest car-making manufacturing center?
Answer: Germany
- Which giant global retailer pioneered the “cross-docking” approach to make its supply chain more efficient?
Answer: Wal-Mart
- If you work in supply chain management, you’re probably familiar with the top software company in the business. What’s the name of the company that started in Germany in 1972 that’s especially well-known for its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and more recently its cloud-based products?
Answer: SAP
- Also known as "lean manufacturing," just-in-time manufacturing is a hyper-efficient process pioneered by what Japanese automaker in the 1960s?
Answer: Toyota
- What logistics company's orange and purple corporate logo was created in 1994 and has a hidden arrow between the two penultimate letters?
Answer: FedEx
- Several metropolitan areas in the US have highway sections during peak times designated as "HOV lanes." What does HOV stand for?
Answer: High-occupancy vehicle
- The Supply Chain Council provides a model of the business practices that lead from production to consumer satisfaction, a model known by what 4 letter acronym? It sounds like a word from the first sentence of the Gettysburg Address, minus the “E”.
Answer: SCOR
- During the surge of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, over 300,000 freelance workers were hired in two months to deliver groceries for what personal shopping app which uses a carrot for its logo?
Answer: Instacart
- What chain describes the activities that a firm operating in a specific industry performs in order to deliver their product? These chains are linked in a supply chain, and its "V" name describes the worth of something that the firm offers.
Answer: Value Chain
- Which term applies to buying products in bulk, usually at a discount, directly from the manufacturer or distributor?
Answer: Wholesale
- Better known for its Animal model vacuum cleaners, what brand has branched into hair care, with products like the Corrale straightener and the Airwrap styler?
Answer: Dyson
- This common manufacturing philosophy is the combination of a number and a Greek letter. Together, they refer to a set of techniques and tools for process improvement. Jack Welch made it central to his business strategy at General Electric in 1995. What is the two-word name of this technique?
Answer: Six Sigma
- Which term describes everything you have in stock that you intend to sell and is something that you need to carefully track to ensure you can meet customer demand?
Answer: Inventory
- What supply chain management company began life as the American Messenger Company in 1907, providing telegraphs? The Atlanta company is now one of the country’s largest shipping couriers with a new three letter acronym.
Answer: UPS
- In 1985, the National Council of Physical Distribution Management changed its name to the Council of Logistics Management. It got yet another name change in the years since—today, you know it as CSCMP which stands for what?
Answer: Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals
- An OS&D report identifies products that were over- or under-shipped (short) as well as those that arrived in what condition?
Answer: Damaged
- A SKU is an alphanumeric identifier that can help you figure out how much of a product you have on hand. What is SKU an acronym for?
Answer: Stock Keeping Unit
- Which supply chain transport method is primarily used for water, oil, and natural gas?
Answer: Pipeline
- Also known for delivery, and for growing their company to be nation-wide, logistics company UPS actually stands for what?
Answer: United Parcel Service
- What is the History Channel series that has featured adventurous drivers take the wheel while embarking on Alaska's Dalton Highway or Canada's frozen lakes?
Answer: Ice Road Truckers
- What management consulting firm, founded in 1926 by a University of Chicago professor, is the biggest of the Big Three management consultancies? In 1975 they debuted overhead value analysis.
Answer: McKinsey
- What word beginning with the letter ‘O’ is used to describe stock held within an organization where there is no longer any organizational reason for holding the stock?
Answer: Obsolete Stock
- Being the measurement of cost factors that go into the servicing of a customer, or the production of a product, what do the letters CTS stand for in Supply Chains?
Answer: Cost to Serve
- Which Y-term refers to how many of all the products produced can be used (in other words, the ones that are not defective)?
Answer: Yield
- What is the term for a buyer agreeing to buy a certain amount of goods over time, but not specifying exact shipment dates at time of purchase? It sounds like bed covering is what is being ordered at the time.
Answer: Blanket Order
- Relating to the size of standard shipping container, how many feet are mentioned in the acronym FEU?
Answer: Forty
- What term is given to a type of product distribution in which manufacturers ship products directly to customers on behalf of retailers?
Answer: Dropshipping
- Learning from World War I, the Germans famously stockpiled ample oil and gasoline as supplies for what "lightning war" method of warfare employed in WWII?
Answer: Blitzkrieg
- During 2021's UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, activists dressed as Pikachu to protest the continued use of coal by what Asian nation?
Answer: Japan
- The Sealed Air Corporation has made many millions of dollars through what trademarked shipping support aid that was first created in 1957?
Answer: Bubble wrap
- After the Port of Los Angeles, the busiest shipping port in the United States is in what West Coast city where the RMS Queen Mary retired, and Snoop Dogg grew up?
Answer: Long Beach
- What’s the term for the information a carrier can give to a customer (for example, showing that the package was signed for) to show a shipment made it to its destination?
Answer: Proof of Delivery
- DHL Express is a division of the world's largest logistics company and provides international courier, parcel and express mail services. The parent company of DHL Express calls what country home?
Answer: Germany
- The Ports of Los Angeles and New Orleans have been implementing the PortXchange logistics software used by what Dutch seaport, the busiest in Europe?
Answer: Rotterdam
- The Prinzessin Victoria Luise, the world's first ship designed solely for leisure travel instead of also carrying freight, set sail out of what German port in June 1900? This port city has long been Germany's busiest.
Answer: Hamburg
- When companies carefully purchase an amount of a good to reduce inventory, it is called an EOQ. What does EOQ stand for?
Answer: Economic Order Quantity
- If you've ever seen a container ship at sea, you've likely seen Maersk containers all over it. The Danish shipping container company was the world's largest from 1996 to 2021. What city in Denmark holds its headquarters offices?
Answer: Copenhagen
- Able to elude way more than 40 thieves, what Chinese e-commerce giant ranked in Gartner's Supply Chain Top 25 for the first time in 2019?
Answer: Alibaba
- What “A” term describes inventory that has been used or sold within a given period, often 12 months? It is a word often used as the opposite of “passive.”
Answer: Active Inventory
- What major supply chain storage item started to be used in 1925, revolutionizing the way storage space was used in warehouses?
Answer: Pallets
- What “B” term refers to a warehouse that is managed by the customs office or the government, allowing companies to store taxable goods for business purposes? It is a word also used to describe something that is securely joined to another thing, often by adhesive.
Answer: Bonded Warehouse
- CHOAM, a gigantic interplanetary conglomerate that effectively controls the supply chain across the cosmos, is a fictional company first introduced in what classic 1965 sci-fi novel by Frank Herbert?
Answer: Dune
- What is the name of the giant container ship that ran aground in the Suez Canal on March 23, 2021, blocking the canal for six days and causing huge supply chain headaches?
Answer: Ever Given
- Which logistics company based in Hong Kong is probably growing fast in 2022 in part due to global supply chain issues since its tech is all about making on-demand delivery simple? (Hint: Its name is kinda like a double dose of “Do-Ri-Mi” paired with an action verb.)
Answer: Lalamove
- Which term that you’d use to describe uncooked meat also applies to materials that have not been processed yet, like cotton, coal, and crude oil?
Answer: Raw
- What type of facility (abbreviated “DC”) receives products from various manufacturers and groups them to be shipped off to their final destinations (e.g., retailers)?
Answer: Distribution Center
- Who is known as the "father of logistics" for his work in developing efficient supply chain management techniques during World War II?
Answer: Brehon Somervell
- What supply chain metric measures the error-free rate of the entire supply chain process and is composite of all the orders multiplied in a chain?
Answer: Perfect Order Index
- What supply chain storage that helps ensure you’re prepared in the event of a shortage can include a mix of raw materials and semi-finished/finished goods?
Answer: Inventory
- To help make sure they’re cost-efficient, factories are often built with one or two focuses. The first is product, in which the facility has a hand in making a product from start to finish. What’s the second focus, which is when a facility mostly just handles one or two parts of the process—for example, assembly—which can apply to multiple products instead of just one?
Answer: Functional
- What term is given to a repairable inventory item that can be repeatedly restored to a fully serviceable condition and re-used over the normal life cycle of the parent equipment to which it is related?
Answer: Rotable
- Listen all of y'all: what "C" term is the word for the right to transport goods or people between two ports within the same country? Originally applied to coastal shipping it was later expanded to land and air transportation.
Answer: Cabotage
- What term, with a disease in its name, refers to the situation where there is more demand for a product than there is supply? This can happen when customer orders exceed the company's production capacity or when there are shortages of raw materials.
Answer: Backflu
- What two-word term is given to an online repository of products and materials that can be accessed by authorized users from any location?
Answer: Virtual Warehouse
- In 1907, a couple of teenagers with $100 came up with a package delivery service. Claude Ryan and Jim Casey’s “American Messenger Company” eventually changed its name, and today, it’s known by what three-letter acronym you’ll see on a fleet of brown trucks?
Answer: UPS
- What sort of stock is inventory that is kept on hand specifically for emergency situations or unexpected spikes in demand?
Answer: Strategic Stock
- Take the red pill and tell me: what sort of barcode is a type one that encodes information using a two-dimensional array of dots or squares?
Answer: Matrix Barcode
- What sort of part is any finished goods, end item, or part that is mixed, fabricated, assembled, stirred, or blended from one or more other components?
Answer: Parent Part
- With a wide variety of vessels crossing it a day, from cargo ships to passenger ferries to fishing boats, what European waterway is considered the busiest shipping lane in the world?
Answer: English Channel
- What term beginning with H refers to the process of combining two or more shipments into a single shipment that is recognized by a single bill of lading?
Answer: Hitchment
- Indiana and Henry Sr. could probably tell you: The Merchant Marine Act of 1920, which states that shipping between U.S. ports is restricted to U.S. vessels, is more commonly known by what name?
Answer: Jones Act
- What term beginning with L is when a driver assists with loading and unloading the trailer contents?
Answer: Lumping
- What is the name of the American truck company that manufactured its first truck in 1907, inspired the name of a Pixar character in the movie "Cars," and was purchased by Volvo in 2000?
Answer: Mack Trucks
- What Nabisco-produced snack cookie with mostly yellow packaging was named for a town near Boston?
Answer: Fig Newton
- Given that they are all brands owned by the same company, the supply chains for Hellmann's, Dove, Axe, and Lipton are all managed by what Anglo-Dutch multinational manufacturer?
Answer: Unilever
- Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Alcoa and Arconia are the two largest U.S.-based producers of what elemental metal?
Answer: Aluminum
- Founded in 2012, Buho logistics has specialized in printed items supply chains, and was founded in which North American country?
Answer: Mexico
- The truck company Peterbilt got its start in 1939 selling trucks with trailers specifically designed to haul what commodity? The founder was frustrated with trying to use horses or rivers to move the items in question.
Answer: Logs
- Manufacturer supply chain audits are one of many things in the 2010 Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, commonly known by the hyphenated last names of what two U.S. senators?
Answer: Dodd-Frank
- Which “three” theory states that there are three key parts of an effective supply chain: agility, adaptability, and alignment? (Hint: No, it’s not the company that will come rescue you if your car breaks down…)
Answer: Triple A
- “Dimwit” for short, what’s another name for a package’s volumetric weight?
Answer: Dimensional Weight
- Working stevedores and illicit smugglers on the docks of Baltimore are a focus of the action in Season 2 of what acclaimed HBO series?
Answer: The Wire
- Artificially induced logistics demand hits super high levels on Black Friday and what Black Friday equivalent in China that sounds like speed dating?
Answer: Singles' Day
- Which supply chain management theory highlights how important it is to find “bottlenecks” and get rid of them?
Answer: Theory of Constraints
- What term is given to the internal rules and procedures for positioning stock in a warehouse or store after goods inward processing?
Answer: Put Away Rules
- Like watching a boat float along a river, a product is said to be at which point in the supply chain flow when it’s on the demand side?
Answer: Downstream
- Which sports-inspired term refers to a tool for measuring a company’s KPIs using easy-to-understand targets grouped by color—for example, red, yellow, and green?
Answer: Scorecard
- What sort of terms are international trade terms that define the responsibilities of buyers and sellers when transporting goods across borders?
Answer: Inco terms
- Described on its own website as "Trucker's Disneyland," the "World's Largest Truckstop" includes eight restaurants, a chiropractor, and a barbershop. The complex is located off of I-80 near Walcott in what state?
Answer: Iowa
- Which B-term refers to when a vehicle transporting cargo returns to the place it started at? (Hint: When the vehicle returns with no cargo, it’s called “deadheading.”)
Answer: Backhauling
- An international standard of product identification used in the grocery and retail areas of business, what does EAN stand for?
Answer: European Article Numbering
- What term is given to a forecasting technique that involves averaging out data points over time in order to reduce variability?
Answer: Smoothing
- Co-founded by Leonard X. Bosack and Sandy Lerner, what company known for manufacturing and selling telecommunications equipment and networking hardware is also recognized for its logo, which purposely resembles the Golden Gate Bridge?
Answer: Cisco
- What type of supply chain model relies on stable supply and demand, with processes scheduled to ensure a steady cadence of information and products?
Answer: Continuous-flow
- What word beginning with the letter “N” is a very small pellet of plastic used as raw material in plastic manufacturing? Its small size makes it very easy to enter and then pollute various bodies of water.
Answer: Nurdle
- In 2015, the European Union passed legislation to require that appliance manufacturers declare the intended lifespan of products. What two-word "P.O." consumer and environmental protection issue was the EU trying to address?
Answer: Planned Obsolescence
- What “C” document allows a company to export items and reimport them in the same year, with no import duties? Despite its name, it is not a compound word describing a net for your automobile.
Answer: Carnet
- Founded in 1956, Linfox is one of the largest supply chain and logistics companies that started in which country?
Answer: Australia
- What two-word term is for a system where products for store orders are not put away into the warehouse racking for later picking but are processed into store orders on arrival at the Regional Distribution Center?
Answer: Cross Docking
- What fabric material was first spun in India and referred to by Roman emperors as “woven winds” and by Mogul emperors as “morning dew” or “cloth of running water"?
Answer: Cotton
- In the UK in 2018, which well-known fast-food chain had a massive supply chain failure where all of its supply was in one warehouse, where a massive car accident occurred close by thus cutting of over half the stores, forcing them to close for a few days?
Answer: KFC
- What term is given to method of optimizing the ‘pick path’ in a warehouse, by ensuring that frequently selected items are closer to the dispatch area, or lower down in high rise facilities?
Answer: Slotting
- What term beginning with H, is an approach to level production throughout the supply chain to match the planned rate of end product sales, in the just in time philosophy?
Answer: Heijunka
- During the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon was supplied with boxes thanks to the work of what A.I.-integrated, Jason Traff-founded Austin logistics startup with a very on-the-nose name?
Answer: Shipwell
- Dockyard analogy: Working on the dock is to longshoreman, as schlepping stuff around the ships is to what nine-letter S-word profession?
Answer: Stevedore
- What “Z” cloud-based order management system allows for stock flow to be streamlined across multiple channels? Its aim is to simplify a company’s inventory.
Answer: Zoho Inventory
- Which “big league” M-term designates a certified air carrier that serves large populations and has a revenue of at least $1 billion?
Answer: Major
- What publicly traded logistics company with a Greenwich, CT headquarters joined the Fortune 500 for the first time in June 2016 and one month later was named the fastest-growing company on the list?
Answer: XPO Logistics
- Started in 1946 and focusing on temperature sensitive products, what company with multiple sites in British Columbia and Alberta is one of Canada’s largest supply chain companies?
Answer: Versacold
- What 4th-largest trucking company in the United States is based in Lowell, Arkansas and was created in 1961?
Answer: J.B. Hunt
- What two-word term is the primary location in a warehouse at which order picking, of less than pallet loads, is undertaken?
Answer: Pick face
- Although it sounds like it has something to do with a particular children’s music group, what two-word phrase is a term used in route & fleet planning that converts the ‘straight line’ distance between two points to an approximation of the actual road distance?
Answer: Wiggle Factor
- What British supply chain company that shares its name with a small town in Somerset started out as a milk delivery company in 1925?
Answer: Wincanton
- What is the name of the Turin, Italy-based trucking company which designs and builds commercial trucks including the Astra, Magirus, and EuroCargo product lines? As a quick hint, this company's name is in fact a five-letter acronym.
Answer: Iveco
- In supply chain terminology, what is the term for products which are currently being moved from one location to another? This term is also used in surfing.
Answer: Pipeline Stocks
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About the Author
Eli Robinson is the Chief Trivia Officer at Water Cooler Trivia. He was once in a Bruce Springsteen cover band called F Street Band.
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