Managers at Flavors, a restaurant chain, train their employees such that in the absence of employees, someone trained in the same skills can step in and do the job equally well. Thus, many modules in training are extensive as they provide employees with details of the skill sets required for different jobs. In practice, this lengthy training program does help the company as a well-trained and flexible workforce is at their disposal at all times. The managers at Flavors use .

Alandowner entered into a written agreement with a real estate broker whereby the broker would receive a commission of 10% of the sale price if he procured a "ready, willing, and able buyer" for the landowner's property and if the sale actually proceeded through closing. the broker found a buyer who agreed in writing to buy the property from the landowner for $100,000, the landowner's asking price. the buyer put up $6,000 as a down payment. the agreement between the landowner and the buyer contained a liquidated damages clause providing that, if the buyer defaulted by failing to tender the balance due of $94,000 at the closing date, damages would be 10% of the purchase price. the landowner included that clause because she was counting on using the proceeds of the sale for a business venture that would likely net her at least $10,000. the buyer became seriously ill and defaulted. when he recovered, he demanded that the landowner return his $6,000, and the landowner refused. the broker also demanded the $6,000 from the landowner and was refused. the broker and the buyer filed separate suits against the landowner, with the buyer pleading impossibility of performance. the two cases are consolidated into a single case. how should the court rule as to the disposition of the $6,000?

Employees at a library check out books to patrons. books have an isbn and a name. the library sometimes has multiple copies of the same book. books have one or more authors. a patron is an individual who has an active (non-expired) library card. for each library card, we store the person's first and last names and their address. for each employee, we store their employee id, current salary, first and last name and their address. we also store the employee id of their current manager. each time we check out a book to a patron we need to store the date of the transaction, the employee who checked out the book to the patron, and the library card of the patron. some employees have library cards. if an employee patron turns in a book late, the fine that they pay is a percentage of their salary. some employees are authors who have library cards—they are allowed to check out as many books as they like.

Why are the four primary service outputs of spatial convenience, lot size, waiting time, and product variety important to logistics management? provide examples of competing firms that differ in the level of each service output provided to customers?