Final answer:
Procurement focuses on cost savings by obtaining goods and services at the lowest costs, utilizing strategies such as economies of scale. Manufacturing, by contrast, prioritizes meeting delivery commitments, even if it means encounter higher costs due to complex logistics and transportation efforts.
Step-by-step explanation:
In relation to the overall supply chain, procurement places a priority on cost savings while manufacturing places a priority on doing whatever is necessary to deliver form, time, and place as promised on a specific order. Therefore, the correct answer to the student's question is 4) Procurement, Manufacturing.
Procurement involves sourcing and purchasing goods and services that a company needs to fulfill its business model. An essential part of procurement is to acquire necessary inputs at the lowest possible cost. This can include negotiation with suppliers for bulk pricing to achieve economies of scale, which indicates that as the quantity of output goes up, the cost per unit goes down.
On the other hand, manufacturing is concerned with the production of the goods. Once the least costly production technologies and scales have been determined, manufacturing has to ensure that products are created and delivered to the right place, at the right time, and in the correct form, even if it means higher costs due to complexities such as shipping over congested networks. Hence, manufacturing efforts prioritize meeting the specific order requirements over cost savings.