Description

RSM-8423 – Optimizing Supply Chain Management and Logistics

The Athers Controversy

A Case Study in the Food & Beverage Industry

Introduction

“I will not change my ways, you all tricksters!”
However, this will not be an easy task. Roger has played an adversarial role and did not disclose important information about their current policies, only sharing minimal data for the analysis.

Data

Samantha wants to focus on the company most popular product, a healthy canned protein, which accounts for more than 80% of their sales.
The products are stored on temperature-controlled shelves that must be dusted and cleaned regularly, incurring a cost of $0.25/unit per day. Each unit is sold at a high margin of $35.50 to retailers.

Demand

The demand is handled by the marketing team at the company, which is led by Roger’s wife. Alleging privacy concerns, they can only share limited information with Samantha and your team.

Your mission

Your mission is to build a data-driven narrative in the form of a 10-page report to be sent to investors concerning the current and possibly alternative inventory policies. You must provide clear, persuasive recommendations based on your analysis of the data and the models that you considered, highlight tradeoffs as appropriate.
To help you design this report, Samantha outlined some guiding managerial questions that you must address when constructing your narrative. They are as follows:
1. What is the demand pattern(s) that you identified?
2. What is the current inventory policy that the company implements?
6. Samantha is focused on creating resilient supply chains, but she is also concerned about trade-offs. For your analysis of (4) and (5), evaluate the profits and costs for different levels of stockout risks. It is often very persuasive to build a plot “risk vs. profit” and “risk vs. cost,” for example.
7. Suppose we want a more flexible model, where we can order any quantity that we wish in any moment in time. Propose a new model based on this flexibility.
For all questions above, assume the costs and parameters will remain the same in the future. You are also free to make additional assumptions, as long as they are reasonable and appropriately justified. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the system.

Deliverables

The deliverable for this case study are:
• A report in PDF format that addresses the managerial questions in a narrative format to the investment board. The report can be in any format that you desire. It must, however, include an executive summary and a clear suggestion of our inventory plan and trade-offs. Your report must be at most 10 pages (or less), not counting the appendix (which can be of any length).

• The source code in Python with your analysis. Spreadsheets (e.g., Excel) are allowed for plotting purposes only. The code must be clearly organized so that we can replicate your results exactly.

Evaluation

Your report will be given a raw score out of 100 points using the following scheme:
• Models [30 points]: If the inventory models you designed are sound and adequate to the problem.
• Analysis [30 points]: if the analysis is sound and comprehensive, addressing the questions posed by the agency.
• Implementation [30 points]: If the implementation of your models is correct and free of errors or bugs. It must also be well organized and readable.
• Writing [10 points]: if the report is well-written and organized.
You will also receive a letter grade associated with your raw score, alongside an explanation of your mark. The letter grade is adjusted based on the relative performance of the class and the difficulty of the case study. Please check the syllabus for more information on the letter grade.