Wholesale Operations Manager Case Study
Big Box General Stores is a new retailer that we’re about to start supplying with our Vitamins and Supplements. We’re going to be on the shelves in all 500 stores with our 3 best-selling vitamins and our two, brand new, not yet released, anxiety and heart supplements. The launch date is December 1st and they must have the products delivered in their DC Network by November 2nd.
For their initial order they need to seed all stores with product and would like to hold 2 weeks of supply in their DCs as backup inventory. We have a single facing per item in each store that holds 3 units per facing. The estimated sales by item by store are provided below (Units Per Store Per Week).
Product UPSPW
Biotin Vitamins 0.8
Immunity Vitamins 0.9
Sleep Vitamins 1.1
Anxiety Supplement 0.9
Heart Supplement 0.6
Big Box has three distribution centers that serve all 500 stores – they are located in CA, TX and PA. The pallet height limit for their DCs is 65 inches (including the height of the pallet).
DC Loc Store Per DC
CA 140
TX 180
PA 180
Total 500
Today is October 18th and, due to supply chain issues, we’ve just learned of a delay in receiving the new supplements. The current delivery schedule to our Fulfillment Center in Columbus, OH is below, but things are changing regularly. There are no supply issues with the 3 vitamins.
Delivering to our warehouse by:
Supplement 10/18 10/25 10/29 11/2
Anxiety Supplement 400 400 800 1400
Heart Supplement 500 900 800 800
Questions:
1. Share your fulfillment plan for the initial shipment to Big Box (please share your working for this solution)?
2. How many cartons and pallets do you expect to ship to each DC (please share your working)?
3. What factors did you consider in coming up with this shipment plan?
4. What other options did you consider in coming up with your fulfillment plan?
Appendix
Product dimensions
Product Qty per Carton Carton Width (in) Carton Depth (in) Carton Height (in) Cartons Per Pallet Layer
Biotin Vitamins 8 5.63 17.5 6 16
Immunity Vitamins 8 5.63 17.5 6 16
Sleep Vitamins 8 5.63 17.5 6 16
Anxiety Supplement 24 16.5 11.5 11.5 9
Heart Supplement 24 16.5 11.5 11.5 9
