2. Case study The company We consider a start-up company that commercializes gift items in The Netherlands and Belgium. The company orders the items from a manufacturer located in China, who in turn receives raw material and components from a variety of suppliers (see product description). The company keeps inventory of items at a Distribution Center (DC) in The Netherlands by means of a Vendor-Managed Inventory contract with the distributor, who is responsible of sending out the items to the final retailers. The items are shipped to The Netherlands by container (either full container or less-than-a-full container) and once in the port of Rotterdam a third party trucking company brings the items to the DC