ASSIGNMENT WEEK 5

You work for B&B Import and Export Incorporated, who just acquired a new business, Agro Smart Suppliers, a Canadian distributor of outdoor power equipment such as trimmers, chainsaws, blowers, mowers, log splitters, pressure washers, parts and accessories. As a new division of B&B, your manager has given you the task of laying out a road map to success from an operations management and supply chain perspective.

Among the responsibilities you have here are some of the main requests:

1. Lay out a flow chart that illustrates the main suppliers (factories), who they interact with, the type of transportation they use to deliver to Canadian ports, and the timeline from each location to your warehouses in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, and Toronto.
2. Using your knowledge from concepts and strategies presented from week 1 to 3, provide a list of least 3 suggestions with detailed justifications on how to improve the current supply chain map by increasing efficiencies and reducing cost without affecting quality or delivery time.
3. Be creative by laying out specific overseas and local factory locations, type of inputs and outputs factories use, different delivery time from when an order is placed to the time arrives to a Canadian port (air, sea or land).
4. Using some of the concepts and strategies listed below, make sure your suggestions are in line with the requirements and that your company won't have to increase prices at least for the next year.

- Efficiencies with transportation

- Inventory management strategy

- Reduce production cost

- Economies of scale

- Product differentiation

- Efficiency with warehousing

- Logistics strategy

- Substituting information for inventory

- Replacing physical inventory

- Procurement strategy

- Warehouse capacity planning

- Determining/ identifying bottlenecks

- Evaluating alternatives

In a page or two maximum, please illustrate, describe, and/or specify your findings, observations,and recommendations as per list of requests above.