Consider a manufacturing process for an electronic appliance with a lead time of L = 9 weeks. The process produces three product variants, customized for the electrical codes for different regions: North America; Europe; and Asia. Except for the customization of the electronics, the product is the same for all regions. Within the manufacturing process, the customization currently occurs at the start of production; the customization decision is not reversible, so once a unit is started into production, it is destined for one of the three regions.

Each product is made to stock, and the inventory is controlled with a periodic review, base stock policy.

The review period is r = 1 week, demand is assumed to be normally distributed, and the safety factor is z = 2. The demand parameters are given in the following table.

Region	Mean Demand Per Week	Standard Deviation of Demand Per Week
North America	100	30
Europe	80	24
Asia	150	45

Determine the safety stocks for each product variant. Round to the nearest whole number.

2- Suppose now that the customization of the product can be delayed until after 6 weeks into the 9-week manufacturing process. That is, and . How much can the safety stocks be reduced? Use the cross dock model to determine the safety stocks for each product variant, for this assumption of delayed differentiation.

What is the difference between the initial total safety stock and the total cross-docked safety stock?

Round to the nearest whole number.

3- Suppose the customization can begin after week 8. That is, and .

How much additional reduction of the safety stocks is now possible? Use the cross dock model to determine the safety stocks for each product variant.