Dawn Sharp is the owner of Sharp's Sandwich Shop. Her shop is open 24/7 and serves many different types of sandwiches, from classic breakfast sandwiches to more exotic burgers and other sandwiches usually consumed at lunch and dinner. Not all of the menu items are available all day. Dawn has divided her menu into four timeframesbreakfast, lunch, dinner, and after hours. Breakfast runs from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. Lunch begins at 11 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m. Dinner begins early, at 3 p.m., and continues until 9 p.m. Between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m., customers can select sandwiches from the after-hour's section of the menu.

Sharp's Sandwich Shop is in the heart of downtown New York City. Some periods are more brisk than others; however overall, because it is the city that never sleeps, business is reasonably steady most days. New Yorkers are fast moving and always in a rush. Consequently, no one wants to wait very long for their sandwich, no matter how unique or complicated it may be. Because of this, Dawn has set up a system where the kitchen produces specific sandwiches in bulk. For example, a basic ham and cheese on rye bread can be made in advance, wrapped, and placed in the ready bin. This way, when a customer orders a ham and cheese on rye, they get it quickly.

One challenge to this system is warm sandwiches. Depending on the complexity, that is, is it a plain cheese burger, or one with specific toppings selected by the customer, a premade warm sandwich can be made and placed in the warmer.

Another challenge to this system is that Sharp's sandwiches are very popular because of the quality of the sandwiches. Part of the quality is their freshness. Therefore, whether it is a cold sandwich or a warm sandwich, neither can stay in the premade bins too long. After a set period of time, if a sandwich is still in the bin it is removed and placed in the charity bin. The charity bin contains food that is still edible; however, won't be sold to Sharp's customers. The food in the charity bin is donated to a local homeless shelter twice a day.

Dawn strongly believes in giving back to the community. Her company sponsors runs for several causes throughout the year. Therefore, although it would be easier to throw out the food whose freshness life has reached its limit according to her standard of quality, giving it to the homeless shelter is an important outreach program for her. However, obviously, Dawn's business model is based on selling the food, not giving it away. She realizes she cannot completely prevent items from sitting in the bins past her standard-of-freshness quality time. However, as she reviews her monthly financial statements, Dawn sees a trend of increasing waste, that is, more going into the charity bin.

As Dawn examines her financials, she notices that her sandwich shop is going through certain inventory items faster than usual. From the ingredients listed, Dawn suspects that more of the high-end sandwiches are reaching her freshness quality time limit. Furthermore, as she compares the point-of-sale data to her inventory expense data, she concludes that there are spikes in the day where more sandwiches are reaching the charity bin.

Dawn speculates on what could be the issue. She reflects back on her class in supply chain management, specifically the inventory management chapter. She realizes that her primary focus had been on freshness, a key quality metric. She also recognized that timely service was another key quality metric that enabled her to get high customer satisfaction ratings. In hindsight, Dawn grasps that she had ignored basic inventory requirements while focusing on quality. Because of the freshness issue, more and more, her staff was making two sandwiches and only charging for one. Dawn firmly believes she cannot compromise on the quality; however, she needs to improve her inventory management in order to eliminate the growing waste.

Complete the 3 questions in the case study and record your input in the drop box

Questions.

1. Dawn understands her customers very well. She knows that they want two things: (1) speed in getting the sandwich, no matter what type and (2) the sandwich must taste fresh. As Dawn works out how to improve her inventory management process, how can she utilize the ABC inventory classification system as part of the remedy for this situation?

2. As we examine this case, we know that the basic issue is low inventory turnover. Consequently, the bins are overstocked during specific times and items must be discarded because they exceed the freshness quality time limit. As she considers this point, Dawn is debating if she needs to use the EOQ model or the EMQ model. Provide a recommendation to Dawn on which model would be the most effective for her situation. Explain why your choice is better than the one you did not select.

3. Considering Sharp's Sandwich Shop's inventory issue, justify to Dawn what type of inventory review system she should establish. Go one step further, explain how this supports your previous answers to the above questions.