Spartan Plastics Elise Lovejoy, the new logistics coordinator at Spartan Plastics, was looking at the stack of papers and the two Spartan Plastics-Background Information computer screens in front of her. It was Friday afternoon Spartan Plastics was a medium-sized producer of high- the Friday before the long weekend-and she still had not quality. highly engineered plastic components. These com- come to a resolution. She knew that first thing Tuesday morning she would have a meeting with Bob Barley, CEO and major owner of Spartan Plastics. The issue that they would be discussing: how to get the increasing shipping costs under control. With the forecasts for the upcoming ponents were typically found on the interior of most trucks and cars. They tended to come in variety of colors and finishes-everything from small door panels to panels that looked like wood. Typically, their critical major custom- ers consisted of the Big Three (General Motors, Ford, and year looking promising, shipping volumes were expected Chrysler) and were located in the Detroit-Toledo-Lansing to increase by 10 to 25 percent. Consequently, th e shipping area. During the last year, Spartan Plastics had shipped costs had to be addressed because, simply put, they were too high. approximately 10,000 pounds of components per day to each assembly plant served