Suppose that you are a retailer, and you would like to design your own Supply Chain to launch a new products in a competitive environment. You will procure such a product from a wholesaler who will deliver the product to you, as needed, on the basis of a pricing scheme agreement. You should employ the most appropriate techniques in order to operate as efficiently as possible. All the data that you will use should be taken from the real-life, or at least should be realistic (i.e., as close as possible to the reality). Feel free to choose the country/region where you will operate and where your customers are located. Identify 6—8 customers spread over that region such a way that you can serve all of them with one single vehicle during a one-day working shift. You need to develop several techniques and also explain the following items in your Report:

1. Your product, your SC facilities and your strategic fit.

2. Most of your decisions will be based on the amounts of product you will sell. Since you are trading a new product, you do not have previous any data-series of its demand. However, you can use the sales of a similar product that are available for the last four years in order to predict your sales for the first 6 months of operation in 2022. The available data is summarized in the following Table:

3. 

   Note 1: Please personalize your data (so they become unique and different from any other student) by completing the missing values with random numbers of your own choice.

   Note 1: It is easy to note that the seasonal periodicity is 12 months; For simplicity, assume that the cyclic effect will be repeated along the next 6 months of 2022 exactly as was observed for the same corresponding months of year 2021 (for example, consider that “vJan-2022” is the same as “vJan-2021”, and so on).

   Use the above data (and notes) in order to forecast the amounts of your product to be sold during the first 6 months of operation 2022.

   The monthly forecast that you defined in the previous question is the aggregated demand over all the customers. In the sequel, assign to each of your customers a demand that is proportional to the population of the town/village where he/she is located.

4. Now use one of the location techniques in order to identify the most appropriate location where to establish your warehouse (where you will stock your product and from where you will serve all your customers).

5. Your warehouse will be periodically replenished from your supplier (wholesaler). Draw an inventory policy to decide how much to order and how often such replenishments should happen. Choose all the other parameters (including the costs) such they result to be as realistic as possible.

6. Note: Feel free to employ either a static or a dynamic inventory technique. In the former case, use the average over the 6 months (defined in question i) as a constant and deterministic demand value to be satisfied.

7. Develop one of the techniques in order to identify the route(s) that your vehicle should perform in order to serve your customers, based on their demand.

9. Draw some concluding remarks that include novel ideas that may be worth incorporating to improve your business and to reduce any risk of failure. Moreover, discuss briefly the opportunity of globalizing your project.

10. Report needs to be written in a concise, but rigorous, manner and should be between 1500 and 2500 words long excluding references, tables and figures. It should be comprehensive and self-explanatory.
     

Year 2018 Month Sales 699 Jan Feb -- 630 March 657 April 626 May 716 June -- 510 638 720 -- 696 July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Year 2019 Month Jan Feb March April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Sales 695 661 -- 713 653 -- 527 506 -- 742 757 745 Year 2020 Month Jan Feb March April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Sales 719 688 691 -- 692 800 561 511 620 -- 802 777 Year 2021 Month Jan Feb March April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Sales 755 735 710 718 -- 769 574 535 686 737 817 ICC