The Challenge

Homed faced the challenge of increasing their operational fulfillment capabilities to support, not only their rapidly growing distribution overall, but also to accommodate their busy season from September to December. Homed works with many ecommerce retailers for promotional sales (drop-shipments) that include Target.com and Amazon, as well as large-scale Black Friday sales with retailers such as Home Depot, Macy's and Bed Bath & Beyond.

Additionally Homed does not have storage capacity to accommodate the increase in orders in the busy season and as a result, leased the adjacent warehouse next to their office for amounts higher than their office lease for storage. The inventory is stored in batches but there's no unique identification number to determine each item as there is no designated storage area for any products and machinery.

Currently, customers can only order online from their website which during busy times tends to go offline. There is no 24-hour customer service at Homed so customers tend to get frustrated with communication.

Homed required a fulfillment provider that could quickly scale with their operation to support increased sales as needed.

give a report of a detailed analysis of the situation with Homed.

1. In the report, please identify the issues affecting Homed and using your distribution knowledge and principles based on chapter 10 derive a plan of action to solve the problem.

2. Your plan of action must be step-by-step with adequate information to support the strategy.

3. Use real-life 3PL and other DC methodologies to support your analysis.