You are the CEO for a major electronics company that just announced the launch of a new smart watch with a variety of tracking capabilities designed to make the life of its wearers easier and healthier. While the watches arent cheap to make, they are so highly sought after that youll charge premium prices and make a good profit. Pre-orders for the watches begin stacking up on announcement day and you have promised customers theyll receive watches in two weeks. You have never failed to deliver on a promise like this before, but you just received a call from your overseas factory: The watches will not be shipped tomorrow as planned, but will be delayed two weeks due to an engineering problem. Since the transit time for the ocean vessel you typically use is two weeks, your customers will receive their highly anticipated watches two weeks late. Based on this scenario and your knowledge of physical distribution, what transportation option best meets your goals?

a. Ship by pipeline because massive quantities of product can be moved quickly and inexpensively, and customers will receive watches on time. Shipping in this manner will be at a lower cost than ocean freight.

b. Ship by train because its faster and almost as cheap as ocean freight; in addition, customers will receive watches only a few days late at no additional cost to you.

c. Still ship by ocean vessel to keep costs down. Customers will understand.

d. Ship by airfreight because customers will receive watches on time, although it will shave 5% off your gross margin.