L.L. Bean, Inc.: Item Forecasting and Inventory Management

Arntzen, B. C., G. G. Brown, T. P. Harrison, L. L. Trafton. 1995. Global supply chain management at Digital Corporation. Interfaces 25(1) 69-93.

Suppliers generally have a moderate to high bargaining power within the industry due to the limited number of suppliers which forces aviation companies to choose from the number available and accordingly to accept their prices. In fact, fuel is the second highest cost for aviation companies. There are highly depended on supplier’s prices and the availability which indicates on a relatively high bargaining power of suppliers. In addition, there are high switching costs which are strongly in favor of the suppliers and means that the company experiences an increase in operating costs when switching to another supplier as flying another type of aircraft leads to additional costs (maintenance, training etc.).Aircrafts are vulnerable to delays due to the location of gate locations which leads to a decrease in utilization and therefore to an increase in costs.

Abstract —There are some complex and compelling challenges that global manufacturing industries should face, which includes price fluctuation, supply-chain inefficiencies and increasing customer expectations. In order to meet the demand of this economic environment, manufacturers need to find innovative, smarter ways to face those challenges. Thus, the efficient inventory management becomes urgent to manufacturers and it could help improve profitability and increase customer satisfaction. This paper aims to talk about what inventory management is and its importance, what problems inventory management might have and how to improve inventory management efficiency.

This is something that must be addressed in supply chain management because if one area of the company is operating below capacity the other sectors will not be able to make up this lack of production. Another main component of supply chain management is how to handle damaged goods. It is a waste of money to send out defective products because it costs the organization large amounts of money to recall the damaged materials back to the factory and replace them, slowing production efficiency. There must be quality controls and regulations that enable Ford to minimize inventory defects and returns. The Ford Motor Company must have damage control operations to continue manufacturing the same amount of automobiles so that they do not lose any necessary inventory. There must also be procedures in place that deal with delivery systems and the delays and unsuitable materials that could easily occur. This paper will fully break down the previous issues associated with the Ford Motor Company 's supply chain management and operations. SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT OF FORD Synopsis of Supply Chain Management as it Applies to Ford The definition of supply chain management (SCM) involves taking a systems approach to the entire supply chain with the overall goal of reducing the level of risk and uncertainty throughout the supply chain. This will ultimately permit lower

Logistics and supply chain management is an important aspect of a firm’s strategy for the business to achieve success by creating value throughout the logistics and supply chain. The research paper will outline the concepts that are involved in creating the logistics and supply management framework. The logistics and supply chain management strategies will drive success for the company towards fulfilling and supporting customer needs, procurement and manufacturing operations of the firm.

This allows the level of buyer’s power to be medium. However, the bargaining power of supplier is also medium because there are few suppliers in the aerospace industry, enabling the companies to find a product price that achieves profit maximization. On the basis

At the core of L.L.Bean’s pricing and promotion strategy lies its inventory strategy. L.L.Bean’s inventory strategy segments its products into ‘core’ and ‘non-core’ items. Core items are products in constant high demand, those the company never want to be out-of-stock. These include items like Bean Boots, the Deluxe Book Pack, their Barn Jackets, and the ever-popular Boat and Tote bag. These items sell year-round and are not influenced by seasonal shopping behaviors (Cooke, 2011).

Simchi, D., Kaminsky, P., Shankar, R. (2008). Designing and managing the supply chain: concepts, strategies, and case studies, 3, 384-385.

The general Aerospace inventory network can be grouped among OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, Tier 2 suppliers and Tier 3 suppliers. Customarily, substantial airplane makers frequently alluded to as OEMs, will indicate their needs to the Tier 1 suppliers. OEMs are in charge of general outlining and assembling, which are regularly alluded to as the most basic segment of the worth chain and every now and again confront section obstructions because of high speculation necessities and innovative abilities. Level 2 suppliers produce flying machine parts as per the Tier 1 suppliers' particulars. Level 3 suppliers are in charge of giving fundamental segments needed by different sellers that are available higher in the worth chain. Be that as it may, with the

Again, Taleizadeh et al. [6] has formulated an inventory model taking jointly price, replenishment frequency, and replenishment cycle and production rate and optimized it. Tsao [7] has made an inventory model which helps for a decision to find joint location, inventory, and preservation facility under delay in payments condition. Shaikh et al. [8] have proposed an economic order quantity model for deteriorating item with preservation technology investment. Shaikh et al.[9] have again explored another inventory model with non-instantaneous deterioration inventory model with price and stock dependent demand for fully backlogged shortages under inflation. Subsequently, Pal [10] has discussed a stochastic production inventory model for deteriorating item with finite life-cycle. Except the earlier mentioned work, many other researchers have also developed the inventory model considering deterioration as a factor. Here we have cited few of them in Table-1.

The following analysis discusses the suppliers, buyers, industry competition, threats to entry, and substitutes that exist within the large commercial aircraft industry. Additionally, the analysis identifies the pressure that each of these groups applies on the industry and estimates the impact this pressure has on potential industry profits. Each group is identified using a high, medium, or low-pressure classification. A high-pressure classification indicates the group reduces industry profit potential and vice versa.

The multifunctional nature of Operations Management requires a high level of process- and system-based synchronization across many different departments and divisions to be successful. The structural organization of the US Army is heavily dependent on Operations Management for missions to be accomplished, and long-term strategic visions to be attained (VanVactor, 2007). The intent of this analysis is to evaluate how the five areas of accounting, industrial engineering, management, management science and statistics, in conjunction with critical path analysis and linear programming, are used extensively throughout the US Army's supply chain operations.

L.L. Bean Inc. was established in 1912 by Leon Leonwood Bean. He obtained a list of nonresident hunters to establish his first client list for his mail order business. His golden rule for the company is “Sell good merchandise at a reasonable profit, treat your customers like humans beings, and they’ll always come back for more.” In 1967 when L.L Bean died, his mail order business had grown to $4.75 Million in annual sales, the catalog was distributed to 600,000 customers, and employed 200 people. Since his grandson has taken over the company as of 2010 annual catalog and retail store sales are $1.44 billion. The company just in one year had 11 million customer contacts received and regular,

Based upon his ten years research on supply chain issues in diverse industries such as food, fashion, apparel and automobiles he devises a framework which will help

Since the variation in demand is high, a fixed order quantity model would have been suitable for modelling the inventory management process at the European DC of HP. We could have arrived at a suitable reordering point looking into the lead time and demand variation in that lead time. However, ordering cost is not available and is hard to estimate given the facts in the case and hence we reject this model.