Case Problem: Specialty Toys
Specialty Toys, Inc., sells a variety of new and innovative children’s toys. Management learned that the preholiday season is the best time to introduce a new toy, because many families use this time to look for new ideas for December holiday gifts. When Specialty discovers a new toy with good market potential, it chooses an October market entry date.
In order to get toys in its stores by October, Specialty places one-time orders with its manufacturers in June or July of each year. Demand for children’s toys can be highly volatile. If a new toy catches on, a sense of shortage in the marketplace often increases the demand to high levels and large profits can be realized. However, new toys can also flop,
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The product management team asks you for an analysis of the stock-out probabilities for various order quantities, an estimate of the profit potential, and to help make an order quantity recommendation. Specialty expects to sell Weather Teddy for $24 based on a cost of $16 per unit. If inventory remains after the holiday season, Specialty will sell all surplus inventory for $5 per unit. After reviewing the sales history of similar products, Specialty’s senior sales forecaster predicted an expected demand of 20,000 units with a .95 probability that demand would be between 10,000 and 30,000 units.
Managerial Report
Prepare a managerial report that addresses the following issues and recommends an order quantity for the Weather Teddy product.
1. Use the sales forecaster’s prediction to describe a normal probability distribution that can be used to approximate the demand distribution. Sketch the distribution and show its mean and standard deviation.
2. Compute the probability of a stock-out for the order quantities suggested by members of the management team.
3. Compute the projected profit for the order quantities suggested by the management team under three scenarios: worst case in which sales = 10,000 units, most likely case in which sales = 20,000 units, and best case in which sales = 30,000 units.
4. Provide your own recommendation for an order quantity and note the associated profit projections. Provide a
Toys play quite an important role in children’s lives, along with their socialization. Kids spend a vast amount of time playing with toys, alone and with their peers or parents. In todays age when it comes time to buying gifts for children everything is color coded. There are many boundaries that separate
The new owner of a beauty shop is trying to decide whether to hire one, two, or three beauticians. She estimates that profits next year (in thousands of dollars) will vary with demand for her services and has estimated demand in three categories low, medium and high.
After reading the story it is easy to see that forecasting demand is difficult in the toy industry. Particularly with toys that depend on trends and have limited marketability. The expert commentator M. Eric Johnson mentions, “Santa needs to stop reacting to fads and start creating them.” (McNulty, 2014) Just because the singer said Meowrrr was ‘so yesterday’ does not take into account the kids who don’t follow fads, nor does it take into account regional saturation of this singer’s popularity. Market analysis may show that the product may be more popular and sustainable in another region.
A. The simulated function given in the Excel spreadsheet “Hamptonshire Express: Problem_#1” allows the user to find the optimal quantity of newspapers to be stocked at the newly formed Hamptonshire Express Daily Newspaper. Anna Sheen estimated the daily demand of newspapers to be on a normal standard distribution; stating that daily demand will have a mean of 500 newspapers per day with a standard deviation of 100 newspapers per day. Using the function provided, the optimal stocking quantity, which maximizes expected profit, is determined to be approximately 584 newspapers. If 584 newspapers were to be ordered, Hamptonshire Express will net an
Beanie Baby phenomenon has really opened a lot of eyes in the toys industry, especially, because this phenomenon was sustained in an industry that is known to be very turbulent based on the fact that, there are a lot of substitutes that come into the industry everyday, moreover, the excitement that these toys create, only can last for a short period of time as buyers in this market (usually children) tend to have an inconsistent buying behaviour and unpredictable majority of the time. This was not the case for Beanie Babies.
Objective of this paper is to use the unemployment rate data in the following excel files to estimate the total inventory that the company will keep at the store. The Excel files are:
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Smyths Toys is a premier toy store based in the UK, providing various entertainment products for kids through its 70 stores located across the UK and Ireland. The company is in the business with main focus laid on providing exclusive range of products at the most competitive prices. With a wide array of toys, books, bikes, DVD’s and video games, Smyths Toys has become the perfect place to find amazing deals on wonderful products. Smyths Toys has something to suit kids of every age, and we have something to suit your budget.
CRU Computer Rental Case Solutions Solution 1 TABLE 1: CRU FLOWS | Customer | Receiving | Status 24 | Status 40 | Stored Orders | Orders at Suppliers | Status 41 | Status 42 | Status 20 | | | | | | | | | | | Throughput(Units/Week) | 1000 | 1000 | 1000*.70=700 | 1000*.30+ .15 *700= 405 | 405 | 405 | 405 | 405 | 1000 | | | | | | | | | | | Inventory(Units) | 8000= 8*1000 | 500 | 1500 | 1000 | 500 | 405= 405*1 | 500+405 = 905 | 500 | 2000=2*1000 | | | | | | | | | | | Flow Time(Weeks) | 8 | 0.5= 500/1000 | 2.14= 1500/700 | 2.46=1000/405 | 1.23= 500/405 | 1 | 2.23 | 1.23= 500/405 | 2 | Note: Numbers in Black are given Numbers in red are calculated by using formula Av.
I cannot remember the last time I woke up early on a Saturday morning with a big bowl of cereal to watch cartoons? I usually just turn on Hulu to watch some of my old time favorite cartoons such as Hey Arnold, Jimmy Neutron and X-Men. I have even watched Power Puff Girls sometimes. Last Saturday I watched cartoons on ABC, CBS and NBC and thought it would be an excellent way to see how toys are being marketed to children these days. Honestly it doesn’t have to be a Saturday morning to witness some of the ridiculously gendered ads. It is the best way to educate yourself and your children about the blatant use of stereotypes that not only allure your child as a consumer, but also burn those stereotypes into their
When people here the name Toys "R" Us, they think back to when they were kids of going into a store made with bricks and mortar and leaving with mom in one hand and the latest toy in other and a great big smile from cheek to cheek. As time passed the pressure for companies to enter the "clicks" of e-commerce became strong. In 1998 Toysrus.com, a subsidiary of Toys "R" Us opened in attempts to "be wherever our customers are, and that includes the Internet." Having a strong brand recognition, there were no doubts that Toy "R" Us could continue their successful tradition by holding on to their vision, which is to "put joy in kids ' hearts and a smile on parents ' faces", even on the on the Internet.
The retail industry is currently going through extremely difficult times – companies need to rethink what products they sell and how they sell. Toys “R” Us is a prime example of a company currently juggling this crucial problem. After recently filing for bankruptcy, they introduced some strategic changes that they would be making to their traditional brook and mortar stores. These changes are intended to excite the customer and to encourage them to return to their stores. With new innovating ideas, they hope it will be enough for their existing customers, and attractive to possible new customers. They will know soon enough if their efforts are enough.
1. Which of the marketing management concepts covered in this chapter best describes Build-A-Bear workshop?
The main target of this company is to attract children of 0 to 14 years of age. Its products are unique in nature. Its offers its customers with all kinds of latest products out of which roughly 98% of the products seem to be different from the competitors’. All its products are imported from China. The company has its own personal selection of products, keeping current trend/preferences in mind. Products are chosen with scrutiny keeping in mind the importance of attractive packaging (e.g., boxes are preferred over polythene bags). Styling and designing describes the appearance of the product and contributes to a product’s usefulness and looks respectively. So the packaging is chosen or, sometimes, done in a way that would induce them to buy the product. The quantity, type, and preference of toys in different age groups are always considered to ensure maximum level of satisfaction. 20% of the products that it brings in a shipment are sometimes repeated in a second shipment because of greater demand.
1. We recommend that an average of 251 units of Product A must be ordered from their suppliers. The safety stock of 68 units was added to serve as a backup inventory in case the demand for Product A exceeds the expected.