Virtual Lemonade Stand

The second Littlefield simulation game focused on lead time and inventory management in an environment with a changing demand (“but the long-run average demand will not change over the product’s 268-day lifetime”). Therefore our strategy to win this game was controlling the Littlefield Lab’s system capacity and the inventory level with choosing a right contract as well as keeping the cash daily as much as possible. In other

Imagine that you have decided to open a small ice cream stand on campus called "Ice-Campusades." You are very excited because you love ice cream (delicious!) and this is a fun way for you to apply your business and economics skills! Here is the first month's scenario--you order the same number (and the same variety) of ice creams each day from the ice cream suppliers, and your ice creams are always marked at $1.50 each. However, you notice that there are days when ice creams remain unsold but other days when there are not enough ice creams for the number of customers.

However, forecast errors will also lead to unhappy customers, lost sales, and excessive inventory. To minimize errors, retailers should find the right demand forecast. Retailers do not want to have a lot of inventory sitting in the back room and too little inventory that will cause out of stock. Holding huge inventory will cause a retailer to have more expenses and decrease their profit if item is not sold especially if the product is innovative type like electronics. The challenge is to balance the inventory with demand. Communication and contribution from people in functional area is also important to create better information and improve overall accuracy. At this time, customer satisfaction will start to decrease. For example, MPRNews says one of Target loyal customer, Ann Hendricks, she is disappointed with target store in St.Paul. “Too many times, she says that store is out of the milk, coffee, bread, pasta and other staples she wants. At Target, sometimes the whole section of cheeses is blank. There's nothing in there” (Moylan). A loyal customer like Ann Hendricks goes to the Lunds & Byerlys store in downtown St. Paul to buy her grocery

If the operation have not reordered all the goods they need, this can lead to irritated customers and lower revenue for the operation.

The retailers had to estimate their customers’ demands well in advance of the selling season and place bulk orders for each season’s inventory. This involved high risk for the retailers as over-estimation would lead to unsold stock; whereas under-estimation led to stock outs and loss of potential sales.

Marketplace Business Simulator is an on-line marketing simulation that incorporates all the marketing principles I have learned over the course of this semester and apply them into real world marketing practice. Simulation was used for the sake of instigating effective results and in that regard, this paper analyses the manner in which each quarter was carried through. The circumstances surrounding each of the decisions made are analyzed intricately and hence a manifestation of the impact of each for each of the quarters is laid bare.

The current demand forecasting method is based on qualitative techniques more than quantitative ones. If the forecast is not accurate, the company would carry both inventory and stock out costs. It might lose customers due to shortage of supply or carry additional holding costs due to excess production. If the actual demand doesn’t match the forecast ones, and the forecast was too high, this will result in high inventories, obsolescence, asset disposals, and increased carrying costs. When a forecast is too low, the customer resorts to a competitive product or retailer. A supplier could lose both sales and shelf space at that retail location forever if their predictions continue to be inaccurate. The tolerance level of the average consumer

Cranfield Inc. is a leading producer of juices for range of cranberry cocktails. After a market research experiment Cranfield Inc. has many different business decisions to make. One to introduce a new line called lite cocktail which requires space and machinery and will eat into sales of currently offered products. Or not to introduce the new product and lease out it’s space, or do nothing to save the space until it’s needed for its current product line.

This causes the price and the quantity move in opposite directions in a supply curve shift. Also, if the quantity supplied decreases at any given price the opposite will happen.

The first tool to compensate demand fluctuation is building inventory as given in the case text. Quantitative trade-off of this tool is basically the opportunity cost of holding inventory which is given as $8 per unit per month. In addition, keeping products for long time intervals in inventory could lead them to hold outdated products which can be though both quantitative and qualitative trade-off. Considering that these aspects should have been included in the inventory holding cost; no additional modification related to these trade-offs are considered.

Having a min max inventory system with lead times built into the system will increase the replenishment of inventory and avoid being out of stock. This is great for the

Along with better communication, improved forecasting can help a supply chain run better. If you are able to forecast customer demand, you have a better chance on not being “tricked” by signals throughout the chain. A company can improve forecasting by looking at their past history, the history within their industry, or simply by asking their customers; predominantly through surveys or focus groups. Another way to improve you supply chain is to see if there is an opportunity to reduce the number of parties or complexity within the supply chain. The more stations there are the better chance for errors and delays. It is also easier to find and solve issues if your process is less complex. A smaller group also allows for better relationships between

SCM Globe is a supply chain game designed to teach concepts in supply chain design, demand forecasting, resource allocation, and production planning by the use of illustrating how different supply chain designs produce different operating results and explore how to manage those results. The game is performed in a real-time setting that allows for helping to create a supply chain that meet customer demands for products with the lowest operating costs and lowest inventory levels. The simulation gives students an opportunity to design and manage the supply chain of stores that sell Crunch Candy and Just Born Candy. During the simulation experience, students create products, facilities, vehicles and routes while

USE was expanded to include field consultants and market managers and today it gives franchisees, store managers and employees a chance to see and taste new products for upcoming seasons that are intended to address the changing preferences of customers. The merchandising plan for seasonal and high-potential new products is also shared. The centerpiece of the USE is the virtual 7-Eleven store, actual size 7-Eleven floor plans are built to show how seasonal products are assimilated into the standard store mix (7-Eleven About Us, 2010). For future reference, this capability should be the tool whereby the adjustments necessary to accommodate a drive thru capability are visualized and ultimately realized.

Unlike the demand relationship, however, the supply relationship is a factor of time. Time is important to supply because suppliers must, but cannot always, react quickly to a change in demand or price. So it is important to try and determine whether a price change that is caused by demand will be temporary or permanent.