Question

It is late June, and Sandra, head of operations at Mintendo, and Bill, head of sales of We “R” Toys, are about to get together to discuss production and marketing plans for the next six months.  Mintendo is the manufacturer of the popular Game Girl hand-held electronic game that is sold exclusively through We “R” Toys retail stores.  The second half of the year is critical to Game Girl’s success, because a majority of its sales occur during the holiday shopping period.

Sandra is worried about the impact that the upcoming holiday surge in demand will have on her production line.  Costs to subcontract assembly of the Game Girls are expected to increase, and she has been trying to keep costs down given that her bonus depends on the level of production costs.

Bill is worried about competing toy stores gaining share during the Christmas buying season.  He has seen many companies lose their share by failing to keep prices in line with the performance of their products.  He would like to maximize the Game Girl market share.

Both Sandra and Bill’s teams produce the following joint forecast of demand for the next six months:

TABLE 1     Demand for Game Girls
Month		Demand Forecast
July August September October November December		100,000 120,000 140,000 160,000 180,000 200,000

We “R” Toys sells Game Girls for $50 apiece.  At the end of June, the company has an inventory of 50,000 Game Girls.  Capacity of the production facility is set purely by the number of workers assembling the Game Girls.  At the end of June, the company has a workforce of 299 employees, each of whom works eight hours of regular time (non-overtime) at $15/hour for 20 days each month.  Work rules require that no employee work more than 40 hours of overtime per month.  The various costs are shown below:

TABLE 2     Costs for Mintendo/We “R” Toys
Item		Cost
Material cost Inventory holding cost Backlog cost Hiring and training costs Layoff cost Labor hours required Regular-time cost Overtime cost Cost of subcontracting		$11.55/unit $4/unit/month $10/unit/month $3,000/worker $5,000/worker 0.25/unit $15/hour $22.50/hour $18/unit

Sandra, concerned about controlling costs during the periods of surging demand over the holidays, proposes to Bill that the price be lowered by $5 for the month of September.  This would likely increase September’s demand by 50 percent due to new customers being attracted to Game Girl.  Additionally, 30 percent of each of the following two months of demand would occur in September as forward buys.  She believes strongly that this leveling of demand will help the company.

Bill counters with the idea of offering the same promotion in November, during the heart of the buying season.  In this case, the promotion increases November’s demand by 50 percent due to new customers being attracted to Game Girl.  Additionally, 30 percent of December’s demand would occur in November as forward buying. Bill wants to increase revenue and sees no better way to do this than to offer a promotion during the peak season.

Question: Which option delivers the maximum profit for the supply chain:  Sandra’s plan, Bill’s plan, or no promotion plan at all? An Excel file of the S&OP model supporting your conclusion must be submitted to the drop box.

Answer 1