Quantitative Methods Case Study in the form of a Business Report in MS Assignment | Get Paper Help
Steel City has requested that you answer their questions in the form of a business report in MS Word format (hint: there are several canned report formats in MS word to spice things up a bit). Simply typing in answers to their questions below will be construed as a lack of professionalism. The writing must be free of errors and easy to understand. The exact design of the report is up to you, as long as it is formatted neatly all issues are addressed in an organized and coherent manner. As is your policy, you are to include any equations, calculations, and Excel files that you have used to be completely transparent. Any graphs or diagrams should be included in the body of the report
Department of Business and Economics
College of Graduate Studies and Research
California University of Pennsylvania
California, PA 15419
BUS 771 Quantitative Methods
Dr. Edmund Matecki
Case Report #3
Worth 100 Points Total
Spring 2020
NAME: ____________________________________________________
By completing and submitting this case report, I hereby certify that I have abided by
the exam rules and the course Academic Integrity Policy.
Introduction
One final case for you to crack! A small apparel wholesaler, Steel City Distribution, needs help, and fast! Their operations expert quit recently to join a rock band, and they were in the middle of two important tasks: a warehouse reorganization project and an inventory cost analysis for their most profitable product line: Steeler Jerseys. The departed operations specialist left some spreadsheets on the office computer, and not much else.
Steel City has provided you with as much information as they have, and it is up to you to determine the best quantitative approach to answering their questions. Steel City has also made it clear that it is crucial that you explain what you are doing in a way such that a group of people unfamiliar with quantitative analysis can understand what you are doing and feel comfortable with the results. If you just provide a numerical answer to their questions, while still helpful, this will not meet their expectations for the project.
Deliverable
Steel City has requested that you answer their questions in the form of a business report in MS Word format (hint: there are several canned report formats in MS word to spice things up a bit). Simply typing in answers to their questions below will be construed as a lack of professionalism. The writing must be free of errors and easy to understand. The exact design of the report is up to you, as long as it is formatted neatly all issues are addressed in an organized and coherent manner. As is your policy, you are to include any equations, calculations, and Excel files that you have used to be completely transparent. Any graphs or diagrams should be included in the body of the report.
THE CASE
The operations manager left the following files on the computer:
| Warehouse Reorganization Project Plan | ||||
| Activity | Immediate
Predecessors) |
Optimistic
(Weeks) |
Most Likely
(Weeks) |
Pessimistic
(Weeks) |
| A | — | 4 | 6 | 10 |
| B | A | 4 | 8 | 18 |
| C | A | 7 | 12 | 16 |
| D | B, C | 6 | 9 | 12 |
| E | C | 5 | 8 | 20 |
| F | C | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| G | F | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| H | E, F | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| I | D, G, H | 4 | 7 | 12 |
| J | I | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Steel City Inventory Information | |
| Annual Demand for Widgets | Uncertain (see probability distribution below) |
| Ordering Cost | 45 |
| Annual Inventory Holding Rate % | 20 |
| Cost per unit | 65 |
| Working Days/Year | 275 |
| Lead Time (days) | 5 |
| Probability Distribution for Steeler Jersey Annual Demand | |
| Annual Demand | probability |
| 70,000 | 0.1 |
| 75,000 | 0.2 |
| 80,000 | 0.4 |
| 85000 | 0.15 |
| 90,000 | 0.1 |
| 95000 | 0.05 |
The owner of Steel City has hired you to get these projects back on track after the abrupt departure of the manager in charge. Specifically, the owner has two requests:
- Organize their warehouse project. They want to visualize the project map, and better understand the timeline of the project. In particular, the owner is very concerned about the finish date of the project and wants to know the probability the project will be completed in less than 65 weeks (assuming project finish times follow a normal distribution). Be sure to document ALL STEPS needed to reach this probability calculation.
- Conduct a simulation of the Economic Order Quantity for Steeler Jerseys based on uncertain annual demand for the product. Steel City knows for certain the ordering cost, Holding Rate, Cost/Unit, Working Days/Year, and Lead Time…but annual demand varies based on economic conditions and how well the team is performing. The probabilities associated with various annual demand quantities are given in the table above. With respect to the simulation, the owner has asked for the following:
- Simulate at least 50 values for the Economic Order Quantity
- Present summary statistics for the simulation. What is the average Economic Order Quantity? What is the high value? The low value? The standard deviation?
- For the average, high, and low Economic Order Quantities in part b) calculate the reorder point.
HINT: Do not get hung up on trying to emulate section 14.6 in the text. Part 2 is about exploring another way to deal with probabilistic demand.
- Based on your simulation and what you know about the assumptions needed to make the Economic Order Quantity Model valid, is this a good inventory model for Steel City to use? Explain why or why not.
