A Canadian online retailer has been selling customizable bobble-head figurines for a few years now. Customers can
Question:
A Canadian online retailer has been selling “customizable” bobble-head figurines for a few years now. Customers can choose from many head designs and also the clothing (such as a specific team’s jersey) for their bobble-head. Currently, the manufacturing of the bobbleheads has been outsourced to a factory in Bangladesh that has recently been in the media for questionable labour practices. The bobble-heads produced each week are packaged into a crate and then shipped to a distribution centre in Toronto. Employees there then affix address labels to the individual bobble-heads and ship them to the end customer. The online retailer has determined that 3-D printing of the desired bobble-heads could be done at the Toronto distribution centre, and that the 3-D printing machines and supplies would result in a minor cost increase per unit over their current approach. Market research has also revealed that customers are willing to pay significantly more for a 3-D printed bobble-head because they could truly customize their bobble-head by uploading a picture and also receive the bobble head in only 2-3 days. How could 3-D printing improve the Canadian online retailer’s triple bottom line performance?
Stats Data and Models
ISBN: 978-0321986498
4th edition
Authors: Richard D. De Veaux, Paul D. Velleman, David E. Bock