Case study:

Garden Birds Ltd$.($GB$)$ is a small niche provider of products for gardenbirds including seeds, feeders and associated products. One of the best$-$selling products is sunflower seed hearts. They are sold in $1$kg$,3$kg$,5$kgand $10$kg packs to $176$ garden centres, $25$ pet shops, $2$ supermarket chainsand direct to the public via the internet.The seeds are procured from China,packed in $50$kg sacks delivered in minimum $11-$tonne loads. The lead timefrom order to delivery to GB is quoted at $43$ calendar days. GB use an agentto manage the freight forwarding to the GB packing and distribution plant.GB break the sacks down into four different$-$sized packs based upon theproduction forecast which is firmed up at the beginning of each month.Demand is variable, dependent upon the route to market and the season.Overall, it can vary from $5$ to $20$ tonnes per month.The maximum storagecapacity of the GB packing and distribution plant is $24$ tonnes of finishedproducts and $26$ tonnes of the $50$kg sacks. Garden centres and pet shopsorder weekly, supermarkets forecast weekly but firm up at $6$pm the daybefore delivery and products are on a sale$-$or$-$return basis. Customersordering via the internet before $3$pm will have their products dispatchedthe same day.Delivery to local garden centres and pet shops is undertaken by GB$$s owntransport and for distant outlets a national carrier is used. For supermarketdeliveries, and returns, a different national carrier is used and for direct topublic sales the Royal Mail parcel service is used.The company hasexperienced a number of issues relating to its operations activities.Namely:returned goods from pet shops and garden centres because of damagedpackaging during transit or offloading.large volume returns from supermarkets as a new season$$s products aresubstituted in the valuable gondola end displays within the retailer.shortages of $1$kg and $3$kg packs.insufficient storage capacity within the packing and distribution plant