Task 1: Sub-task a: Underlying scenario You are working for Modern Garden Design GmbH (or in short: MGD), a retailer of outdoor furniture (chairs, deckchairs, tables etc. for gardens, balconies and so on). The headquarter is located in Hanau (close to Frankfurt), and so is one central warehouse. MGD has retail stores in most of the big cities, i.e. Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Munich, Dresden and a few more (20 retail stores overall). Besides dealing with furniture, the stores offer accessories, e.g. lanterns, candles, tablecloth etc. Most of the furniture is produced in the Far East (especially in China), and imported using deep-sea vessels via Hamburg, then transshipped onto barges and shipped on the rivers Rhine and Main to Hanau. The lead time for such products is normally 6 months or longer. Although there is a spring and a summer season with high demand, in general demand for furniture varies strongly. The number of different products is around 500, but for most of them up to 10 variants exist. 90 % of these products are held in the retail stores. For most of the accessories, the lead time is also 6 months. Those products are also produced in the Far East. Some of the more expensive accessories are produced in Western and Middle Europe. For those, lead time is between 2 and 4 weeks. Demand for such products is more or less - well predictable. The number of accessories is approximately 5,000. You are reporting to the logistics manager, Liz Fraser, who formerly worked for Ikea UK. How are we going to face the challenges for MGD? (17 points) One of Liz Fraser's ideas is to develop MGD's logistics department into a sup- ply chain management unit? Thus, she tries to implement an SCM thinking into MGD. To prepare her next meeting with top management, she invites you to discuss some topics with her. First, she asks you for the top challenges that arise for MGD in SCM. Those challenges can for example be derived from trends in logistics and SCM. Thus: Mention the top 3 challenges for MGD, explain what is meant, and explain how they will be affecting MGD's supply chain. (9 points) Liz asks you, how the '4 R of SCM' might help the company to face the chal- lenges mentioned above. She asks for your opinion: How can each of the 4 R contribute to face the challenges for SCM? (8 points) Sub-task b