Alko Case
Activity 12 Case: Managing Inventories at ALKO Inc.
• ALKO began in 1943 in a workshop established by John Williams in Cleveland.
• In 1948 obtained a patent for one of his designs of bright accessories. He decided to producing and selling them in Cleveland.
• The product is sold very well and in 1957 grew by 3 million; and luminous figures were well known for their outstanding quality.
• In 1963, John took the company public and has since been very successful, he began to distribute its products throughout the nation.
• ALKO began in 1980 with the introduction of new designs of bright accessories, but the profitability of the company started losing even though it ALKO had been careful in ensuring the quality of the product.
The problem was that the margins began to contract the intensifying competition in the market. Gary Fisher established a task force to review the distribution system. Aso noted that ALKO had 100 products in its line 1 in 1990, the products were in three facilities located in Cleveland.
• For the purpose of its sales in the mainland United States was divided into five regions.
• An Independent Distribution Center (DC) operate in each region, trying to provide samples of products in inventory. The agenda for the production of the plant was based on orders from DC, which were transported from plants to distribution centers in trucks, because they tended to be long.
• The shipment of the DC to customers was in trucks, the cost of loading time of the plants to distribution centers was approximately $ 0.90 per unit of time and costs of shipment of customer distribution centers were $ 0.10 per unit. 14 days were necessary since the order was given to DC until the time it was delivered from the plant.
• There were three basic categories of products in the volume of sales: high, medium and low.
An Alternative Distribution System recommended that ALKO build a National Distribution Center (NDC) outside of
• ALKO began in 1943 in a workshop established by John Williams in Cleveland.
• In 1948 obtained a patent for one of his designs of bright accessories. He decided to producing and selling them in Cleveland.
• The product is sold very well and in 1957 grew by 3 million; and luminous figures were well known for their outstanding quality.
• In 1963, John took the company public and has since been very successful, he began to distribute its products throughout the nation.
• ALKO began in 1980 with the introduction of new designs of bright accessories, but the profitability of the company started losing even though it ALKO had been careful in ensuring the quality of the product.
The problem was that the margins began to contract the intensifying competition in the market. Gary Fisher established a task force to review the distribution system. Aso noted that ALKO had 100 products in its line 1 in 1990, the products were in three facilities located in Cleveland.
• For the purpose of its sales in the mainland United States was divided into five regions.
• An Independent Distribution Center (DC) operate in each region, trying to provide samples of products in inventory. The agenda for the production of the plant was based on orders from DC, which were transported from plants to distribution centers in trucks, because they tended to be long.
• The shipment of the DC to customers was in trucks, the cost of loading time of the plants to distribution centers was approximately $ 0.90 per unit of time and costs of shipment of customer distribution centers were $ 0.10 per unit. 14 days were necessary since the order was given to DC until the time it was delivered from the plant.
• There were three basic categories of products in the volume of sales: high, medium and low.
An Alternative Distribution System recommended that ALKO build a National Distribution Center (NDC) outside of