Supply Chain Management - Sport Obermeyer
Supply Chain Management
Case Study Report: Sport Obermeyer
Q #1. Where would you place production?
Although the article argues that they intended to place about half of its all production to China, I would personally shift more than half of its production toward Hong Kong if you are talking about the current market. I’m not quite sure if it’s about population of skiers/snowborders, but apprently a number of ski resorts went out of business in the past decade and we are faced with the “global warming”. Obviously we have less snow than before and because of that the winter sport season has been shortened as well. Kids nowadays are surrounded by many different types of technology entertainment (e.g., mobile phones, tablets, computers, video games) other than skiing/snowbording. All these trends suggest that mass production for generally acceptable ski garments for mid-class people is no longer effective. Since it seems that apparel production relatively takes a long lead time, they should make every effort to shorten its production cycle to serve the rapid-changing trends and diverse tastes of the current market. In the article, it says the Hong Kong facility produces faster than China, so they should make every effort to make their HK production to be even more effective at producing a smaller amount at a much faster pace, so that they could make more profit by observing the reaction from the market at the initial sales of the season.
Q #2. What improvements would you implement over the next five years?
Q #3. What do you think would lead to the highest margins at Sport Obermeyer?
As mentioned on the Q1, I think they should focus on fewer items to reduce loss from unsold items which is caused by scant sales/trend forecasts. They should become better at 1) securing key raw materials in sotck to deal with unexpected additional/fluctuated orders, at 2) forcasting customers’ trends and producing based on more accurate forecasts, and at
Case Study Report: Sport Obermeyer
Q #1. Where would you place production?
Although the article argues that they intended to place about half of its all production to China, I would personally shift more than half of its production toward Hong Kong if you are talking about the current market. I’m not quite sure if it’s about population of skiers/snowborders, but apprently a number of ski resorts went out of business in the past decade and we are faced with the “global warming”. Obviously we have less snow than before and because of that the winter sport season has been shortened as well. Kids nowadays are surrounded by many different types of technology entertainment (e.g., mobile phones, tablets, computers, video games) other than skiing/snowbording. All these trends suggest that mass production for generally acceptable ski garments for mid-class people is no longer effective. Since it seems that apparel production relatively takes a long lead time, they should make every effort to shorten its production cycle to serve the rapid-changing trends and diverse tastes of the current market. In the article, it says the Hong Kong facility produces faster than China, so they should make every effort to make their HK production to be even more effective at producing a smaller amount at a much faster pace, so that they could make more profit by observing the reaction from the market at the initial sales of the season.
Q #2. What improvements would you implement over the next five years?
Q #3. What do you think would lead to the highest margins at Sport Obermeyer?
As mentioned on the Q1, I think they should focus on fewer items to reduce loss from unsold items which is caused by scant sales/trend forecasts. They should become better at 1) securing key raw materials in sotck to deal with unexpected additional/fluctuated orders, at 2) forcasting customers’ trends and producing based on more accurate forecasts, and at