Tsc Stores

TSC is planning for large corporate growth over the next couple of years, and there are concerns of whether or not, in its current state, the supply chain strategy is adequate to meet the growing demands.Brad Twiddy, the director of distribution, recently produced a forecast model of future inventory volumes, and examined the affect the inventory had on the supply chain. The model predicts the company will experience capacity issues as soon as next spring. With larger volumes of inventory looming over a static inventory space, it would be prudent to examine alternatives of how to adapt the supply chain to the corporate expansion goals.
Before considering the forecast model as gospel, it is important to understand some of the limitations and assumptions the model makes. The model is using a 20 percent increase in direct shipments to all stores. Although it would be wise to bypass the distribution center (DC) altogether and ship directly to the stores, could the vendors supplying the SKUs be capable of such an increase, and how would that factor into meeting the goals of project 275? With eight inventory management projects underway, does the model take into consideration the possible future benefits of the programs?Using the model, Brad has come to the conclusion that TSC has three options: higher a third party logistics company to handle overflow, increase the size of the current DC, and establish another DC. In the face of Brad’s current forecast, one of these three options seem to be the next step for TSC. However, implementingadditional improvements to the supply chain may make expansion oroutsourcing third party support a necessity of tomorrow.
With 23,000 different SKUs being purchased to fill TSC stores, an option may be to reduce the number of products offered and funneled through the DC. In conjunction with reducing the number of products offered, the company may consider substituting a variety of different manufacturers of a single product to a