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Trinadh Mamandur 05/01/2014

MEMO

To: The Successor
From: Trinadh Mamandur
Date: 05/01/2014
Subject: Experience with LINKS Simulation

I would like to address few questions in detailing my experience with LINKS Simulation.
1. What worked well?
Setting a Strategic Challenge is key to improve long-run profitability. Focusing on one thing at a time
worked well for us. First few months (months 4, 5) our firms customer satisfaction was poor and we
tried to improve it by cutting down the failure rate and reducing unfilled orders. We managed to
improve on Customer Satisfaction towards the end of the 9
th
Month. Therefore, our strategy is to
provide products with
Best value for money.
High fill rate.
Reasonable price.
This strategy worked well for the firm. Activating all necessary IT for our suppliers and carriers improved
our performance. In each month we buy either Regional summary to get a big picture or Market
statistic to monitor the market. This helped us in analyzing our firms stand overall in the market.
2. Things that didnt work well. Suggestions for improvement.
However there are few areas which did not work well for us. Forecasting accuracy was poor for months
4 to 7 as we used Average Growth Rate forecasting method. This was not effective as we tried changing
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Trinadh Mamandur 05/01/2014
the cost of the product frequently and this had huge impact on the sales volume. But during Month 8 we
devised a new Forecasting Model taking factors such as % change in Sales Volume for the past months
and tried to correlate with the price change. Every time the price of a product is increased the sales drop
down rapidly. So we realized that the key is in making the price stay the same after sales bounce back;
this we implemented in month 8 to obtain improved results overall. We should have owned the DC in
Region 3 to launch postponement production that could help us gain more profits. This in turn would
decrease the transportation costs.
3. What would I suggest you do to prepare for this class/simulation combination?
Should more carefully study the LINKS Manual. Learn how to better balance the tradeoff
between cost and quality. We did not own a DC in any region and I feel this cost us dear in the long run.
We could have saved a lot of operating expenses by insourcing RFID-application. Manufacturing Product
0 would have been more profitable in the long run as this would have given us the option of postponed
production. Product 0 would help in managing the inventory better by increasing some of the Fill Rate
according to the demand.
4. Based on our firms performance, what grade do I believe our firm earned?
I believe that we earned full credit, given the fact that our Firm managed to bounce back from terrible
performances, we did very well in allocating resources to bring us back in the game.
5. Based on my individual contribution, what grade do I think I earned?
I think that I earned full credit as I actively participated in decision inputs throughout all the months.
Also I successfully managed to improve the forecasting accuracy by changing the Forecasting model for
month8.