Sport Obermeyer Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Sport Obermeyer Case Solution

Case overview:

Sport Obermeyer Ltd. was established in 1947 and founded by Klaus Obermeyer, started its operations in Aspen Colorado.The company used to produce stylish Skier’s clothing and achieved a highly competitive position in the US skiwear market. The company imported its raw material from Germany that will result in high quality performance clothing.

In 1992, the company generated sales of $ 32.8 million and gained the market share of 45% and 11% in the US market for Children and adults respectively. The target market of the company is middle to high end consumers in the Skiwear market where the company can provide excellent price to value services in functionality as well as style. Then in 1985, the company started it’s outsource offshoring and introduced its manufacturing plants in Hong Kong and in China.

The case provides the information that will help to determine the type of supply chain design and provide the recommendation in order to avoid the demand uncertainty and manage the risks in unplanned events.

Type of Supply Chain design:

The supply chain design and strategy provides the operational strategy that converts the raw material into finished products.The company is using the Lead time variability design in its supply chain, which includes two important elements such as; order lead time (to produce ad ship the products) and information lead time (processing and ordering of the products).

The supply chain design of the Company goes with the flow of (1) Textile suppliers; that print, dye and produces the line of fabrics (2) Apparel manufacturers; that uses to cut, sew and assemble the clothes (3) Obersport; material and production sourcing and also manages the distribution center. (4) Sport Obermeyer; it involves the design production, and plan the sales and production demand and lastly (5) Retailers; sell to the end consumers after purchasing from the company.

Designs they need to implement and why:

The company produces mainly innovative product and due to high market intervention the company requires speed and flexibility in order to make long time of planning and efficient production. For this purpose; the company should reduce its clothing styles that help to handle and to predict the consumer demand in each style. Along with this, the company should create promotion strategy to attract the retailers and improve the production system that will help to reduce the lead time for efficient production.

Propose new ideas to help Obermeyer to reduce and avoid demand uncertainty:

In order to reduce the demand errors; the company should use effective marketing promotional strategies that will help to increase the service level. For this purpose, the company should adopt the new frameworks that will improve the performance and profitability. Therefore, the company should introduce new distribution channel that may help to promotion of different products and decrease the lead time delivery of popular items in order to maximize the profitability and the market share. Along with this, the company should follow competitive pricing strategy by targeting adult ski market.

The unplanned events that could affect Obermeyer Supply Chain

The company’s unplanned events such as; inaccurate demand forecasting that are leading to excess production of not so popular products and results in lack of popular products production.As, it is observed that the major unplanned events includes;

The erroneous demand forecasting
Long lead time

Theses unplanned events resulted in a large quantity of merchandising and the products were sold out at discounts and hence resulted in loss of sales..................

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