Designing the Production Network at CoolWipes

Matt O’Grady, vice president of supply chain at Cool- Wipes, thought that his current production and distribu­tion network was not appropriate, given the significant increase in transportation costs over the past few years. Compared to when the company had set up its produc­tion facility in Chicago, transportation costs had increased by a factor of more than four and were expected to continue growing in the next few years. A quick decision on building one or more new plants could save the company significant amounts in transportation expense in the future.

1. CoolWipes

CoolWipes was founded in the late 1980s and produced baby wipes and diaper ointment. Demand for the two products was as shown in Table 5-18. The company cur­rently had one factory in Chicago that produced both products for the entire country. The wipes line in the Chicago facility had a capacity of 5 million units, an annualized fixed cost of $5 million a year, and a variable cost of $10 per unit. The ointment line in the Chicago facility had a capacity of 1 million units, an annualized fixed cost of $1.5 million a year, and a variable cost of $20 per unit. The current transportation costs per unit (for both wipes and ointment) are shown in Table 5-19.

2. New Network Options

Matt had identified Princeton, New Jersey; Atlanta; and Los Angeles as potential sites for new plants. Each new plant could have a wipes line, an ointment line, or both. A new wipes line had a capacity of 2 million units, an annual fixed cost of $2.2 million, and a variable produc­tion cost of $10 per unit. A new ointment line had a capacity of 1 million units, an annual fixed cost of $1.5 million, and a variable cost of $20 per unit. The current transportation costs per unit are shown in Table 5-19. Matt had to decide whether to build a new plant and if so, which production lines to put into the new plant.

CoolWipes was founded in the late 1980s and produced baby wipes and diaper ointment. Demand for the two products was as shown in Table 5-18. The company cur­rently had one factory in Chicago that produced both products for the entire country. The wipes line in the Chicago facility had a capacity of 5 million units, an annualized fixed cost of $5 million a year, and a variable cost of $10 per unit. The ointment line in the Chicago facility had a capacity of 1 million units, an annualized fixed cost of $1.5 million a year, and a variable cost of $20 per unit. The current transportation costs per unit (for both wipes and ointment) are shown in Table 5-19.

3. New Network Options

Matt had identified Princeton, New Jersey; Atlanta; and Los Angeles as potential sites for new plants. Each new plant could have a wipes line, an ointment line, or both. A new wipes line had a capacity of 2 million units, an annual fixed cost of $2.2 million, and a variable produc­tion cost of $10 per unit. A new ointment line had a capacity of 1 million units, an annual fixed cost of $1.5 million, and a variable cost of $20 per unit. The current transportation costs per unit are shown in Table 5-19. Matt had to decide whether to build a new plant and if so, which production lines to put into the new plant.

Source: Chopra Sunil, Meindl Peter (2014), Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning, and Operation, Pearson; 6th edition.