Case Problem

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T HE N ORTHWOODS G ENERAL S TORE

The Northwoods General Store in Vermont sells a variety of outdoor clothing items and equipment and several food products at its modern but rustic-looking retail store. Its food products include salmon and maple syrup. The store also runs a lucrative catalog operation. One of its most popular products is maple syrup, which is sold in metal half-gallon cans with a picture of the store on the front.

Maple syrup was one of the first products the store produced and sold, and it continues to do so. Setting up the syrup-making equipment to produce a batch of syrup costs $450. Storing the syrup for sales throughout the year is a tricky process because the syrup must be kept in a temperature-controlled facility. The annual cost of carrying a gallon of the syrup is $15. Based on past sales data, the store has forecasted a demand of 7,500 gallons of maple syrup for the coming year. The store can produce approximately 100 gallons of syrup per day during the maple syrup season , which runs from November through February.

Because of the short season when the store can actually get sap out of trees, it obviously must produce enough during this 4-month season to meet demand for the whole year. Specifically, store management would like a production and inventory schedule that minimizes costs and indicates when during the year they need to start operating the syrup-making facility full time on a daily basis to meet demand for the remaining 8 months.

Develop a syrup production and inventory schedule for the Northwoods General Store.