Apply It 13.3: Production Planning

  • Understand the importance of facility location and layout in production planning
  • Understand the difference between materials requirement planning and just-in-time inventory control
  • Recognize different ways to visually represent production planning
  • Understand the difference between supply chain management and logistics
  • Understand the difference between inbound and outbound logistics

Planning and Logistics Failures

This Apply It continues using the Forever 21 case study video from earlier in this module. The video is included below in case you want to refresh your memory about specific details, but if you have already watched it, you don’t need to watch it again.

The video highlights Forever 21’s expansion into large physical stores requiring significant inventory investments. The company was also slow to adapt to e-commerce, with only 16% of sales coming from online channels by the time of their first bankruptcy.

You can view the transcript for “How Forever 21 Plummeted From $4B in Sales to Twice Bankrupt | WSJ What Went Wrong” here (opens in new window).

How might Forever 21’s inbound and outbound logistics systems have needed to change to better support their e-commerce transition?