Today in any Industry there are specific steps and measures that must be taken when creating a product.

These steps generally consist of planning and designing, sourcing, supply, produce, distribute and finally to sell.Wally Obermeyer, company owner of Sport Obermeyer a fashion ski manufacturer, must face these steps every single seasons. When preparing for a new line and season Obermeyer must conduct a series of studies and research as to what was in during the current season and what could possibly work for the one being predicted. Similar to any company risks in decision making are inevitable. Obermeyer sport might have been taking the risks like any normal fashion company but the information and research that was demonstrated in order to make such a difficult decisions were inadequate. When creating a line, not only is the final product important but the reasoning and explanation where one was able to create that final product is too. In Obermeyers case, specific items in his previous lines were not as successful. A smart decision as a designer would normally be to take that fail and put it to good use and use it as an advantage. Carefully conduct the cons of the line as to where it might have gone wrong. In Obermeyers case, he did not use this fail to his advantage. He did the opposite and continued designing without proper research and studies. In fact, the case stated, no clear indications had yet emerged about how end-consumers were responding to the companys current 1992-1993 line. One would think a designer and company owner would most certainly want to make a documentation on how his current line that is out on the market is doing in order to receive success. Wally Obermeyer had an opportunity to get leg up and prove that this failed line was a temporary situation but he forgot the main ingredient of research. Research is an element in business that can not go undone or underdone, it has to be at the forefront of every decision. Without adequate research, questions like what is coming next?, what has been done before, or how can we make an older product newer and better?, can not be answered and these are just a few of the kinds of questions one needs to ask themselves when trying to come up with the new and improved product that also fits in better with the company's current business and financial

standings. For the next season, Wally must discuss together with his team what they have found and where they are going next instead of individually researching and handing in what they have found. This way they can all feel comfortable about the next season of Obermeyer Sport. Within the case study Wally presents two different sourcing ideas and locations: China or Hong Kong? There are pros and cons to each of these: China less P money, can get more ros long C lead time, larger order, lower quality ons Getting more for less is a good thing, but when one balances is out with lower quality and potentially being overstocked it does not always come across as a pro. Versus in Hong Kong Obermeyer would pay more and get less, but then their products would potentially run out of stock or be more in demand because there is a limit to them. Pros and cons always need to be weighed in a business environment because even though one may sound better it may not always be so. And, with the information flow from Las Vegas coming too late to help with the decision excess research needs to be conducted to make up for the lack of information being given. After reviewing each pro and con of Obermeyer Sports production problems we believe that they should produce in Hong Kong even though it may be more expensive. Our reasoning for this is because Obermeyer produces products for an active lifestyle, outside, in different weather conditions. One can ski in Vail where it can be 75 degrees with snow, or in Vermont when it is 20 degrees or in the Alps where temperatures can go up and down at a moments notice. These products need to be of good quality, and can not fall apart at the end of the first season. Also, by having a smaller amount of inventory makes each shipment more wanted in the public eye and the retail store can eliminate the deep discounts they have to do in the past to clear shelves, and when the shelves were not cleared by the end of the season the case states items remaining at the end more money, get less Hong Kong short lead time, smaller order, higher quality

of the season were held over to the following year and sold at a loss., which does not help brand loyalty. Producing and sourcing from Hong Kong would not only help Obermeyer, Obersport and the retailers but also the customer by improving brand loyalty, having on time and instyle lines and creating a product with quality. Part II After analyzing table 2-20 on page 75, and comparing/contrasting to the forecasting tools and methods on page 57 of the text we have come to several conclusions. These six individuals, although at the top of their field and may know a great deal of information did not involve the collection of expert opinions, (75) which is the number one thing to do within Judgement Methods. It was simply from their own research and thoughts, instead they should have consulted each other and perhaps outside opinions. We are going to assume that they did not just think up these numbers though, and did some sort of market research, perhaps analyzing previous sales and customer patterns. Causal methods are based on variables that played some part of predicting these numbers but most likely these numbers were gathered from Time Series Methods. Time series methods are mathematical methods in which future performance is extrapolated from past performance (57). The Buying Committee is simply forecasting what the next season may/should look like individually based on previous information and numbers. The buying committee should meet with the Sales and Operations Planning Team and go through each of these 5 steps:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Monthly_S%26OP_Process.jpg

In fashion there are two different types of capacities: speculative and reactive. Speculative, is defined by the text by a company bets on a single scenario, with often spectacular results if the scenario is realized, and dismal ones if it is not (321). If Obermeyer was to produce in Hong Kong or China and they were right on the money, obviously either factory would benefit. But, with a shorter lead time in Hong Kong, Obermeyer would have less time to fix it than they would with China. With reactive capacity, everything is dealt out after some research has

been done. This would obviously help the Hong Kong production better because then Obermeyer can be sure of what they are producing in a shorter amount of time. Also, because with the demand of looking stylish day in and day out, even when on the slopes these days, doing some sort of research is always important. Timeline: Holiday/Winter Season: November 2012-March 2013 Steps/Phases Design Phase Prototypes Initial Forecasts Tradeshow Final Products Shipment Landed Date Month November 2011-January 2012 January-February 2012 February-March 2012 March-April 2012 September-October 2012 October-November 2012

Within Obersport although they have many coordination issues. The first being forecasting, when coming up to the start of a new season the next one should already be predicted, and how a company is going to go about production should already be known. The first section of the case study was about how Wally was having trouble with the forecasting team, and could not figure out what their next direction was going to be. Even without the results from the Las Vegas trade show, the four methods of a successful forecast should be implemented: Judgement, Market, Time Series and Causal. By implementing and strategizing with these methods a valid and on par prediction will commence. Next, there is not enough research and pros/cons weighing going on with where to produce. More research has to be done, but in light of everything we have chosen that Hong Kong will create a better coordinated Supply Chain.