In an effort to reduce costs, many regional power companies want to lower their safety stock of electricity transformers. To support this desire, a large transformer OEM will store safety stock of transformers in a FedEx warehouse in Memphis, Tennessee in order to insure quick air delivery to any of these is power companies should the need arise. This collaboration will result in lower overall inventory across the supply chain, making it possible for all parties to lower their costs. 1. The OEM has signed up 14 power companies on this rapid replenishment program. On average, each of these power companies used to hold 38 transformers in their safety stock. In total, how many transformers would these companies hold?
2. To maintain the same service level after this transition, how many units (transformers) would the OEM need to hold (or pool) in the FedEx warehouse?
3. After making this change for these power companies and OEM, by how many units (transformers) will inventory go down?
4. By what percentage would their inventory decrease by consolidating their inventory from the dealerships into the warehouse?

Blue computers, a major pc manufacturer in the united states, currently has plants in kentucky and pennsylvania. the kentucky plant has a capacity of 1 million units a year and the pennsylvania plant has a capacity of 1.5 million units a year. the firm divides the united states into five markets: northeast, southeast, midwest, south, and west. each pc sells for $1,000. the firm anticipates a 50 perc~nt growth in demand (in each region) this year (after which demand will stabilize) and wants to build a plant with a capacity of 1.5 million units per year to accommodate the growth. potential sites being considered are in north carolina and california. currently the firm pays federal, state, and local taxes on the income from each plant. federal taxes are 20 percent of income, and all state and local taxes are 7 percent of income in each state. north carolina has offered to reduce taxes for the next 10 years from 7 percent to 2 percent. blue computers would like to take the tax break into consideration when planning its network. consider income over the next 10 years in your analysis. assume that all costs remain unchanged over the 10 years. use a discount factor of 0.1 for your analysis. annual fixed costs, production and shipping costs per unit, and current regional demand (before the 50 percent growth) are shown in table 5-13. (a) if blue computers sets an objective of minimizing total fixed and variable costs, where should they build the new plant? how should the network be structured? (b) if blue computers sets an objective of maximizing after-tax profits, where should they build the new plant? how should the network be structured? variable production and shipping cost ($/unit) annual fixed cost northeast southeast midwest south west (million$) kentucky 185 180 175 175 200 150 pennsylvania 170 190 180 200 220 200 n. carolina 180 180 185 185 215 150 california 220 220 195 195 175 150 demand ('000 units/month) 700 400 400 300 600