Bioworld Merchandizing is a leading global manufacture of licensed apparel and accessories. They have licensing agreements with dozens of companies such as DC comics, Disney, and Warner Brothers. With 150+ product design experts, they have entire teams to cover every product category. They can create custom assortments for a variety of retail price points. Their products are sold worldwide through big box retailers such as GameStop, Walmart and Target, through specialty boutiques and directly to the consumer via their fulfillment operations.
https://bioworldmerch.com/ (Links to an external site.)
1. Bioword is currently operating out of 12 warehouses spread across the United States. Recently they have considered reducing the number of warehouses they use. What are the functional distribution trade offs they need to be aware of when making this decision? Explain how this decision will impact each tradeoff.
Bioworld Merchandizing would like to focus more on their core competency, product design. To do so they have recently considered outsourcing some logistics tasks to a third-party logistics provider (3PL).
2. Based on what you know about their business needs, do you recommend they should use a transportation 3PL, a warehouse 3PL, a distribution / fulfillment 3PL or a some sort of combination? Why?
3. Once the 3PL selection process is complete, what kind of relationship do you feel would be most appropriate for the 3PL you have recommended: vendor, partner, strategic alliance, or some other option? Why?
How will Bioworld’s product mix and the product lifecycle create a unique challenge for a 3PL?
