Please read this assessment  1 brief inits entirety before starting work on the Assessment Task.

AssessmentContext

Foundedat the turn of the 20^th Century as a maker of fine surgicalinstruments, Waterside Medical (WM) has evolved into one of the leading vendorsof medical supplies in Europe.

Whenthe pandemic hit in early 2020, WM stepped up to deliver medical hardware andconsumables to hospitals, surgeries and clinics, nursing homes and otherprimary care organisations.

Salesreached new heights, but stock shortages were common. Suppliers not only raisedprices but also increased minimum order sizes, compounding the availabilityproblems and creating severe cash flow issues for WM.

We had enough to worry about just getting criticalsupplies to our customers, explained the Head of Operations. We had known forsome time that we needed to review our inventory strategy. When I took this job,we used to try to aim for about ten weeks of stock cover, but we have just hadto work with what we can get, as and when it arrives. Some items sell outreally fast, but it can be really difficult to find room for some of the largedeliveries as we seem to have lots of other items that are in the way.

Most of our Reorder Levels (ROL) and Reorder Quantities(ROQ) were set some time ago, long before these unprecedented times, but therewas no point in looking at them before things settled down. We think we have abetter forecast of what the New Normal is going to look like, so Id like youto work through some sample data for me.

Finance reckon that is costs us 50 every time weplace an order. Inventory holding is running at about 15% per annum, takingaccount of the cost of borrowing, insurance and all of the warehouse overheads.

The Assessment Task

Pleaseread the narrative of the case study above, noting the context of all the statementsmade.

Youhave been provided with a randomised sample of data covering 20 items from thecompanys catalogue.

1.    Prepare a spreadsheet-based ABCanalysis of usage value. Classify as follows:

Aitems: top 20 per cent of usage value

Bitems: next 30 per cent of usage value

Citems: remaining 50 per cent of usage value

2.    Calculate the inventory weeks foreach item, for each classification, and for all the items in total. Does thissuggest that the operational managers estimate of inventory weeks is correct?

3.    If so, what is your estimate of theoverall inventory at the end of the base year, and how much might that haveincreased during the year?

4.    Based on the sample, analyse theunderlying causes of the availability problem described in the text.

5.    Calculate the Economic Order Quantities(EOQs) for the A items.

6.    What recommendations would you giveto the company?

Thec count limit for this assessment is 1800 words (+/- 10%). In line with normalpractice, tables, figures, references and appendices are excluded from thisword count. Exceptionally, the checklist itself will not be considered asforming part of the word count.

Please read this assessment 2 brief inits entirety before starting work on the Assessment Task.

AssessmentContext

WatersideHospital Trust (WHT) provides in-patient services to a medium-sized town.During the recent pandemic, the Trusts general wards were converted to accommodatepandemic patients only. Routine patients were instead treated by a localprivate healthcare company, Nene Valley Health (NVH), under emergencyarrangements that allowed public hospitals such as WHT to secure additionalcapacity.

WHTwas grateful for the additional capacity provided by NVH during the first partof last year, but frankly did not need it.

Thepatients admitted at that time were generally younger individuals who recoveredquickly. The same could not be said of the winter months, when the patientstended to be more elderly. Once the rate of admissions rose above 250 per week,the additional capacity filled up rapidly.

NVHhas indicated that it is prepared to make capacity available to WHT for thecoming year, providing guarantees can be given that the capacity will be needed.[Images of empty wards at NVH caused some negative publicity at the time].

Forecastsfor the next wave of the pandemic have recently been released by the PublicHealth Authority. These forecasts estimate the range of New Cases in theCommunity (NCC) within 95% confidence limits (the upper and lower bounds).

The Assessment Task

Youare to use the supplied historic data and forecasts to inform WHTs decisionwhether or not to retain additional capacity at NVH.

1.    Plot the historic data and providean estimate of the lag between New Cases in the Community (NCC) and HospitalAdmissions (HA).

2.    Provide an estimate of the mathematicalrelationship between NCC and HA (a) in the Summer and (b) in the Winter.

3.    Use the supplied Lower Bound andUpper Bound growth rate forecasts to derive the forecast of New Cases in the Communityfor the coming year.

4.    Apply your formula derived in (2) togenerate an Admissions forecast for the coming year, within Upper and LowerBounds.

5.    What advice would you offerWaterside Hospital Trust regarding their capacity arrangement with Nene ValleyHealth?

Theword count limit for this assessment is 2400 words (+/- 10%). In line withnormal practice, tables, graphs/figures, references and appendices are excludedfrom this word count.

Notethat there is no expectation that you will use specialist software to undertakethis assignment. No additional credit will be given for doing so.

Showyour working; simple, auditable steps are preferred to the use of complexmodels.