Thegoal of this assignment is to demonstrate that you are able to build alogistics network. You will imagine that you run a company that markets aproduct on Amazon and you need to stock your product at variouslocations throughout the United States. A successful assignment willillustrate that you are able to use transportation modes, warehouses andand overall understanding of efficiency to create a logistics networkthat could be implemented in real-life.

Step-By-Step Assignment Instructions

Assignment Topic:

Youare the seller of a product on Amazon.com. This product represents yourcountry, region, city, etc. or something you really enjoy. In order tostart selling the product, you will have to design a logistics network.Now, let’s get started!

How to submit:

The format of your work must adhere to the following guidelines…

You will be required to submit your assignment using two files. These are:

1. An image file (.jpg or .png) containing a map of your proposed logistics network.
2. A table showing the transit times from your warehouse to each sample customer (please save the file as .pdf).

Make sure to include the following:

1. A description of your product.
2. Documentation of your warehouse locations and the time to customers.
3. A justification of why your warehouse network is ideal for your product and the current economic situation.

Thereis no need to include any cost calculations, but if you believe thereis value in that you can certainly do so to impress your fellowlearners.

How to create your assignment:

Follow the instructions below to prepare your assignment:

1. Decidehow many warehouses you will need. You can only use existing Amazonwarehouses. For a list of warehouse locations, please see the documentbelow. A good reference to the implications of more or less warehousesis an annual study on the best warehouse networks in the US. Of course there are trade-offs between having more warehouses of less warehouses. It will be up to your judgement to decide.
2. Onceyou decide on how many warehouses you will use and where they arelocated, I want you to visualize it on a map. You can use various tools,but I would use Google Maps as it would be freely accessible to most. Here is an example of how you can add multiple locations to a map. In case you are not sure how it could look, here is an example of a map I created.
3. Nowlet’s look at possible customers. To get your product marketed, youwill send a sample to the mayors of the ten largest metro areas. Youhope that they will like it so much, that they will tell everyone theyknow. Please see the list of city halls addresses, where the mayorswork.
4. You must also decide from which of your warehouses to sendthe sample to each mayor. I want you to determine the lead time fromyour warehouse to each customer. You can use resources by UPS and FedEx to determine the transit time from your warehouse to each customer (in days).
5. Please justify why your logistics network is the best you canmake it for now and the forseeable future. Be sure to talk about whatthe expectations of your customers will be; what the current economicenvironment looks like; and, where you expect interest rates and fuelprices to go in the future.

Finally, please write a short memo about the following topics (ungraded):

1. What did you find most surprising in this assignment?
2. What was the most difficult part of this assignment?
3. Which part of the assignment was the most fun?

Guidelines for the assignment:

Followthese instructions to understand the required format of yourassignment. There will be step-by-step prompts asking you to eitherupload or write out the specific steps of the assignment.

1. Grading Criteria Overview:
   Yourassignment will be graded based on a successful demonstration of theconcepts covered in this course. Specifically, you will be assessed onyour ability to put together a cohesive logistics network.You will be required to include at least a map of your warehousenetwork, a table showing your lead time calculations, and an overalljustification of the viability of your logistics network.We recommend that you also think about what the implications areof the network that you have designed. That part is to create anexchange between you and your peer reviewers, rather than an objectiveevaluation.