EMP 524 Supply Chain Management
Final Paper
Name: Naian Yin
Student ID: 109465076
Instructor: Brian Shube
[Abstract] With the updates of music carriers, the market of headsets expanded quickly. Using the in-ear headsets as a sample product, this paper works on the requirements, souring, logistics, sustainability and costs of the product, and finally works out a supply chain for this product.
[Keywords] Supply chain management, headsets

Overview
Product introduction
I choose customized in-ear headsets (or earbuds) as my product. And my firm will be located in Shanghai, PRC. Several colors and different sound drivers are provided. The type of sound drivers used in the headsets, the appearance of the shells and the cable color are determined by customers.
Background information
As music players get smaller and smaller today, people found there’s no more space for the convenience promotion of music carriers. Thus, customers start to focus on the quality of music they hear. In the past years, the market of earbuds especially those in-ear headsets whose price is over $50 has expanded, and becomes a 10-billion trade.
I’m quite interested in audio products and this idea came out when I was looking for a new earphone on some e-stores. That moment I was browsing the official site of Ultimate Ears, the very famous brand of professional ear monitors, and it’s also well known for its customized in-ear monitors for vocalists. I hope to figure out how this kind of customized-pattern works if it is applied to low-price products.
Product snapshot
Table 1 Product snapshot

Requirements planning
Customer Requirements Forecasting
According to the product snapshot (table 1), the target customers are supposed to be 10 audio product stores, 2 front-end manufacturers, and end users who directly order the products online. Their requirements for the product should be:
` 1) The audio product retails will need a medium quantity in the follow product types: 111,012,122,042,134;
2) The front-end manufacturers demand large quantity for a certain product type.: 042 for manufacturer 1 and 114 for manufacturer 2;
3) Each online order demands unique headsets, so I suppose each type has the same demand.
The monthly forecast requirements can be showed as the table below:
Target customer
Requirement description
Total quantity

Product Code
Quantity

Retail stores
111,012,122,042,134
50×10
2500
Front end manufacturer 1
042
2500
2500
Front end manufacturer 2
114
2000
2000
End users
All types
20
800
Total

7800
Table 2 Monthly forecast requirements
Manufacture requirements
Production cycle
The firm delivers the goods once a month to retails and front end manufacturers and once a week to end users’ orders. So weekly, at least 200 headsets will be produced. And I supposed the order of one month is manufactured within 3 weeks (Week1 for retail store orders, Week2 for manufacturer 1, Week3 for manufacturer 2).
Labor requirement
According to production cycle, the productivity per week should be 2700 units.
Set the productivity of labor hour as 10 units per labor-hour.
The labor requirement is: 2700÷5÷8÷10=7 workers
Material requirements
Customer
Type
Quantity
Materials per unit
Retails
111
500
Moving coil units×2, white cable×1,plug×1,white shells×2

012
500
Moving coil units×4, black cable×1,plug×1,white shells×2

122
500
Moving coil units×4, white cable×1,plug×1,orange shells×2

042
500
Moving coil units×4, black cable×1,plug×1,red shells×2

134
500
Balanced armature×4, white cable×1,plug×1,green shells×2
Front end manufacturer1
042
2500
Moving coil units×4, black cable×1,plug×1,red shells×2
Front end manufacturer2
114
2000
Balanced armature×4, white cable×1,plug×1,white shells×2
End users
All
800
Determined by type
Table 3 Material requirements
According to all requirements listed above, the production schedule is showed in table4
Time