Background The case revolves around a sales representative for a top furniture manufacturer, named John Smith. John has had a chance to interact with Nan Peterson, the leader of a product team at a furniture decorating company called Home Help. Home help is concerned by the fact that furniture industry as a whole seems to be lagging behind in terms of logistics operations. Nan believes that John’s company, Woodmere, could collaborate with Home Help to create a logistical capability that is time-based. The collaboration would also result to adoption of a customized delivery system. To make the plan effective, John was to given a three week period to come up with a tentative proposal (Bowersox et al., 2013 p. 435).

Issues to consider The major business proposition for Woodmere and HomeHelp to consider in evaluating this proposal is if it follows HomeHelp's basic philosophy of keeping costs low and service high for both companies. Time based logistics are based on resulting the cycle time (processes, information and decision making) in order to shorten the time the product spends from vendor to retailer to the consumer (Muilerman 2001). Woodmere and HomeHelp must determine the investment needed to implement the program. The case study states Jean Jean “invested over $1 million in scanners, lasers needed to make distribution operations fast and efficient, and ticket printers to label products with retailers ‘unique bar codes”(Bowersox et al., 2013 p.439). It also mentions key retailers had a similar investment, and that continual technological upgrading is necessary. Woodmere and HomeHelp must determine the potential negative consequences of the proposition. Will this attract other retailers to participate in this process or is it likely to alienate others? A similar question must be answered by HomeHelp in terms of suppliers. It would be