Question: Stationery Supplies orders plastic erasers from a company in Nürnberg, Germany. It takes six weeks to ship the erasers from Germany to Utah. Stationery Supplies maintains a standing order of 200 erasers every six months (shipped on the first of January and the first of July).

a. Assuming the ordering policy the store is using does not result in large buildups of inventory or long-term stock-outs, what is the annual demand for erasers?

b. Draw a graph of the pipeline inventory (that is, the inventory ordered but not received) of the erasers during one year. What is the average pipeline inventory of erasers during the year?

c. Express the replenishment lead time in years and multiply the annual demand you obtained in part (a) by the lead time. What do you notice about the result that you obtain?