This is a case of Whirlpool (an electrical appliances manufacture in the U.S).

In late 1990 and early 2000s, Whirlpool encountered a big drop in profit. People in the company blamed Whirlpool’s sales team were “Sales disablers” as they were unable to sell products in the market. After examining the sales record, it was found that sales did rise to record levels in 2000 as Whirlpool launched some innovative products coincided with an uptick in the housing industry in the states.The business was growing but the profit was decreasing instead. Finally, you looked at the balance sheet (e.g. spending, inventory records), you discovered that the supply chain function could be the root cause.

You interviewed the Head of Supply Chain Department, he simply said that his unit department was doing fine. He claimed that they delivered every order on time; their production lines were running smooth; warehouse was full of stocks (in general).

Based on what you have learnt in this master program so far, identify the potential problems of Whirpool’s Supply Chain faults? For example, did a popular product supply meet the market demand? Was the prediction accurate? What was the inventory level? Would that be too many inventories in the warehouse? There are no right or wrong answers. Please have your assessment no more than two pages.