First complete version of the case 2 description.

cases/case_2/case_2_description.md

@@ -0,0 +1,153 @@
+# Case 2: Optimizing network design to minimize costs
+
+After successfully finishing your first engagement with Beanie Limited, Elisa
+has praised you enthusiastically in conversations with Charles Murray, Beanie
+Limited's COO (Chief Operations Officer). Charles is responsible for the entire
+manufacturing and supply chain organization of Beanie Limited in Europe and
+reports directly to Beanie Limited's CEO.
+
+Given Charles role, he gets involved in larger, strategical and long-term
+decisions when we compare with Elisa. One of the hot topics that is currently
+in Charles mind is the next plan for coffee beans reception in European docks.
+Charles' office has reached out to you to prepare a report to assist in this
+highly important decision by using optimisation techniques.
+
+As you are probably aware, coffee beans are not grown in Europe. World
+production is divided across South/Central America, Africa and South East Asia.
+Beanie Limited purchases all of its coffee beans from different providers in
+America, mainly in Brasil and Colombia (these two countries account for almost
+40% of the world production). Beanie Limited procurement teams execute
+purchases with local providers at hose locations and then the coffee beans are
+shipped in container cargo ships to European docks.
+
+Docks are a natural bottleneck in supply chains. Dock capacity in europe is
+limited, and both storage and handling (the activities related with loading and
+unloading goods on ships) in docks are expensive services. Charles thinks that
+Beanie Limited has not paid enough attention to this part of the supply chain
+since covid-19 radically changed the landscape (total costs for trans-oceanic
+freight of standard containers have seen five-fold increases during the
+pandemic) and wants to evaluate if the current way of working can be improved.
+
+Currently, Beanie Limited takes a very simple approach: all the beans purchased
+in America reach Europe on the Rotterdam docks (the largest in Europe). The
+Amsterdam docks are used sparingly whenever there are high activity periods or
+the Rotterdam docks are under a lot of stress. Charles believes that there is
+an opportunity to reduce costs and make their supply chain more resilient if
+the company distributes their reception points across more docks in Europe.
+
+Charles' team has initiated conversations with 8 different docks throughout
+Europe:
+
+- Rotterdam
+- Antwerp
+- Hamburg
+- Amsterdam
+- Marseille
+- Algeciras
+- Valencia
+- Genoa
+
+In the upcoming months, Charles team must sign contracts with some of these
+docks to ensure incoming capacity for the coffee beans coming from America.
+This means they will agree with the docks on the expected handled volumes and
+thus they must decide with which docks they want to work and how much volume
+they will assign to each. The team has collected the details provided by the
+docks' companies for you to study. This information includes the capacity the
+docks could commit for Beanie Limited, as well as the prices for handling
+Beanie Limited's 40 feet containers through the dock.
+
+Charles wants you to use your optimization skills to assess the different
+options and recommend the best decisions for the company regarding how much
+volume to put through each dock. He hopes you can come up with a plan where
+Beanie Limited ensures it will have enough capacity, while at the same time
+costs are as low as possible.
+
+## Detailed task definition
+
+- Below you will find four levels of questions. Levels 1 to 3 are compulsory.
+  Level 4 is optional.
+- You need to write a report document where you answer the questions of the
+  different levels. This report should be directed towards Charles, should give
+  him clear recommendations and should justify these recommendations. It's
+  important for you to reflect your methodology to back your proposals.
+- Each level is worth 2 points out of a total of 10. The 2 missing points will
+  grade the clarity and structure of your report and code.
+- You need to use a Python notebook to solve all levels. A helper notebook is
+  provided. Please attach a notebook that shows your
+  solution/proposal/analysis.
+- Include your team number, names and student IDs in all your deliverables.
+
+## Data
+
+A few facts:
+
+- Charles' team estimates that Beanie Limited will need to receive 1,500,000
+  metric tons of coffee beans in European docks during next year.
+- The category being negotiated is 40 feet containers. 40 feet containers have
+  a a capacity of 66 cubic meters.
+- One cubic meter of coffee beans weights approximately 450 kgrs.
+
+Charles' team has shared with you a table with the prices proposed by the
+different docks for 40ft containers. You can also find the maximum capacity
+that the dock is willing to provide to Beanie Limited (the capacity is
+described as a count of 40ft containers).
+
+## Levels
+
+Level 1
+
+Explore historical data and current proposals. Do you think there is a chance
+to reduce costs? Why?
+
+Level 2
+
+With the price and capacity data provided for each dock, Charles would like you
+to find out what is the optimal distribution across the different options for
+next year. He is expecting you to provide the exact numbers, as well as the
+expected costs that would result from your proposal.
+
+Level 3
+
+As it tends to be in these projects, sometimes new information appears in the
+middle of the project. Charles' team has reached out to let you know that they
+have some additional details from the different ports. The following docks have
+a sign-up fee. This means that, if Beanie Limited wants to do any business with
+them at all, they need to pay this fee. This fee is only paid once and is
+independent of the container volume that goes through the dock.
+
+- Algeciras: 800,000€
+- Marseille: 500,000€
+- Antwerp: 1,000,000€
+
+Charles wants you to reassess the situation with the new data and provide the
+adequate solution with the new options. He also would like to understand how
+these changes impact the solution you provided for level 2 and the overall
+results for Beanie Limited.
+
+Level 4
+
+After presenting your results from level 3, Charles is very happy with your
+work, although there is something bothering him. Even though your proposal
+sounds reasonable, he is concerned that splitting the operations between too
+many docks might make European land logistics operations too complex and end up
+causing higher costs in their truck transportation that cancel the potential 
+savings that cana be obtained in docks operations.
+
+Charles doesn't have numbers currently, so there is no way to tackle this
+properly. To have the necessary information to think about this in the future,
+he would like you to repeat your analysis with a new condition in place: to
+only use a maximum of 3 docks in your proposal. Charles wants to know what
+would be the optimal decision while restricting the used docks to that number.
+
+Finally, to spice things up, one of the analysts in Charles' team also calls
+you to inform that the management from the Rotterdam docks has warned Beanie
+Limited that they have a new minimum volume policy in place. They will only
+make business with Beanie Limited if they commit to handle, at least, 30000
+thousand containers through Rotterdam.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+