1.What are the problems C & S is currently facing?

C & S Wholesale Grocers a 70 years old warehousing and distribution

company saw a humongous rise in sales when it agreed to act as principal
wholesaler to A & P stores throughout New England. But every good thing
comes with some tough challenges and so does this collaboration brought in
challenges for Rick Cohen.
The major problems faced by C & S were:
 Rise in operational costs, shrinking margins, quality control, and
customer relationship management
 Hiring of more employees to satisfy the increased throughput led to
inadequate training provided to them and thus making them inefficient
at their work
 Coordination became a major issue and that led to hiring of more
supervisors to oversee the process
 Lot of time and effort was going into verifying the accuracy of the
orders before they were placed on trucks to be shipped to individual
retail outlets
 Increased workforce led to an overcrowded workspace scrambling to
fill orders, congested aisles made it difficult forklift operations as
operators did not have time to hoist the product onto shelves
 Congested aisles led to increased number of employee accidents,
increased work hours made employees physically exhausted and prone
to injuries
 The real problem as per Harris was cost and quality problem and to
remain competitive it needed to cut costs instead, without
compromising quality