McGuinnes & Co. Microbrewery
Case Study
Company Description
• One of the three largest microbreweries in Atlanta area
• Company started in 1995
• A 12,000sq. ft. production facility and warehouse in the
Chattahoochee Industrial Park
• The company is run by its owner, Mr. McGuinness
• Three full-time and two-part time employees, and
occasionally hires part-time help
• Last year’s sales: > 35,000 cases => > $180,000
• Average weekly sales: 500-800 cases
Company Products
• Pale Ale: The oldest company product. Since May 2000,
this product is also offered in the NY and Boston areas,
through a major national distributor.
• Product monthly sales over the last four years (1997-2000)
in cases of beer:
Sales
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
Sales
600
400
200
0
1
4
7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46
Company Products
• Stout: A rather new product, offered only in the last 14
months.
• Monthly sales in cases for the last 14 months:
Sales
700
600
500
400
Sales
300
200
100
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 11 12 13 14
Company Products
• Winter Ale: A seasonal beer, offered primarily during the
winter period (from October to April).
• Product monthly sales over the last 4 years:
Sales
1400
1200
1000
800
Sales
600
400
200
0
1
4
7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46
Company Products
• Summer Brew: A seasonal beer offered primarily during
the summer season. A new product offered over the last
two years.
• Product monthly sales in cases over the last two years:
Sales
700
600
500
400
Sales
300
200
100
0
1
3
5
7
9
11
13
15
17
19
21
23
Company Products
• Octoberfest: An “image promoter” for the company,
offered once a year, during the Octoberfest season. The
product is delivered to the company distributors and the
local restaurants only once a year, in late September or
early October.
• Product annual sales in cases for the last four years:
Sales
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
Sales
1
2
3
4
Company Operations
Grain cracking
(1 milling
machine)
Fermentation
(3 40-barrel
ferm. tanks)
Mashing
(1 mashing tun)
Boiling
(1 brew kettle)
Bottling
(1 bottling
station)
Filtering
(1 filter tank)
Fermentation Times:
Brew
Pale Ale
Stout
Ferm. Time
2 weeks
3 weeks
Winter Ale
2 weeks
Summer Brew
2 weeks
Octoberfest
8-10 weeks
Company Challenges
• Company production scheduled by its owner, in an ad-hoc
fashion
• Sustained growth strains the company production capacity
• There is a dire need for a systematic methodology that will
allow the company and its owner to
– foresee the expected production requirements over a certain
planning horizon;
– organize appropriately its production activity based on the
forecasted demand;
– systematically manage its growth by adjusting appropriately its
capacity.
• Eventually, this methodology should be offered to the
company in a set of user-friendly tools.
A Production Planning & Control
Framework
Tactical Planning
Demand
Forecasting
Production
Scheduling
Capacity
Planning
Material
Requirements
Planning
Execution
Sales order
Processing
Purchasing
Production
Control
Inventory
records
Shop-floor
data
Collection
Recording