Company XYZ has one Distribution Center only in Vancouver, BC. Local customers who purchase products from XYZ are offered three levels of service: Standard (three business days), Express (one business day) and Same Day (zero or one business day). For this example, we will define a local customer as any customer shipping to one of the following cities or municipalities:
Abbotsford Burnaby Coquitlam Delta Langley Maple Ridge Mission New Westminster North Vancouver Pitt Meadows Port Coquitlam Port Moody Richmond Surrey Vancouver West Vancouver White Rock We will therefore set up a Shipping Group of type City (for British Columbia, Canada) called Lower Mainland which contains all the cities in the above list.
Company XYZ has discovered that the shipping rates for all western provinces are about the same, so we will therefore set up a Shipping Group of type Province (for Canada) called Western Provinces which includes BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Similarly, Company XYZ has discovered that the shipping rates for all eastern provinces are about the same, all maritime provinces are about the same, and all territories are about the same, so we will therefore set up three more Shipping Groups of type State/Province (for Canada):
Company XYZ has discovered that rates for all of the Lower 48 states are very similar, but Alaska and Hawaii are much more expensive.
So we will therefore set up a Shipping Groups of type Country and include one country only – the United States.
Next we will set up two Shipping Groups of type State/Province for each of Hawaii and Alaska. The Hawaii State/Province Shipping Group will have exactly one state in it (Hawaii) and the Alaska State/Province Shipping Group will have exactly one state in it (Alaska).
For the time being Company XYZ does not understand the different costs and services associated with shipping to countries in Europe and other parts of the world since they historically have sold products only in Canada and the United States. For this reason, we will set up one Country Shipping Group called International and include all countries except the United States and Canada. As time progresses, Company XYZ may elect to subdivide the “rest of the world” into places such as the United Kingdom, Western Europe, Australia etc.
This Case Study will be continued later in the document.