She would then send a fax or e-mail back to the customer confirming all the details and telling the customer when to expect delivery of the almond order. In addition to processing orders, Jeanne prepared contracts for new Blue Diamond customers, worked with customers’ banks to arrange to get payment for their orders, prepared all the documentation needed to export the almonds out of the country, and tracked down these documents when customers needed them.

Even though she followed the same steps with each order, Jeanne had learned that no two orders were alike. There were always challenges to be solved. What if Blue Diamond’s plant couldn’t produce enough to get the order on the ship the customer had requested? What if the customer had credit problems that had to be resolved before almonds could be shipped? And what happened when Jeanne had to coordinate five to fifteen of these orders a day?

Today, for instance, Jeanne was going to need all her organizational skills. Among the stack of orders she had received that morning were four from buyers in India. The buyers all wanted “Inshell almonds,” almonds still in the shell, and all four wanted their orders shipped to Nhava Sheva, an Indian port. Between them, the buyers wanted to purchase over 10,000 bags of almonds. And each, of course, wanted to be first in line to get their order filled and shipped.*

Jeanne needed to make some calculations. How many pounds of almonds did each buyer want? How fast could the processing plant fill those orders? How many cargo containers would each order fill? She needed to organize a lot of information very quickly.

*Please note that while Jeanne Coen is a real person and this case study is based on her experiences, the four customers referred to in this report are all fictional. Also, many of the details about Blue Diamond’s production capabilities are fictional, presented here for the purpose of allowing students to experiment with a spreadsheet.