case library / operations and cost
Coldchain DC
A medium operations and cost case, interviewer-led, built for live practice with an AI interviewer that grades like a coach.
- Operations automation roi
- interviewer-led
- medium
- ~32 min
- 2 exhibits
You get a call from the CEO of Coldchain DC, a large temperature-controlled grocery distribution center that ships refrigerated and frozen goods to 80 regional grocery stores. She just got back from an industry trade show buzzing about a new automated storage-and-retrieval technology and wants your read on whether it's a good investment for her business. She's a well-known tech enthusiast who loves adopting new technology for its own sake. How would you approach this?
What happens when you run it live
Your interviewer holds answers to 4 clarifying questions candidates usually ask, so opening the case correctly gets rewarded. The case unfolds over 7 phases, with 2 exhibits handed to you at the right moments. You structure, do the math out loud, and close with a recommendation. Then you get a graded report across structure, quant, insight, synthesis, and communication, with the specific moments that cost you points. The exhibits, numbers, and answer key stay inside the live session, the way a real interviewer keeps the case packet on their side of the table.
How to approach a operations and cost case
Operations cases live in the physical world: throughput, capacity, downtime, labor, and the cost per unit of moving or making things. The math is usually contribution-style: what does an hour of downtime, a route, or a facility actually cost, and what does the fix cost against that.
Ground every claim in the operational driver behind it. Strong candidates trace a cost line to its physical cause, quantify the fix as an ROI or payback, and check second-order effects (service levels, safety, morale) before recommending. These cases reward candidates who can keep a model simple and still capture what matters.
Run Coldchain DC live, free. About 32 minutes, graded in the same sitting.
Start practicing freefree · no card · graded in minutes