(Mark Bacon, Michael Breed, 2002)
Brinker International currently owns numerous concepts including Corner Bakery, Maggiano's, and Macaroni Grill. The various stores suffer from a mom-and - pop mentality, relying on experience and intuition rather then quantitative data analysis. There is an opportunity to optimize process in an attempt to meet projected growth. Given the three-year growth projections for these three concepts, we have created a production and distribution model to analyze existing capacity and determine a need for future production capability. We created our model using an integer program. This allowed us to determine that Brinker cannot meet their projected growth under the current conditions. Additionally, running the models under various scenarios using maximum capacity constraints, Brinker is still unable to meet the projected growth. However, optimizing distribution and allowing plants to ship to other regions makes it possible to fill some capacity gaps and accommodate some growth.