Confidential Company is launching balloon services to support both simple and complex event-based orders. This is a direct response to Confidential Company B going out of business. These orders are highly time- and labor-intensive, requiring careful orchestration to ensure product quality. To deliver a reliable customer experience and maintain operational efficiency, we propose extending Smart Windows with balloon-specific capacity controls that are dynamically enforced via API.

Balloon inflation introduces distinct operational complexities:

- Time-Sensitive Fulfillment: Balloons must be inflated shortly before pickup or delivery to preserve float time and quality.

- Labor-Intensive Prep: Orders may involve hundreds of units, requiring significant time and labor.

- Scheduling Complexity: Capacity must align with employee availability, and scheduling needs to support events booked up to 30 days in advance.

- Operational Variability: Demand spikes during peak seasons (e.g., holidays, graduations), necessitating dynamic capacity overrides.

Without a smart, enforceable scheduling system, stores risk overpromising and underdelivering, leading to customer dissatisfaction and operational strain.

To address these challenges, we propose enhancing Smart Windows with capacity logic tailored for balloon services. This includes centrally-managed configuration, API-driven enforcement, and the ability to dynamically adjust windows based on operational inputs.

1. Smart Window Configuration

- Define fulfillment windows specific to balloon services. - Phase 1: BOPIS (Buy Online Pickup In-Store) support. - Phase 2: SDD (Same-Day Delivery) support, using a shared capacity pool.

2. Item-Level Capacity Management

- Set capacity based on the item category and number of balloon units per time window - Example: An arch requiring 100 balloons uses 100 capacity units.

3. API-Based Capacity Updates

- DS will provide an API allowing: - Capacity updates by time window. - Time Window Overrides during peak seasons.

4. Capacity Enforcement via Order Data

- DS will: - Read balloon SKUs from incoming orders. - Track cumulative balloon count for each time window. - Remove time windows from future API responses once capacity is reached.

5. Pick/Pack Time Constraints

- Configure a buffer between order placement and fulfillment to allow for preparation and inflation. - Prevent customers from choosing time windows that don’t allow for sufficient prep time.

Item Classification

- Define rules for what counts as a balloon unit. - Determine whether all balloon SKUs consume the same capacity or require weighted handling (e.g., helium vs air-filled, foil vs latex).

Monitoring & Alerting

- Define if over-capacity attempts should be logged. - Consider alerting thresholds or dashboards for store and corporate oversight.

Configuration Ownership

- Initial assumption: Capacity and window configuration will be centrally managed, but discovery is needed on store-level configuration permissions

Confidential Company B Same Day Delivery volume: 25k per week - October 40k per week

Estimate: 1.2 million same day delivery orders

BOPIS: ~4million

5million @ $.50 = $2.5M

Currently $.73/order for same day orchestration for $170k ARR

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