Let me start this post by saying, BUSINESS IS HARD. After a two hour activity in which me and Erynn were partners in business I was extremely stressed but did learn a lot about how maths affects it. It was an extremely fun activity but I have come to the conclusion that logistics in relation to business and food is not my best subject.

We began this input by discussing logistics in relation to food supply chains. It was really interesting to see how even something as basic as the food we eat can be linked to Ma’s Fundamental Mathematics (1999, 2010). We discussed food miles, meaning how far our food travels across the world to arrive on our dinner tables. It was fascinating, but what was more fascinating was that we were going to be getting the chance to open our own businesses and order in our own supplies. In order to do this effectively, we needed to understand certain patterns and trends in relation to supply chains so that we can order things that would be popular during certain times of the year. This is an example of how the mathematical topic of sequences and patterns is actually related to the operation of stores across the globe.

So, with this new logistical knowledge in mind, we set out to plan our business. Erynn and I decided to name our company E Squared as it seemed to suit both us and the module well. The first quarter was APRIL- JUNE so as these are warmer months we decided to buy in ice cream wafers, beer and cold drinks all of which are summer necessities in our heads. The resulting sales for the quarter were high meaning we gained profit. A bonus of the stock we produced is that it was long lasting, meaning that what remained would be carried over to our second quarter. By this stage we were getting into this activity and we put our business heads on for our next ordering strategy. JULY-SEPTEMBER was the next block and seeing as we hoped the sun would still be shining, we thought that cold refreshments were once again the way to go. This proved to be successful once more and we were proud of our growing earnings. We were halfway through our business year!

We only had one word for the next quarter (OCTOBER-DECEMBER)- CHRISTMAS. It was time for the most wonderful time of the year so our hypothetical shelves were stocked with everything one needs for the season. From Selection boxes to Champagne, we decided to invest a large percentage of our fund to our third quarter buys as we expected a huge increase in sales numbers. We were right. All of our bought stock sold at the rate of 100% meaning that the intake was rather spectacular. We took this moment to look around the room and we saw all the ‘Discovering Mathematics’ students were excitedly engaged in the activity. The Final quarter was the slow time of year being JANUARY-MARCH. This is when we decided to stock up on the basics as people would be struggling for money at this time of year. We purchased enough beans and bread to feed a university full of poor students and not so surprisingly, they were bestsellers! The profits kept rolling in and we had more than quadrupled our initial spending money. Unfortunately we noticed that we had actually made a few wrong calculations along the way so the exact profit we unknown but my partner and I enjoyed the session massively and had lots of laughs along the way. We discovered that the real key to this challenge was apparently beans. Yes, beans! The pair beside us at the table had changed their initial 5,000 to 184,000 by investing the majority of money on baked beans, they swear it was the key to success.

Overall, I found that our logistics input was extremely interesting and was definitely more fun than it originally sounded. I can see that fundamental mathematics is at the core of how stores and other business operate and while it was fun to get a glimpse into that world, I feel it is not where my mathematical strengths lie.