Shawls or Stoles? Resource Optimization Problem at Looms of Ladakh

Looms of Ladakh (LL) is a women’s cooperative that has a vision to empower the local women artisans by not just upskilling but also making them independently manage the entire cooperative. The cooperative is managed and governed by the local artisans and has recently hired talent from leading design and management schools to oversee their operations. The founders realized that to scale up and collaborate with design houses and online retailers, and thereby increase their presence and profits, they will have to work in a more structured and data-driven fashion. Optimal use of resources and material is key to compete in the modern market and sell their products in international market at competitive prices. 

The case provides the students an opportunity to come up with a resource optimization model using the data collected by LL over a period. The objective is to help LL earn maximum profits by making optimum usage of the available human and material resources and by identifying an optimal product mix that maximizes their profitability.