Business Case Studies & Business Publications

Simple Modern: Coming Home to “the Farm”

Roy, Dwaipayan, Pa...

Case

Simple Modern: Coming Home to “the Farm”

Roy, Dwaipayan; Parker, Christopher; Thomas, Doug; Chinnaswamy, Trent

OM-1840 | Published July 3, 2025 | 11 Pages Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

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Learning Objectives

In December 2022, Lee Graves, chief manufacturing and logistics officer at Simple Modern, was deciding how to proceed with the company’s domestic manufacturing operations. For years, Simple Modern had relied on its Chinese supplier for manufacturing, but the COVID-19 pandemic's supply chain disruptions and rising shipping costs had compelled the company to onshore production of plastic water bottles to Oklahoma. Months later, manufacturing domestically was becoming less cost-effective compared to sourcing from China. Should Graves maintain the existing domestic plastic-bottle production, invest in scaling up Simple Modern’s domestic manufacturing capacity, or return to the company’s prepandemic reliance on its Chinese supplier? This field-based case provides an overview of Simple Modern’s historical sourcing decisions, evaluates its relationship with its Chinese supplier, and provides insights on developing a reshoring strategy in a business environment subject to unforeseen, external disruptions. At the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, the case is taught in the second-year “Strategic Sourcing” class. It is suitable for graduate-level operations and supply chain management courses and executive education programs.

Understand the impact of buyer-supplier relationships on sales growth, product development, and supply chain resilience. • Perform a comparative evaluation of factors that feed into sourcing decisions. • Highlight the impact of fluctuating shipping costs on outsourcing decisions. • Design and assess response strategies to unforeseen disruptions in supply chains.