MetroFresh Distribution Center Operations Turnaround: McKinsey-Style Operations Case Interview
MetroFresh Distribution Center Operations Turnaround is a medium-difficulty McKinsey-style operations case interview with 8 interviewer questions and 4 exhibits; candidates finish it in a median 23 minutes. Your first full case is free with an account: run it out loud with an AI interviewer or step by step.
| Case type | Operations |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail Supply Chain / Operations |
| Firm style | McKinsey |
| Difficulty | Medium |
| Interviewer questions | 8: context, clarifying, structure, 3 analysis, math, synthesis |
| Math questions | 1 |
| Exhibits | 4 |
| Modes | Voice and guided |
| Completed runs | 52 |
| Median time | 23 minutes |
| Source | Written by Road to Offer |
Runs, times and ratings are from Road to Offer practice data as of 6 November 2026.
The case
MetroFresh, a regional grocery distributor, has seen on-time-in-full service fall from 96% to 87% over the last year while cost per order increased. The COO wants a practical plan to restore service levels above 95% and recover margin within two quarters.
MetroFresh serves 620 grocery stores from three distribution centers. Customer penalties for late deliveries are rising, and store managers report shelf outages in fast-moving categories. Leadership suspects labor allocation and picking process bottlenecks are the main issues and needs a data-backed operating plan.
The interviewer's first question
Could you restate the client situation and the operations decision objective?
Exhibits you will read
- Exhibit 1: Service and Cost Trend (OTIF % vs cost per order $)
- Exhibit 2: Daily Picking Demand vs Capacity by Shift
- Exhibit 3: Process Error Rates by Workflow (%)
- Exhibit 4: EBITDA Improvement Bridge ($M annualized)
What this case tests
One math step, four exhibits and three analysis questions: this case is mostly about reading data under time pressure.