In an effort to increase sales, Victoria SA decides to increase the product range. Strawberry jam is the traditional filling, but marketing considers that customers would also like other types of filling and decides to try blackberry jam, apricot jam, lemon curd and chocolate. Over the course of the next few months, the experiment appears to be working. Overall sales are up by 10 per cent, with each of the new varieties contributing well. The problem however is that no stable pattern exists in the mix of sales. For example, some days the chocolatefilled cakes sell out while on other days hardly a single chocolatefilled cake is sold. The issue appears to be that offering increased variety has led to less stability in the demand pattern – as well as increased complexity in the production operation. Major retail customers are complaining about wastage and lost sales opportunities.