American Connector Company Case
Severity of Threat by DJC
The American Connector Company (ACC) should be extremely concerned with the im-pending entrance of DJC to the US landscape. Any new entrant will most likely be of the mentality to try and take as much market share as quickly as possible. This course of action usually involves a period of time when the new company will plan on operating at a loss, and will thereby be will-ing to price below market average with small margins. Realization of this threat would immedi-ately disrupt ACC’s pricing strategy and could affect long term profitability.
The threat of lower prices is compounded by the intensity of the current competitive mar-ket. ACC should be concerned with any new
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The ACC employed a strategy that emphasized an increased variety of products and flexibility in production, while DJC emphasized a strategy of cost reduction and utilized a number of tactics to decrease their costs overall. Among the major tactics was a cultivation and maintenance of close ties with suppliers and distributors in Japan, simplicity of design and manufacturability over innovation, and an emphasis on being highly efficient in manufacturing. This strategy difference appears to be the sole driver in the cost difference of the materials as the close ties with suppliers, lower costs associated with a simpler cheaper design, and the attention to details such as the use of a 2,000 piece packaging reel instead of a standard 1,500 piece reel minimize the cost of materials.
Furthermore, the ACC strategy of offering increased variety requires shorter production runs which inherently increases the cost associated with each product and packaging, as idle time due to process changeover would increase between each product production (4.8% of time com-pared with 2% for DJC). The strategy of increased variety and production runs by the ACC would also affect labor in a number of ways. Direct labor costs would go up due to a larger amount of idle time associated with process changeover and the chance of increased problems associated with the
Target Corporation’s (NYSE:TGT) share price declined nearly 7.5% in the last month alone, amid the potential threat of higher taxes from Donald Trump’s new administration. Aside from higher taxes, the company looks in a very solid position to expand its profitability and dividends.
Threat from Buyers: Buyers hold an advantage in our current market plan. To maintain the perception of exclusivity with our new product line, we are limiting the number of retailers who carry the line to a few high end stores. This limit gives some power to these retail chains. To balance some of this power, we will seek contract limitations and agreements with these retailers. Currently Company G offers average credit to these buyers however Company G can offer better credit terms to these intermediaries if needed.
One of the major benefits of expansion is the reduction of fixed cost (fixed and selling). The cost is absorbed by 85,000 units instead of 80,000 units resulting in saving of $0.42 per unit.
• A situation where a reduction in production will result in less overhead allocated to the respective product
Under an ABC system, the allocation of costs to products is achieved through at least four analytical steps. Firstly, costs are grouped into activity levels. Secondly, cost drivers are
In order to meet customer demands for higher product quality, to comply with federally-mandated environmental regulations, and to reduce production costs, HCC must spend $2,000,000 within the next three years to upgrade equipment. The upgrade is expected to result in production efficiencies that will lower material and labor costs by reducing defective products, process waste, in-process inventory, and production man-hours through simplified work processes. It has been over a decade since significant modifications were made to the production facilities. Those changes were mostly technical in nature and did not substantially alter work processes or reduce overall employment. The average productivity gain in the industry for the past five years has been 3% per year. Financing for the loan to purchase the equipment
4) Trade Secrets - DJC reverse engineered many of its early connectors from designs from other companies. This sped up the design process and allowed them to quickly enter the market. They did not want the same thing to happen to them so they had contracts written up with suppliers and created an internal design division that did their work in house. This allowed DJC to keep their innovative ideas to themselves, maintaining their advantage over the competition.
• This cost method does not provide the best system for JDCW’s cost allocation. By using only three overhead rates the present system grossly undermines the true production costs since other activities of the production process are not acknowledged.
Improving the quality of the product. This would result in an increase in the variable cost per unit by shs 30.
Besides, decreasing the production cost is also important as the firm can then lower the price. So the decisions related to change in plant size, process improvement and the training are also important.
The cost of OS-367 may have increased under the ABC system due to the fact that it the cost of the product needed to be increased to cover all the overhead costs. Activity based costing allocates costs to different areas based on the actual product and service in relation to consumption. Traditional cost allocation allows the company to divide the costs by department and utilizes volume- based information to determine the allocations. Therefore, OS-367 may be the only product that needs a certain machine to be produced and the cost of that machine would be allocated to this certain product. In this scenario, it increased the overhead costs and total cost allocated (ABC), thus the cost per unit needed to be increased. The increase in cost per
One of America’s largest forest products/paper firms with sales of $6.5Billion in 1983 and a net income of $105 million. The case study revolves around Atlantic Corporation’s intention to add linerboard capacity. In order to achieve this goal, they started looking at viable solutions, including purchasing and acquiring mill and box plants instead of through construction and fabrication of new plants and equipment. This included the possible acquisition of Royal Paper’s “crown jewels”, that is, the Monticello mill and the corrugated box plants.
The company analyzed that the way their products were designed using the cradle-to-grave process released toxic material
| * Having very little financial resources can leave Fresh Connections susceptible to the business uncertainties of this industry * Currently highly dependent on a stagnating market segment as Retail make up half their sales
Large quantities of work in process are often characteristic of this type of production system. This may lead to longer throughput time, poor quality concealed by bundles, large inventory, extra handling, and difficulty in controlling inventory