Analysis Winkler A.G.'s Marketing and Manufacturing Strategies

The JIT approach to manufacturing involves timing the delivery of resources so that they arrive just when needed. Inventory optimization models help the firm determine how many of which items in which sizes should be delivered to each specific store during twice-weekly shipments, ensuring that each store is stocked with just what it needs. Trucks serve destinations that can be reached

We should consider this trade-off from ECCO case, between in-house production and outsourcing when faced with cost uncertainty and competition with a rival manufacturer in a differentiated goods market. When the management decides on selecting organizational forms, technological uncertainty on production activities often ensues. Thus, a manufacturer faces uncertainty when choosing between in-house production and outsourcing. Moreover, because almost all modern firms are in a competitive position, they have to choose organizational forms and take the

Reduced need for higher capacity at the supplier. This would be reduced because suppliers would not need to size their operations to deliver on the “one shot large volume order” and would be able to space these in time with orders at

Kudler Fine Foods has continued to grow and is now poised to make significant internal changes to increase revenue and customer satisfaction. Kudler Fine Foods is a gourmet grocery store and recent market surveys have shown they have continued to exceed customer 's satisfaction in every area except one: the cost of merchandise. By exploring ways to reduce costs Kudler Fine Foods will experience an increase in customer satisfaction.

JITD created lot of internal barriers to Barilla; while some of the concerns are easy to overcome others would need more convincing. For example, the sales department, sales representatives receive more on their compensation through commission from their sales. JITD would cut or reduce to zero most of sales people responsibilities, which in turn will squeeze their commission, as one sale man said “Our sales levels would flatten if we put this program in place”. As noted in the case most of the sales come from the

Just-in-time: Just-in-time is an approach of continuous and forced problem solving through a focus on throughput and reduced inventory. Nissan takes advantage of JIT through reduced inventory levels and relying on a supply chain to deliver the parts needed to build its cars. The major benefit to JIT is that production runs remain short and the costs are reduced through less waste in warehouse storage space requirements. The company also saves money on raw materials

Market leadership and technological innovation have marked Sealed Air's participation in the U.S. protective packaging market. Several small regional producers have introduced products, which are less effective than Sealed Air's but similar in appearance and cheaper. The company must determine its response to this new competition. The company is faced with a difficult choice of choosing from a range of feasible options ranging from doing nothing to introducing a new product. This has raised product line management issues, particularly cannibalization, and affords the opportunity for the development of a marketing plan for any new product introduction. The timing of launch and any change in policies for Air Cap

• 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.

As argued by Lubben (1988), JIT allows businesses to have better management since this ensures that there is no loss as there is sufficient number of clients requiring the equipment. This reduces her to deal with huge deliveries when the clients’ numbers are not increasing. (Lubben, 1988, p.4) also suggested the idea of JIT that “... major elements of manufacturing – capital, equipment and labour are made available only in the amount required and at the time required to do the job.” So it is a good practice by utilising JIT approach as it reduces wastes and ensure the correct amount of equipment is available (Lubben,

In reviewing this case it is tempting to view its current methods as inefficient, with an over-reliance on many subcontractors, with the temptation of following a Western European/USA model of centralising production and driving tighter Arms Length Contractual Relations (ACR) to drive efficiency and reduce costs.

With JITD, the number of urgent order will be decrease. Barilla can put more focus on managing the standard order with the normal manufacturing setup. Extra work on rearranging the production line will not be required frequently. The whole operation can be more efficient and standardize.

Changes witnessed over the last few years on mode of packaging and its economic impact.

The new (JITD) system needs to be addressed in a manner that all departments can understand the importance of implementing such a program and how it will benefit the overall success of the supply chain. Overcoming Resistance at Barilla SpA Before trying to convince the distributors, one has to convince everyone at Barilla that the JITD system will be a success. If everyone within the company is convinced and they provide a single front to the distributors, Barilla has a better chance of convincing the distributors. Some of the steps that Barilla will have to take in this situation are: * Convince and use the Upper Level Management: if they are convinced of its feasibility, they will offer full support in trying to convince the Sales department. It will make a lot of difference if the Upper management talks to the Sales people than if just their Logistics department talks to them. * Involve the Sales Department in all stages: To make the Sales people feel important and wanted, Barilla should involve them in all stages of the JITD proposal. They should be made to feel that they would have lots to do even after the system comes into effect. * New Compensation System: The Sales department should be informed that they would still be rewarded for good performance, except that in this case it was the performance of the entire company as a whole and not just they individually. The new system would award a percentage of Barilla’s profits to the

These gains come at the cost of more tightly coordinated manufacturing processes—both inside a company and with supplier firms that produce under JIT" (Vollmann, 2005).

According to [5], Just-in-Time (JIT) inventory management enables an organization to gain competitive advantage by not having a large or excessive amount of inventory in warehouse. The organization only needs to order the parts when they are actually needed and new materials are produced only when old materials have finished. One advantage of adopting this strategy is that there will be no excess of inventory that needs to be stored and hence the inventory levels will be reduced as well as the cost of carrying and storing goods. One major disadvantage of this is that the organization will expose it in the risk of ordering problems for example a supplier is not able to provide parts on time. The result of this is that the organization cannot fulfill the order and contributes to customer dissatisfaction.