Canon Supply Chain Management

The problem in this case is concerned with Eastman Kodak losing its market share in film products to lower-priced economy brands. Over the last five years, in addition to being brand-aware, customers have also become price-conscious. This has resulted in the fast paced growth of lower priced segments in which Kodak has no presence.

Polaroid’s overall growth strategy was to be the number one and only instant photography company through the invention of it’s own technology in its own laboratories. “Growth objectives are a key part of an organization’s overall strategic plan. Almost all strategic plans deal with the size the company wishes to be in the future” (Human Resource Management pg. 110). One of the ways in which Polaroid planned to be the only instant photography company—in turn would also make it the greatest—was through 533 patents. “Polaroid is still characterized by many as a company that hold too tight a grip on its patents” (Human Resource Management pg. 130). Polaroid’s strategic plan was always to stick with their one invention, improve on it’s technology, and target the sole market. This affected HR planning and strategy because Edwin H. Land did not want to enter other markets; Land wanted Polaroid to be about instant photography. The decision to stay in only one market affected HR from doing what they are suppose to do. It prevented them from being creative or innovative.

Where total profit has gone up in last three years mostly owing to a better profit making in North America.

Reorders are placed at the time of review (T), and the safety stock that must be reordered is:

When implementing project 1, you face technical and market risk. How would you assess the risks embedded in Project 1?

It was Kodak’s’ strategy to sell the cameras at low prices, and it used to earn revenue from the films; this strategy is called the razor-blade strategy. This model for photography became flop when Sony introduced a camera with floppy disk inside, in which there wasn’t any use of films. As a result of Sony’s introduction of the Mavica in 1981, Kodak took it as a threat and started investing in the digital photography. For this purpose, it has conducted a huge research on the digital photography. As exposed by Fisher in 1997, Kodak’s respond wasn’t appropriate for the digital world: “One of the mistakes we [Kodak] have made is that we [Kodak]’ve tried to do it all. We [Kodak] do not have to pursue all aspects of the digital opportunity and service side.”

The problem in this case is Kodak's steadily eroding market share and shareholder value in the film rolls market. This is especially undesirable given the fact that the market has been growing at a tepid 2% annual rate and the steadily increasing threat from competition. Kodak needs to come up with a strategy for corrective action so as to arrest this decline, regain market share and increase share holder value. Kodak's strategy is to reposition itself by targeting a new segment of price sensitive customers and re-segmenting the super premium customers’ space by including a wider segment of special occasion customers.

Our approach was to facilitate the demand with respect to the market. We penetrated the market by building factory in Fardo and building warehouses to the respective regions, Caleopeia, Sorange, Entworpe, Tyran. Another component that we had to consider was finding the optimal cost to increase market share and increase our profit margin. Discussion on the logistics will be discussed thoroughly, which affected our decision points and our overall outcome. There are a few questions we needed to answer before we built a road map to our strategy i.e. figuring out where to build the factory and warehouse, estimate the demand of the four regions and Fargo region, should we change capacity, adjust ordering point with respect to quantity, and also

Richard Dana Associates (RDA) was brought in by the owners of a family-owned business with complex relationship issues at a time preceding an anticipated leadership transition. Following individual and group coaching sessions, RDA was able to help the leadership separate personal issues, and codify practices through formal policies to allow the leadership group to focus on business issues without personal complications. At the end of RDA's engagement, the client was well-positioned to begin developing a transition plan.

When Kodak began making changes to its organizational architecture in 1984, its current architecture did not fit the business environment for the industry. The largest factor that motivated Kodak to make this change was increased competition and decreased market share. Until the early 1980’s, Kodak owned the film production market with very little competition. This suddenly changed when Fuji Corporation and many other generic store brands began producing high quality film as well (Brickley, 2009, p. 358). Another factor in this change was technology advancements. As technology rapidly expanded in the 1980’s, other

Kodak currently has no position within the ink market. The ink business is a $45 billion a year sector that could regenerate Kodak’s position in the printing sector. The market for ink is dominated by HP, followed by Epson, Canon, and Lexmark. Entering a complete new market may be beneficial in its current position. According to Kodak, the greatest obstacle to printing at home is the cost of ink and supplies. Kodak can develop a cost efficient solution that will be more appealing to consumers. With the launch of this product, Kodak must focus on several sectors of business: marketing, pricing, distribution, and production. Onesource (2011).

In late March 1996, Ralph Norwood was faced with the task of restructuring Polaroid’s capital structure. In the past, Polaroid had a monopoly in the instant-photography segment. However, with upcoming threats in the emerging digital photography industry and Polaroid experiencing recent losses in their market share due to Kodak’s competition, Gary T. DiCamillo, recently appointed CEO of Polaroid, headed a restructuring plan to stimulate the firm’s performance. The firm’s new plan has goals such as to aggressively exploit the existing Polaroid brand, introduce product extensions, and enter new emerging markets such as Russia in order to secure Polaroid’s future.

Digital camera market has enjoyed tremendous growth since it was introduced in the photographic industry. Starting in 1998, price has been falling rapidly. In addition, the development of CMOS allowed digital camera to not only capture professional market, but also enter consumer market. It was estimated that in 2006 forecast would peak with 63% penetration rate for digital cameras in the US. After 2006, the growth rate was expected to fall negative.

The Eastman Kodak Company was established in the 1880’s as a film business, set on establishing its brand name in the marketplace through customer-focused advertising and growth through research and development and low cost mass production. The founder, George Eastman, described Kodak’s competitive philosophy by commenting that “nothing is more important than the value of our name and the quality it stands for. We must make quality our fighting argument” (Gavetti, Henderson & Giorgi, 2005).

Through the years, Canon has demonstrated several core competencies that have enabled them to propel themselves to the top of the market. First and foremost, Canon has employed a pool of extremely talented engineers who made up Canon’s Research and Development team. Through their research, Canon was able to uncover new and innovative products. This varied product line, which included cameras, calculators, and photocopiers, demonstrates Canon’s diversified product line. This diverse line of merchandise is integral to the company’s survival and has enabled Canon to take a multifaceted approach to technological competition. The more diverse type of products that are offered, the more chances there are