DardenBusinessPublishing:212105 UVA-OM-1354 Rev. Mar. 1, 2010 This document is authorized for use only by Haiying Yang at university of Texas at Dallas. Please do not copy or redistribute. Contact permissions@dardenbusinesspublishing.com for questions or additional permissions. WAUSAU EQUIPMENT COMPANY: A LEAN JOURNEY (A) History and Business Background Ashford Elevator Company was founded in 1946 in a small midwestern town. Its first products were grain elevators, sold to local co-ops and farms. Started as a small shop with five workers, the company, which quickly grew to include 50 employees, began engineering, manufacturing, and servicing a variety of machinery and equipment for the agribusiness industry. The company changed its …show more content…
Most breakdowns received the shortterm, band-aid treatment; so consequently, equipment downtime continued to increase, contributing to the run-to-failure mentality. At times, labor management relations were strained, and union organizers met strong resistance. Leadership at the top was also slow in recruiting younger executives; there was little interest in succession planning and other career-development processes. The Lean Journey Beginning Late in 2000, WECO’s executive board gathered for its annual business-strategy meeting at a nearby lake resort. The last year had seen a 10% decline in operating profits due to the high cost of labor and materials, flat revenues because of resistance to price increases, and increased competition in both domestic and foreign markets. In addition, work-in-process and finished goods totaled almost 30 million, a five-year high. There was considerable concern that, for the first time in memory, company market share could drop from 35% as its principal competitive advantage—although a highly engineered and reliable system, it was no longer the key factor driving sales. Other factors had become important, among them shorter lead times (a steady decrease during five years, from between 16 and 22 weeks to 10 and 12
Risk of increasing labor costs faster than expected which could directly impact the pricing of the products
operating costs. This could most effectively be accomplished in two ways. First, through a reduction in flying
The movement in organized labor from 1875 to 1900 to improve the position of workers was unsuccessful because of the inherent weaknesses of unions and the failures of their strikes, the negative public attitudes toward organized labor, widespread government corruption, and the tendency of government to side with big business. After the Civil there was a push to industrialize quickly, and the rushed industrialization was at the expense of the workers as it led to bigger profits for big business and atrocious working conditions for them; conditions that included long working hours, extremely low wages, and the exploitation of children and immigrants.
In the early days of trade unionism, there was a direct need for workers to be represented, in areas such
See, e.g., Marion Crain & Ken Matheny, Beyond Unions, Notwithstanding Labor Law, 4 U.C. IRVINE L. REV. 561, 562–53 (2014). “Unions served as a vehicle for worker voice and political influence . . . .”
However, a small percentage of industrial laborers joined labor unions or protested against their company and many feared their jobs would be replace by immigrant workers. Also, larger labor unions, such as the American Federation of Labor and the Knights of Labor, differed on the registration of members and actions taken during strikes and resists. The change in opinions weakened the movement overall as smaller groups formed from the main labor
b-A discussion of how various major types of costs incurred by Home Depot were likely affected?
WIth the power going to their head, their attitude reflected their beliefs that employers were on a higher level that their workers in every way. So they had a strong distaste towards their employees banning together against them because they were challenging their superiority.Many employers gave them an ultimatum, either you sign a contract similar to the Western Union Telegraph Company’s, promising you wouldn’t have any affiliation with the unions, or you lost your job (Document E). In 1883, in a testimony before the Senate Committee on Labor and Capital, a machinist said that "100 men are able to do now what it took 300 or 400 men to do fifteen years ago" in trying to explain his insignificance to the company he worked for (Document D). Due to the fact that they indeed did not necessarily need as many men as they did in the past, employers had no problem firing them if their protests went too
went on strikes. Although the workers had created many strikes and labor unions, they were at the least
Workers would not be able to successfully accomplish the established goals without the help of the union.
The recent decline in share price reflects that the market recognizes the declining profitability of the industry.
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The company may have to pay higher production costs or may not be able to produce and
regulation, cost and availability of raw materials, and cost of labor. A business may have the best idea for
1.0 INTRODUCTION “Today’s strange, new business world needs an augmented model of industry and market analysis that reflects recent developments in industry dynamics, such as globalization, entrepreneurship, technological advances and the internet” (Slater & Olson, 2002).