CASE 6.1 G IANT M OTOR C OMPANY T his case deals with strategic planning issues for a large company. The main issue is planning the company’s production capacity for the coming year. At issue is the overall level of capacity and the type of capacity—for example, the degree of flexibility in the manufacturing system. The main tool used to aid the company’s planning process is a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model. A mixed integer program has both integer and continuous variables. Problem Statement The Giant Motor Company (GMC) produces three lines of cars for the domestic (U.S.) market: Lyras, Libras, and Hydras. The Lyra is a relatively inexpensive subcompact car that appeals mainly to first-time car owners and to …show more content…
Similarly, if the demand for Libras is 1,220,000 cars (1,100,000 original demand plus 120,000 demand diverted from Lyras), then the unsatisfied demand for Lyras would be 420,000 if no capacity is added. Out of this unsatisfied demand, 42,000 ( 420,000 0.1) will materialize as demand for Hydras. All other unsatisfied demand is lost to competitors. The pattern of demand diversion is summarized in Table 6.18. A quick comparison of plant capacities and demands in Table 6.16 and Table 6.17 indicates that GMC is faced with insufficient capacity. Partially offsetting the lack of capacity is the phenomenon of demand diversion. If a potential car buyer walks into a GMC dealer showroom wanting to buy a Lyra but the dealer is out of stock, frequently the salesperson can convince the customer to purchase the better Libra car, which is in stock. Unsatisfied demand for the Lyra is said to be diverted to the Libra. Only rarely in this situation can the salesperson convince the customer to switch to the luxury Hydra model. From past experience, GMC estimates that 30% of unsatisfied demand for Lyras is diverted to Table 6.18 Lyra Libra Hydra Demand Diversion Matrix Lyra NA 0 0 Libra 0.3 NA 0.0 Hydra 0.05 0.10 NA Question GMC wants to decide whether to retool the Lyra and Libra plants. In addition, GMC wants to determine its production plan at each plant in the coming year. Based on the previous data,
There are many products and services available in the market today. The automobile market is no different. There are many brands, styles, and price ranges when it comes to vehicles. One specific area of the automobile market are trucks, more specifically is the Ram truck. Dodge Ram has been around since 1981. Truck sales have hit an all time high since 2007 proving that fuel prices are not affecting sales as much (Ross, J. 2013). The big three, Ford, Chevy, and Ram continue to fight each other in the truck selling business and have cut-throat marketing to try to be the best and on top of truck sales. Ram has gotten rid
“For companies today, MRP is a computerized information system. As such, it requires data to provide the information needed for decision making” (Vonderembse & White, 2013, Section 9.5, para 6). The goal of this paper is to read the Space Age Furniture Company case study and develop an MRP for Space Age Furniture Company using the information in the case including the production of sub-assemblies in lot sizes of 1,000 considering the lot size of 1,000 for sub-assemblies has produced a lumpy demand for part 3079; suggest ways for improvements over sub-assemblies in lot sizes of 1,000, analyze the trade-off between overtime costs and inventory costs, calculate a new MRP that improves the base MRP, compare and contrast the types of production processing—job shop, batch, repetitive, or continuous—and determine which the primary mode of operation is and why, describe ways that management can keep track of job status and location during production and recommend any changes that might be beneficial to the company and/or add value for the customer.
In the case of Mendel Paper Company which produces four basic paper products lines at one of its plants: computer paper, napkins, place mats, and poster board. Although the plant superintendent, Marlene Herbert is pleases with increased sales he is also concerned about the costs. The superintendent is concerned with the high fixed cost of production, the increases in fixed overhead and even variable overhead. He feels that the production of place mat should be discontinued. His reason for the discontinuation is that the special printing is driving up the variable overhead to the point where the company may not find it profitable to continue with the line. After reviewing the future predictions of the
The options available for this company involve looking at different inventory models in order to allow this specialist the ability to produce outside high demand windows of opportunity. Initially this company began using the MRP system which enevitably helped to reduce the company’s inventory and at the same time improved their on-time delivery numbers. Currently the process has allowed the Space Age company to maintain a cost of $1.25 per week to store their Gemnini and $1.50 per week to store each of their Saturns that sat in inventory.
1. Do you feel that the Bearington plant has the right equipment and technology to do the job? Why?
In this case study, production planning of MacPherson Refrigeration Limited (MRL) for the next year is conducted. In order to
Linda Metzler the production planning manager is the main responder in this case, she has to come up with another optimal alternative that will have to be submitted to the plant’s General Manager. The plan has to be approved by the general manager for roll out starting next year.
Currently the major issue in the vehicle industry was that car manufacturers were unable to accurately calculate and forecast customer demand. This led to an overwhelming amount of
Wilkerson’s competitors have cut prices on their pumps, in order to maintain market share, Wilkerson also cut the price of their pumps. This dropped Wilkerson’s GM by about 15%. At the same time, Wilkerson was able to increase the price of their flow controllers by 10% without a drop in demand.
WMC’s accounting practices incorrectly attribute fixed manufacturing costs to the three Detroit groups in a proportional manner, leading to Group 3’s lack of profitability. Discontinuation of Group 3 pushes a greater percentage of the fixed costs to the other groups impacting their ability to be profitable. Additionally, WMC does not consider the degree to which production at the Detroit plant contributes to the operations and
* Demand variability is not easily supported by employing Transit Point methodology. If there is an urgent demand for goods in excess of truckload capacity then it can lead to huge additional cost.
The new audio greeting message affects the demand for greeting cards. The demand for greeting cards decreases because greeting cards and audio greeting cards are substitutes. The demand curve for greeting cards pads shifts leftward, from D0 to D1 in Figure 4.6. Simultaneously the fall in the cost of producing a greeting card affects the supply. The fall in the cost of producing greeting cards increases the supply and the supply curve shifts rightward, from S0 to S1 in Figure 4.6. At the initial price of a greeting card, $5.00 in Figure 4.6, there is a surplus of 60 greeting cards per week. The surplus forces the price lower, so the equilibrium price of a greeting card
General Motors (GM) is one of the most renowned automakers in the world. GM is well-known for their streamlined assembly processes which saves money and time in the production of cars. A study was conducted at one of GM’s vehicle assembly plants as part of a research project to examine how the ABC model provides value. GM specifically focused on its potential to determine expected energy use in a plant for varying production schedules in order to evaluate Demand and Response offers.
The demand for cars is subject to strong fluctuations. During the year, sales tend to increase in spring and droop in winter. Most importantly,
A second point of consideration relating to the intensity of rivalry within the industry was the level of industry demand. “Demand declines when customers are leaving the marketplace or each customer is buying less” (Hill &Jones, 2012, p. 62). This was the case in 2009 in many developed nations due to the recession, which was marked by job loss, credit problems, and high gas prices that increased the demand for fuel-efficient vehicles or left consumers unable to purchase vehicles altogether. At the same time, growth was expanding in China and some other developing nations, which opened the doors for automobile companies in these countries to expand at home and