Synopsis
U.S. Stroller is a manufacturer and distributor of a line of baby strollers. The company makes three types of strollers in a typical batch production system. Recently, profits are down and competition is entering the market that the company dominates. Proposals have been made to go to a JIT production system or to a Cell approach for production. The purpose of this case is to show how a batch system can be dramatically improved by JIT or Cellular concepts. The case clearly describes the changes that must be made in the production system to achieve the benefits desired. This amounts to a complete change in layout of the production floor and a substantial overhaul of the MRP system. The case nicely ties together some of the
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While U.S. Stroller has been supplying the customers from its finished goods warehouses, the shorter lead time will provide advantages for promotions, special orders or other customer changes.
Option 1 will also improve quality through faster correction of problems in the plant. This will not only result in less rework and scrap, but will result in a better product being delivered to the customer. If the cost of quality, for example, is 30% of sales at U.S. Stroller and is reduced to 20% of sales, a savings of $456,000 per year will be realized. Thus, the quality savings could be even greater than the inventory savings. Of course, quality can be improved without JIT, but the two approaches reinforce each other.
Cons
Option 1 will cost $200,000 to implement in new assembly equipment, plus a large amount of time and other costs (including training, lost production time during changeover, management time, etc.). Nevertheless, these costs could be paid off in one or two years depending on what savings are assumed for quality improvement, and inventory reduction.
The effort in implementing Option 1 should not be underestimated. Top management will have to be involved, everyone will have to be retrained, a lot of changes will be needed in procedures and systems by all departments. If this is not done with a careful and dedicated approach, a con could be failure to achieve the promised benefits of this option or failure
This paper will provide an analysis of 2 production scenarios. We will calculate costs associated with running a production facility. Furthermore, the analysis will be used to provide a basic understanding of how changes in staffing and productivity impact profit and loss.
Conclusion: We should go with Option 1. While we will have to terminate employees, which will cost us $6 million, segmenting our products across under-utilized factories will increase productivity and efficiency in our product line therefore resulting in a higher NPV and future
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
The JC Gear Company has decided to initiate a project aimed at automating its production planning and control system. Among the options, the company focuses on two alternatives: (1) purchasing the most suitable system off of the shelf and modifying it according to its individual production needs; or (2) developing a system
To reach this goal, first all the processes in the plant need to be scrutinized. Second, problems need to be identified, analyzed and solved in the manner of Kaizen. The third objective is, to implement quality control on the running belt. With these measurements we're converting the factory step by step from a batch process to a JIT production.
Lastly, the just-in-time (JIT) approach is an operating philosophy that requires that all resources, including materials, personnel, and facilities, be acquired and used only as needed (Mazumder, 2007). The JIT approach works great for manufacturing companies because of their common classes of material that they use which are raw materials, work-in-process, and finished goods (Mazumber, 2007). According to JIT concept raw materials are received just in time to go into production, manufactured parts are completed just in time to be assembled into products, and products are completed just in time to be shipped to customers (Mazumber, 2007). The
A third disadvantage of applying JIC manufacturing operations is having lower quality assurance methods and even further, lower customer satisfaction (“Just-in-case and just-in-time…”). While the just-in-case system is beneficial in
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,
Since the current assembly line layout should achieving 100% line efficiency when running at maximum capacity of 215 units. Thus, to operate at target 300 units/day, the current assembly line needs to redesign.
We are still losing money after the second year. However, my group realized that new tooling was an important cost. Therefore, we start thinking how to reduce it. We find out that if the demand stays between 300,000 to 345,000 units, the supplier will not need new tools. Then, it will bring the cost of new tooling to 0 for the coming years. Let’s take the worst case scenario and try to compute the savings for year 3, if the pistons are outsourced.
2. Hire a management team to replace or train existing employees about the individual departments so that all business is handled in a professional manor and stay organized.
JITD can lower the distribution cost, inventory cost and even the manufacturing costs. Distribution can be more efficient as the delivery is not based on the order from distributors. It is based on the forecast from Barilla. Barilla can better utilize and arrange the distribution team by planning a more efficient route and schedule to deliver the require product to each distributor on time. Barilla become more proactive in controlling the delivery schedule and so lower its distribution cost.
As the leader producer and seller of baby strollers, U.S. Stroller has been known for carrying a very high-quality baby stroller. The company is known for innovation designs and its good distribution system. The President of U.S. Stroller Judy Hawkins is the sister of the director of manufacturing Clem Hawkins. Judy has suggested to Clem that a Just-in-time system is what the company needs to reduce the high inventory cost, cycle time, improve quality and eventually cost the company is carrying. Clem decided he would solicit the help of Joan Hankins who had recently graduated from UCLA with an M.B.A; she was a whiz at analyzing.
Evaluate pros and cons of each alternative and suggest a course of action to your CEO.
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.