Essay about The Lego Case

3. How can supply chain design and integration help John Wolf reduce investment and space requirements while maintaining adequate service levels?

To achieve its business strategies the LEGO has taken the help of the IT vendors IBM and SAP for the establishment of their IS making it possible to extend more quickly and add capacity and functionality as it was needed. Supporting massive expansion brings its own challenges, one of which is to ensure that the underlying systems can scale reliably and effectively. The main issues with the supply chain management, end customer feedbacks, product profit accountability, spread its market and the various unit functioning etc. had been addressed completely by the advent and the establishment of the efficient IS for the business.

On one hand, partnering with such supplier has offered the company the greatest freedom to operate. One the other hand, technological spillover and inventions came up from the developmental stage are also likely to occur. The worst case is that competitor might protect those inventions which prevent the LEGO Group form using their own innovation. Protection of those inventions is deemed necessary to the growth of the

LEGO, today, has become a household name but it hasn't always been that successful. Throughout the years, it has survived and thrived against all odds, repeatedly.

Ryan McMaken defends Lego’s gender marketing issue as he focuses on Lego primarily as a profit-seeking business, as well as a business who has proven to know exactly what they are doing. McMaken concentrates on how Lego’s introduction of their Friends Line increased the worth of the female construction toy industry’s from 300 million to 900 million dollars. Evidently, these Lego sets may appear stereotypical or sexist to some, but there are what many people prefer to buy. He explains that Lego, in a competitive industry, must aim to please consumers, meet their needs, and gain a competitive advantage. To do so, it is crucial to offer products that other companies may not; products that will satisfy the needs of all children. Therefore, after extensivea research, and various

The Lego Group tried to catch up the market trends during the period, but they ignored that the industry total profit pool decreased by 50% Between 1999 and 2003. It's naturally for players to reduce mass production and focus on core competency. However, the Lego Group invested significantly in expansion not only in brick-based product lines, but also beyond the brick. The expansion was not focusing on its core competency.

At that time, the performance winners for LEGO were speed (of delivery), and flexibility (wide range of products, volume and delivery adjustments at short notice). Cost, dependability and quality were not as vital. To achieve these objectives, LEGO had made several operational decisions: Speed: • Maintain multiple distribution centres, close to key markets: 5 in Europe, 1 in USA • Maintain high stock levels, of finished product, and components so products could be assembled quickly. Flexibility: • Supply retailers both large and small, from relatively close distribution centres • Frequent, small, orders accepted • Introduce new products to the range, and discontinue old

LEGO,  like  most  companies  in  the  toy  industry  are  fighting  to  stay  profitable  in  this

There are many barriers to new organizations in the toy industry, making the threat of new entrants low. Lego and other big toy companies like Mattel benefit from economies of scale. An economy of scale is achieved by lower costs through large volume production (Textbook glossary). Economies of scale can occur in many departments within the organization including production, marketing, research and development, and finance. Some manufacturing of Lego products was shifted to Central Europe and Mexico in order to benefit from lower wages and to shorten product supply chains (p. 13 of case). The management of Lego additionally holds expertise on production, distribution and customer needs; which are absent in a new organization. To enter the toy sector a potential entrant needs to calculate the start of production at a level that will give a competitive position and production costs lower than the market.

Lego, from the Danish words “leg godt” or play well, was founded by Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1932 (Herman, 2012). Known for producing iconic studded plastic bricks that were enjoyed by both children and adults, Lego produced more than 30 Lego-based video games and, through licensing agreements, popular Star Wars and Harry Potter Lego sets (Baichtal & Meno, 2011). Lego also sold a series of Arctic sets including an Arctic Base Camp, Arctic Outpost, Arctic Helicrane, Lego Ice Crawler, and Arctic Snowmobile. Those sets sold for $89.99, $49.99, $39.99, $14.99, and $6.99 respectively. Lego’s 2014 film, The Lego Movie, grossed more

Based on the case study Lego appears to be using the Focus strategy. Michael Porter proposed three generic strategies Cost Leadership, Differentiation and Focus. Focus is a strategy where organization focuses on specific niche markets; this may include a particular geographic region or particular segment of customers. Organizations which use this strategy develop their products after having a study of dynamics of the segment and unique needs of customer. Lego before the appointment of the new CEO appear to use the focus strategy as their top priority was always to focus on innovation and creativity with taking profits into consideration. Add to that the case study also mention that Lego used to create products that primarily targeted boys. After the appointment of new CEO Jorgen Vig Knudstorp the company appears to have changed its policy form Focus to Cost-Leadership. Cost-Leadership is a strategy where organizations focus on gaining competitive advantage by offering products and services at the lowest possible price. They achieve this by increasing profits by reducing production cost and other way is to increase market share by reducing the prices of products compared to the competitors. Knudstorp after taking charge of Lego changed their focus on reducing the production

Ever since LEGO started experiencing double digit annual sales growth, (by launching new toy games, branded theme parks, entering the video game sector, introducing mobile applications, introducing toys for girls, etc.) they realized they needed a model that was standardized, modular and scalable. Hence, allowing them to expand to new markets in a less amount of time. They already had a decently established market in USA and UK; they were looking for an expansion in other countries as well. This model had to tackle major issues like scalability challenges, employee

1. What led the LEGO group to the edge of bankruptcy by 2004? Please focus on the management moves during “the growth period that wasn’t” (1993-98) and “the fix that wasn’t” (1999-2004).

Knudstrop comprehended the necessity for the Information framework and enhanced hierarchical structure. His front line procedure of reusing the modules to fabricate new items went about as rescue, where the module utilization was diminished to 7000 from 13000. Every module cost around 50000 euro, which coordinated in decreased expense for developing. In further new alterations are developed in building up the module with decreased cost, managed quality and enhanced item subjects with current business sector pattern helped LEGO to enhance its money related position in the business sector.

Lego has many diversified products, but the base of all of them are the plastic Bricks, which actually makes the company successful as the result of the possibility of rebuilt the