Sunwind A.B. – A Case Study
Introduction
On November 14, 2000 Olav Larsson, Managing Director of Sunwind, eased back in his seat as his A380 climbed away from Tokyo’s Narita Airport to begin the 17 hour flight to Gothenburg, Sweden. He was returning from a 10-day trip to Japan where he had visited factories of Nissan and Mazda as well as a number of their parts suppliers. This visit had reinforced his conviction that Sunwind should initiate a proposal to Volvo, its major customer, that Just-In-Time delivery of floor lids1 be made directly onto its 700 series automobile assembly lines at Torslanda, near Gothenburg, Kalmer, a port city on Sweden’s east cost, and at Ghent in Belgium.
Lars, a graduate engineer, had previous managerial
…show more content…
Average weekly requirements in 2001 were expected to approach 1,400 units. Lars estimated Sunwind’s current single shift capacity at approximately 1,250 units/week. To achieve this, he had hired an additional 20 people at the beginning of August and established three shift operations on a numerically controlled milling machine used to shape plywood parts.
Effective capacity was actually less than 1,250 units/week due to equipment failures, e.g. the gluing machine had proved particularly troublesome and had increased rejects. Recent causes of the rejects included seeping through the carpeting that covered the plywood forms. Volvo had also rejected a shipment of floor lids due to differences in the shade of carpeting covering the four separate pieces which made up a floor lid.
Such difficulties could not have come a worse time, when Lars was already concerned by the world-wide trend of major manufacturers in the automobile industry to rely on fewer suppliers. He knew that Toyota, which industry observers continually cited for its productivity gains, relied on only 320 suppliers, while Volvo had over 600. Headlines such as “Volvo will reduce number of suppliers; pressure on sub-contractors” in Dagens-Nyheter, one of Sweden’s major daily newspapers, did not help his peace of mind.
He was also aware that Just-In-Time deliveries had been implemented recently
I am a long-time teacher of Belle Chasse Primary School. I am writing to you concerning your son, Wind-Wolf. I understand that you have voiced concerns over our methods in teaching your son. However, I want to assure you that my major concern in helping your son, my student, Wind-Wolf.
This case analysis explores the possibility of Breezy, a leading supplier of carburators and air filters in North America, the possibility of developing offshore busines in countries where car manufacturing is growing. The report is structured as follows: First, there are five important questions that Breezy must consider and ask itself before developing a relationship with a new customer. After Breezy decides to go offshore, it will have to go through the negotiating process, which involves five steps. Breezy then, must have capabilities of how an offshore business is organized, consider the many different costs and risks involved in the implementation and decide how it will finance the project. The report also talks
Jonah tells them that they have hidden capacity because some of their thinking is incorrect. Some ways to increase capacity at the bottlenecks are not to have any down time within the bottlenecks, make sure they are only working on quality products so not to waste time, and relieve the workload by farming some work out to vendors. Jonah wants to know how much it cost when the bottlenecks (X and heat treat) machines are down. Lou says $32 per hour for the X machine and $21 per hour for heat treat. How much when the whole
Navistar considered quality and on-time delivery as a priority that came before costs; therefore, top management as well as initiatives to improve processes and on-time delivery supported various improvement initiatives to quality programs. Andy is an assembly supervisor but had very broad job responsibilities. Andy’s time was taken up in areas such as supplier quality evaluations, internal process documentation, process improvement, and much more. His focus was very widespread and his day was drawn away from scheduled and unscheduled meetings; this position required long hours and weekend work. In addition to the quality issues, truck interior trim shortages was another challenge, which resulted in reordering of trim parts leading to additional material handling, and post-assembly installation. These delayed parts required overtime that increased cost and delayed delivery of the finished truck of the customer. Issues came from both Navistar and their supplier Trimco. Navistar had design changes such as different sizes, repositioning of mechanisms and other various designer and material changes; however, these changes to the truck interiors were not communicated to Trimco before production runs were completed. As a result, parts were shipped with different specifications than those needed for proper fit during assembly. Due to the lack of coordination and communication,
Automotive Builders, Inc. (ABI) is a company that consistently changed its production lines and strategic goals relative to the needs of the times, starting out producing diesel engine parts for tractors in the 1940’s, switching over to the production of parts for military vehicles during World War II, and then, after the war, settling into its current placement in both the automobile and tractor industry. Due to the downturn in the economy and stiff and superior competition in both quality and price rising up from the Japanese who had recently entered into the industry, ABI is trying to find productive and innovative ways to improve sales and guarantee placement as the number one company in its
Ed Welsh and Bo Haeberle discovered an idea of the solar feeder. After years of developing, the product became very successful. It even won several prizes like the best new product in the Bird Watch America trade show, the national birding convention. After this, Ed and Bo decided to sell their final product under new established company Squirrel Defense, Inc. They opened a small shop in Greensboro and begin the production of the solar feeder so they could take orders for the demanded product. Owners spent too much money and time on developing the product and now, their expectations are high because they have an advantage of unique product and even the investors showed interest in the company.
In the late 1980’s to the mid 1990’s the plant struggled to meet budgetary goals and was faced with potential closure. These struggles stemmed from the plants inability to increase efficiency and reduce cost. Reducing labor
Ghosn’s plan to combine, centralize, and globalize Nissan and Renault’s parts procurement would cut costs by 20 percent! Before this change, Ghosn estimated Nissan’s parts procurement costs were around 10 percent higher than Renault’s. To accomplish his goal, Ghosn had to prove that the precious keiretsu system of Japan was promoting
Just like the other industries such as apparel, electronics, and consumer goods, the automobile industry has accelerated its foreign direct investment, cross border trade and global production. The automobile industry has increased outsourcing and bundled value chain activities in major supplier chains. As a result, more developed countries that serve as suppliers have increased their involvement in trade and FDI. With these increased supplier capabilities, large national suppliers have become global suppliers and are now controlling multinational operations. This is because of their increased capability of providing good and services to various lead firms all over the world. The automotive industry has a distinct firm structure. This
This case study presents how BMW, a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company, is trying
1. What is the mission of Namaste Solar? How does the mission reflect the company’s values? Explain.
The topic selected is (Strategic Procurement & Supply Chain Management). For this study, we have selected Toyota Motor Corporations as our company of choice. Toyota is without doubt the best in the world, with its many philosophies and principles on how to make the best out of the least; JIT, lean production and elimination of waste and the desire for continuous improvement are just a few ways how Toyota has become the best in the auto industry. Toyota as a name, a company, and as a brand has become synonymous with Quality.
Storms in space could have a devastating effect on our society. Solar storms are a result of solar flares and are electromagnetic in nature. They are capable of causing power outages and halting all types of communication, including; electronic pagers; radio and television broadcasts; credit card transactions; military communications; etc.
The issue here is should Wind Technology compete in the HVPS market? Based on the estimated “attainable” market potential of ______________________, a one-half (0.5 percent) market share would correspond to ___________________$ sale? After subtracting production costs, what is the approximate profit available? _____________________ $
The sun is the largest object in the solar system. It is a middle-sized star and there are many other stars out in the universe just like it. Even though it is only a middle-sized star it is large enough to hold over 1 million Earth’s inside if it were hollow. The temperature on the sun is far too much for any living thing to bear. On the surface it is 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit and the core is a stunning 27,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit. But don’t worry we are over 90,000 million miles away, the sun could never reach us, at least not yet. The sun is a still a middle aged star and later in its life it will become a Red Giant. In this stage it will get bigger, and closer to us causing a temperature increase and most likely the