Case Summary Circuit Board Fabricators, Inc. is a small manufacturer of circuit boards located in California. (Chase, Jacobs, and Aquilano, 2004) Large computer companies such as Apple and Hewlett-Packard hire Circuit Board Fabricators to "make boards for prototypes of new products." (Chase, et al., 2004) The case study suggests that Circuit Board Fabricators has a good business plan established within the organization. CBF has implemented a largely automated process using industry standard codes to produce the four circuit boards that have been developed to be able to give quick and high quality service. There have been recent losses experienced by CBF, due to the system that is currently in place. The policy has changed and all orders placed now are being increased by 25%. The policy now places stress on the running system. On a highly-productive day, the plant produces 700 circuit boards, but "was designed to run 1,000 boards per day when running five days a week and one eight-hour shift per day." CBF has hired a consultant to discuss the reasons why they are not able to produce 1,000 boards per day as created. The following analysis will address the process flow structure, the capacity of the process, losses of the process, short and long-term recommendations for improvement opportunities. Case Question #1: What type of process flow structure is CBF using? CBF Inc. uses a job shop process flow structure, one of the four major process flow structures identified in the text. A job shop process flow structure is a "production of small batches of a large number of different products." (Chase, 2003). Further, job shop process "is a flexible operation that has several activities through which work can pass. In a... ... middle of paper ... ... not, why not? To be completely honest, in my organization, as virtual, home-based employees, our work never ends. The core group of employees work extensive hours a week. Yes, capacity balance is still a must, to avoid employee burnout. Developing a work/life balance is important for a consistent output of quality work. In addition, human error is almost inevitable in my position. The human touch of unmediated, asynchronous communication is inevitable, thankfully. The bottleneck of human mistakes is also inevitable and leaves room for improvement in my organization, the basis of Operations Management. References Chase, R., Jacobs, F., and Aquilano, R. (2004). Operations Management for Competitive Advantage. McGraw-Hill. NetMBA.com (2007). Process Flow Structures. Retrieved on January 25, 2007 from: http://www.netmba.com/operations/process/structure/
In today’s operational management arena, there are certain expectations from a managerial aspect that must be met in order to be successful. A comprehensive look at the Space Age Furniture Company will show exactly what the Materials Requirement Planning (MRP) calculations are for this company at present time and then take the information given in order to properly suggest ways to improve the sub-assemblies. In addition, there will be an analysis on the trade-offs between the overtime and inventory costs. A calculation will be made on the new MRP that will improve the base MRP. This paper will also compare and contrast the types of production processing to include the job shop, batch, repetitive, or continuous, and determine which the primary mode of operation should be and exactly why. A detailed description on how management can keep track of the job status and location during production will also be addressed. Finally, there will be a recommendation on they type of changes that need to occur that will be beneficial to the company and at the same time add value to the customer. This paper will conclude with summary of the major points.
We have cumulated a profit of $206 million over this period, second of the industry. Our goal of escalating profit has advised us to increase automation level and for cutting costs, which enabled us to have the margins of all products above 30% in 2019 and an average margin of 53.4% in 2024. Additionally, we invested to keep our products updated to the market trend with an attention to customer buying criteria. Moreover, starting from recent years, we run our full capacity with second shifts whenever the market need has a possibility to accommodate our production. To achieve a greater profit, we based our pricing strategy on the market movements in general by decreasing our price by $0.50 every year except for our Low End product-Acre.
In order for a company to push its improvement and create a balanced plant, it is necessary to increase the throughput, while reducing inventory an operating expense. But, what is most important is to identify the bottlenecks to be able to focus on them. After focusing and solving the constraints, everything else is going to be less powerful but important at the same time.
For its hardware business model, Apple first hires employees, primarily engineers and designers, to operate the business. Apple engineers build the applications and operating systems used by the Apple hardware devices, while the designers create the pristine shape of the various Apple products to increase consumer value. Once the engineers and designers at Apple create the blueprints for Apple products. Apple then buys supplies from different companies such as aluminum, silicon, and glass. Then the Apple sends them to a manufacturing plant operated by a 3rd party in China. Apple then sells the finished products to consumers directly through retail stores and online, or through 3rd party authorized resellers. Apple offers additional
Historically the personal computer (PC) industry has sold its products at reasonably high prices yet garnered only small profit margins. One reason for this is the high competition in the PC industry which led to competitive pricing among producers. Analyzing the competitive environment of the PC industry, it is evident that there is very little barrier to entry in this market. PC's have very low physical uniqueness and are made of standard components that require very little expertise to assemble.
Imbalanced, our lives are imbalanced. We do not have time to climb the ladder of success if we want to be home to raise our children. We do not have time to raise our children if we want to climb the ladder of success. There are not enough hours in the day to do all the things that we need to do to have a fulfilled life. We do not have time to cook a healthy meal from scratch. We grab a box of Hamburger Helper, a can of peas, and a bag of rolls and we have dinner. Exercise consists of walking between the car and the door and maybe a little wrestling around with the kids before bed. At work productivity is counted by how many hours you spend doing your job instead of the results that our produced in that time. Mindsets like this hold us back. Flexibility for the employee is the future to balancing our lives.
Custom Chip, Inc case describes the situation of a company where lack of coordination and cooperation among different departments is hindering them to achieve their common or ultimate goal as a single business entity. Applications engineering, product engineering and manufacturing are all inclined towards achieving their individual objectives and timelines rather than collaborating and synergizing their efforts in order to attain a common goal of effective production with improved cost reduction. Few of the primary reasons are insufficient and unorganized company policies for coordination and cooperation, poor networking with in the organization especially on management level, lack of communication and influence among managers and VPs, insufficient human resource, and measuring a department's effectiveness solely on its performance based on individual objectives, rather than checking its effects on over all company's performance.
The company is using a batch shop process flow structure. CBF, Inc. bases its board fabrication process on the average job size or on its typical order. This means that the company proceeds with the manufacturing process in batches so as to meet the specific requirements per order. The typical contract that the company currently gets is 60 boards per order. However, due to persisting factory defects, they manufacture a total of 75 boards per batch in order to compensate for 20% of the boards that they typically reject during the process.
Sharp’s business philosophy is to use its innovative technology “to contribute to the culture, benefits and welfare of people throughout the world” (Noda 25). Sharp is constantly trying to position itself as a leader in innovation as further supported by its business creed, which states to “constantly be aware of the need to innovate and improve” (Noda 25). However, this focus on innovation and creativity has not always been consistent with how the company has been operated. The history of the company is replete with periods of both innovation and imitation.
After the purchasing on materials is made, then it turns to operation part which is transforming the raw material into finished food and services.
Byte Products, Inc., headquartered in the midwestern United States, is regarded as one of the largest volume supplier for the production of electronic components used in personal computers. Byte Products, Inc., was a privately owned firm that has now entered to be a publicly traded company. The majority of the stockholders are the initial owners of Byte, when it was still privately owned. The products that Byte produces are primarily found in computers used for business and engineering applications. Byte Products, Inc., has been the leader in this industry for the past six year with consistent yearly revenues of 12% and total sales of approximately $265 million. Byte also has 32% of the market share.
This paper will summarize the Custom Fabricators, Inc. case study by Chase, Jacobs, & Aquilano, p. 44, answer the discussion questions shown in Figure 2, and define the role of Operations Management at Custom Fabricators, Inc.
Module 14.5 Production and Supply-Chain Management. (n.d.). http:www.saylor.org/books. Retrieved April 27, 2014, from https://learn.vccs.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-52233385-dt-content-rid-34362940_2/courses/TC295.BUS.280.OZ2C.SP14/Section-14-5.pdf pg 676
All these improvements will boost profitability by identifying at least or more that EUR 30 mio required by U.S.A headquarters. However, we believe it is not realistic to manage all this turnaround in 1 year’s time. It might take from 2 – 3 years.
Finally, I have suggested some recommendations for the issues that I have mentioned above. In reference to the first issue, it will be profitable for the company to change to level monthly production.