Case Six: Southwest Airlines
Introduction
Herman Miller has a deep-rooted history as a quality manufacturer of office furniture. The company has been recognized on Fortune’s “Most Admired Companies,” and “100 Best Companies to Word For” lists, as well as Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Companies” list (Shipper, Manz, Adams, & Manz, 2011). Due to the company’s innate ability to reinvent itself, Herman Miller has been able to stay relevant through the years despite the great depression and several recessions over the years (Shipper et al., 2011). With the right planning Herman Miller will continue its tradition of innovation well into the future.
Company Information
In 1909, Dirk De Pree was hired as a clerk at The Michigan Star Furniture Company (Shipper et al., 2011). Working his way through the ranks, De Pree became President in 1919 (Shipper et al., 2011). After convincing his father-in-law to purchase the majority stock in the company, De Pree changed the name to Herman Miller Furniture Company in honor of his father-in-law (Shipper et al., 2011).
Recognizing each employee was more than the job they were hired to do, De Pree led Herman Miller with a standard that “all workers [were treated] as individuals with special talents and potential” (Shipper et al., 2011, p. 491). The Herman Miller “culture represents the collective attitudes, aspirations, ideals, and experiences of the people who work [there]”("Things That Matter To Us," 2013). As the economy fluctuated, Herman Miller streamlined their product offering to focus on office furniture (Shipper et al., 2011). Their attention to detail and focus on simplicity, innovation and design, Herman Miller furniture became a standard of excellence. Many of the designs ...
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Khalid, A. (2012). Cheap Chic: Couture Comes to Discount Retailers: NPR.
Kuang, C. (2010). Herman Miller Aims at Office Depot, With $399 Task Chair by Yves Behar Retrieved 12/1/2013, from http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662448/herman-miller-aims-at-office-depot-with-399-task-chair-by-yves-behar
Reinventing Herman Miller. (2000) Retrieved 12/1/2013, from http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_14/b3675047.htm
Shipper, F., Manz, K., Adams, S. B., & Manz, C. C. (2011). Herman Miller Inc.: The Reinvention and Renewal of an Iconic Manufacturer of Office Furniture (Vol. In Elizabethtown College, Corporate Strategy, pp. 491-504): Mcgraw-Hill.
Things That Matter To Us. (2013) Retrieved 12/1/2013, 2013, from http://www.hermanmiller.com/about-us/things-that-matter-to-us.html
Tsao, D. (2009). Herman Miller: Preparing for the Long Haul. Seeking Alpha.
You are the social media director for Tiblana Candle Company. Tiblana is a manufacturer and sells candles through partner retail stores such as novelty stores found in shopping malls, as well as big box retail and department stores, and online through sites such as Amazon.com. The company has a solid 20-year reputation for making popular household decor candles in a variety of scents and colors. Candles are sold in elegant, well-branded boxes. The primary customer base is women 30-45 years old (but Tiblana wants to start targeting women 45-60 as well). Tiblana’s CRM data shows that customers average eight purchases each over lifetime, very good for their niche. The company is profitable and growing.
In the early 2000’s Lowe’s was rapidly intensifying its presence nationwide. The company carried a varied assortment of home improvement products and catered to the needs of retail as well as commercial business customers. Lowe’s expanded their reach by acquiring a 41-store chain, Eagle Hardware and Garden, and engaging in a strategic alliance with HGTV to obtain a more profound existence in their market (Rouse, 2005). By 2004, Lowe’s operated almost 1,000 stores with plans to continue expansion across the nation (Rouse, 2005). The company has a core competency in helping customers meet their home improvement needs at a low price. In order to use this core competency to gain a competitive advantage, the company has focused on key functional strategies. To continue their success, Lowe’s must specifically focus on marketing, logistics, and human resource management strategies.
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.
Amber Briggs, of Kerzner Office Equipment, has been tasked with leading a small team of Kerzner employees to plan, organize, and execute Kerzner’s 10th anniversary celebration. Kerzner Office Equipment has experienced both the highs and lows of capitalism. When Kerzner was originally formed, their organization thrived in the office equipment sector; however, after a few years of being in business, their company suffered through a brutal national recession. Even though the national recession had a lasting impact on Kerzner’s capital and employee environment, Kerzner was able to navigate their way through the recession and developed a new product line of office equipment, which has rejuvenated their bottom line and employee satisfaction. Therefore, the successful execution of the 10th year anniversary celebration was stressed directly from the CEO of Kerzner Office Equipment to Amber Briggs.
...t and satisfactions. In addition, IKEA’s threats are poor understanding of cultural needs and demands. Economically, IKEA's growth had increased due to their low price furniture. The threats, are IKEA had failures to look into the quality of the product. Technologically, IKEA products able to standardized globally. Perhaps, to maintained IKEA's business they tried to stabilize their business with different angles such as stabilizing political status by maintaining good rapport and follow legalization rules all countries. IKEA has also use good method of approaching all the people and improve the performance of their services and products. Furthermore, the entrepreneurs good in assessing, planning and implementing accordingly in order to face any challenges. IKEA has able to accommodate the actual demand in the market towards new technology and younger generations.
Robert Probst, a designer who worked as the Director of research for office of furniture manufacturer, Herman Miller Inc., developed the “Action Office”, it was a proposition for an altogether new kind of space, a design which had plenty of work surfaces and display shelves; partitions were a part of it, intended to provide privacy and places to pin up works in process. This is how the office cubicle came into being. Today, it is estimated that more than 40 million North Americans spend their working lives in cubicles, with many of them passing more waking hours in the closed-office environment than in any other—even their own living rooms.
The founders of The Home Depot, Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, set the foundation of their company on eight core values that are transferable to any business. Their tools for success included:
1. How was Lincoln able to grow and prosper for so long in such a difficult commodity industry that forced out other giants such as General Electric, Westinghouse and BOC? What is the source of Lincoln’s outstanding and enduring success?
Under what conditions might the parties to the alliance discussed in this case dissolve or end the relationship?
Known as one the largest global home-furnishing retailers, IKEA currently has over 139,000 employees located in 53 countries and generates roughly 39.3 billion US dollars in annual sales (IKEA, 2014). Ingvar Kamprad began selling different types of items and founded the company in Agunnaryd, Sweden in 1943. Kamprad found that his greatest entrepreneurial opportunity was in furniture. Many households at that time were changing from receiving furniture that was handed down to desiring new, inexpensive, and stylish furniture. Kamprad was able to find a business opportunity to change the current social situation since a lot of the furniture was priced high at the time. He wanted to be able to offer his customers a wide selection of functional and well-designed furniture at a price many could afford (Bartlet & Nanda, 1996). Kamprad had a better understanding of what the customer desired and how to go about meeting those desires at prices that were lower than other furniture companies, in turn creating a competitive environment (De Kluyver & Pearce, 2011).
Mr. Nardelli joined GE in 1971 as an entry-level manufacturing engineer. By 1995, he had risen to president and CEO of GE Power Systems, also having the title of GE senior vice president. In 2000 he left GE, and about 10 minutes after leaving he received a job offer from a member of the board of Home Depot.
The U.S. furniture and bedding industry totaled revenues of $75 billion comprising some 82,567 businesses in 2013. Revenue from wholesale business operations totaled $33 billion during the same year, shared between 4,021 businesses. Manufacturing in the U.S., numbering 4,906 businesses, accounted for $25 billion of revenue in 2013. With the exception of furniture manufacturing in the U.S. which shows an annual revenue growth rate of 2.4% from 2009-2014, furniture wholesale and retail have seen an overall decline in revenue of -3.2% and -1.5%, respectively (IBISWorld, 2014). Over the next three years, as the housing market and general economy continue to stabilize after the 2008 recession, retail sales of furniture and home items are expected to grow by 1%, reaching a total $90 billion by 2017 (Euromonitor, 2013).
Sears has seen many different changes in business and has had to adjust to t...
With a presence of fifty stores in North America, thirty eight of which are in the United States, IKEA’s North Am...
The deeper part of this report has shown the need of "Your Choice Furniture" for new business system, which will help the company to support their customers and employees, also more ef...