The Baker Division of Industrial Products Corporation (IPC)

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Industrial Products Corporation (IPC) is a manufacturer of industrial products. In 1996, more than a dozen IPC divisions produced a number of various industrial type products. Each division is run by a division manager and consisted of one or more plants found throughout the United States. As with each division in IPC, they all had their own balance sheet and income statement. IPC utilizes long-run and short-run planning programs and every month, each division manager submits a performance report that is reviewed by upper-level executives. It is noted that IPC’s main measure of performance for the divisions has been their rate of Return on Investment (ROI).

Pumps are one of the most common machines used in industry. While the U.S. pump industry is considered mature, the number of manufacturers of pumps declined to 405 businesses by 1987. However, during the 1990s, the industry improved slightly and the total number of pump manufacturers rose to 489. With industrial pumps being the largest product class in the business, they held 55 percent of the market output.

According to the Pump Industry Analyst in March 1996, “[t]he global economy is experiencing mixed fortunes in terms of its projected growth for 1996 and a combination of cautious optimism and gloom prevails world markets.” It further stated that “[t]he US economy is projected to grow 2.2 percent during 1996, after a disappointing 1.5 percent last year.” Also on a positive note, the US demand for fluid handling pumps is set to expand 5.5 percent annually to the year 2000 because of increased capital investment by process manufacturing industries (Publications – Pumps, 1996).

Issues

This case focuses on the Baker Division of the company and Mr. Brandt, the d...

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