Armco Essay

603 Words3 Pages
| Armco Inc. Case Analysis | | Armco Inc. is a steel manufacturer that used to be the sixth largest in its industry in US. They produced two primary products including grinding media and carbon wire rod. The objective of Armco Inc. is maximizing profits and sustaining its position among the leaders in the US manufacturing steel industry. To achieve this objective, Armco has adopted a cost leadership strategy. However, the strategy adopted by the Kansas City Works is based on differentiation due to its cost disadvantages such as union labor costs and inefficient plant infrastructure. In 1991, a new performance measurement system for Kansas City Works was implemented by Bob Nenni, the Director of Finance. His aim was to provide managers with better information which gave them earlier warning signs and improved commitments to achieve objectives. The new system was designed so that managers would prioritize certain key objectives and not the numerous details provided by the old Operating Statistics Report that they have used in the past. The new system also aims to provide an improved basis for evaluating operating managers and manufacturing supervisors. It includes a balanced set of performance measures, including quality, schedule achievement, and safety, in addition to costs. The cost reports were changed to include only those that are controllable by each individual operating manager. Lastly, one of the most significant changes from the old system is the elimination of the Cost Above measure, therefore decreasing the cost detail in the new performance reports considerably. The problem with the old system was that it was too detailed and distracted focus from important issues. After all, it is better to have five or six things that cause 80% of the costs than 40 things which comprises of 100% of the costs. It did not measure the key performance index
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