Operations Management Case Study

462 Words2 Pages
Evaluation This article is concerning the company Boys and Boden (B&B). It is a privately owned timber and building materials merchant based in a small town. Some of its products include doors, windows, staircases and all are made to the exact special requirements of the customers. Though there are no complaints on quality, there is usually a big backlog of work. In particular, the joinery department isn’t very profitable and most problems seem to end up with higher than anticipated costs and late deliveries. The joinery department is in charge of making the products. As all products are custom made, what is to be done may be different but all products roughly goes through 5 process steps which are cutting timber to width and length, sanding, machining, tenoning, and manual assembly which includes glue and wedges. Currently, the joinery department appears congested and somewhat untidy. Not only do partly assembled products cross over several work areas, joiners often work on several part finished items at once and the joiners are almost climbing each other to do their work. Furthermore, the main time losses were found to be the result of general delays caused by congestion, interference, double handling and rework to rectify in process damage. Thus, it is not that efficient and effective in helping the company. I feel that this system must be changed to improve and reach the goal of having more profits. Suggestion To improve the efficiency of Boys and Boden, a proper layout flow should be set up. There are floor areas that aren’t utilized thus as all products goes through the basic 5 process steps, there should be separate stations set up on its own while still being in close proximity so that after a process is completed, the product can immediately be sent to the next process. This will eliminate time delays as well as problems in double handling and
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