They could be making more money per unit if they would tighten up their processes. They make two types of anchors. The bell type and the snag hook type. They have to stop production when they get an order for the opposite type of anchor and this down time for set up is very inefficient and costs a great deal. It takes about 36 hours to make the switch.
The weakness of Kudler Fine Foods is that an IPO (Initial Public Offering) has many inherent and potential weaknesses that must be examined prior to selection as a means for expansion. An IPO is the first sale of stock by a company. There are many advantages and disadvantages for the Kudler Fine Foods to go public through the IPO. The advantages include generating more capital needed to expand their three locations The IPOs are very expensive undertaking, and a large portion of any capital acquired will be lost to this cost. Because the company must produce all financial information to the SEC many businesses find it to be very stressful and time consuming which takes time and money away from a company that is thriving like Kudler Fine Foods.
The Wallingford Bowling Center Case Study Question 1: The major problems that they face are not generating as much net profit as they wanted. What they are making are only basically covering their expenses. Also, they have their slow peaks during the mornings, and certain days out of the week in the afternoon. Also, their operating expenses are rising so if they keep running their business 24 hours a day while during their slow times there losing money. Lastly, running full time with too many employees while the center is slow.
The applications processed in different regions take processing times in the system ranging from 15.29 to 37.23 days. Also, further analysis of service rates (details in attached spreadsheet) we find that the service rates of interest rates processing (process 2) and final issuing (process 4) processes is much higher than the process evaluation (process 1) and loan terms (process 3) processes. Clearly processes 1 and 3 are unable to meet the demands of processes 2 and 4 making them the bottleneck processes. The available capacity in processes 2 and 3 is underutilized making the overall process sub optimal resulting in the decrease in the total number of applications
2. What are the basic issues? (Please list at least 4 and explain each with one sentence) (6 pts) The key issue seems to be cost, first and foremost. Carson Manor’s costs were approximately 14% higher than state averages on a per-bed basis, something which clearly needs to be addressed. Another key issue is the bureaucracy within the structure of the command chain; there is a convoluted hierarchy and this could have a negative impact on the efficiency of operations for Carson Manor as decisions take a long time and there may be a lack of responsibility as there are many groups and boards which make decisions, rather than an individual manager which may be the case at a private institution.
The offer should meet the individual needs of each segment. Secondly, the pricing is another problem. The current offer is a monthly fee offer and the fee are very difficult to estimate in the contracting period, so they are frequently under estimated and consequently the contracts are unprofitable and on the contrary many customers consider the price of the service was too high. To define an optimal pricing system, Michelin needs more data on its customer even this could take more time. It demands a large customer database and efficient information gathering and data processing.
Do you think Altera’s new strategy will be successful? What are some advantages and disadvantages of the new strategy? Yes, I think their new strategy will be successful, because their new strategy offsets some of the risk associated with carrying too much inventory, since they only build finished products to customer orders and build die banks to stock. The intent of this strategy was to improve visibility into customer information, inventories and build plans, facilitate product development collaboration, and improve Altera’s inventory management. This allows them to reduce safety stock levels and inventory holding costs as well.
Manufacturing skiwear in advance is somewhat problematic since the company needs to make an accurate forecast of retailer demand to different styles and colors. With greater product variety and fierce competition in the industry, there is high chance the company can end with excess inventory or out of stock. The two scenario will cause the company a tremendous lose. Sport Obermeyer having six key managers as a production committee, and their task is to individually forecast retailers demand for each Sport Obermeyer’s product. The final decision about where to produce and how many will be determined based on the six
This in turn further delayed the implementation of their regional and centralized inventory management system delay by ten months. Now Captiva is faced with inconsistency in their standards for operating, and their regional and centralized management system is performing poorly. This includes having major discrepancies within their inventory management system. Captiva Conglomerate has gone over budget for an operating platform that is more of nightmare than a help to its business. Lastly, the contract was written in a manner where if would be very difficult for Captiva to sue SOS.
Question 1) • Fortis has been facing strong competition: Since 2002, Fortis has been losing nearly 2% per year of the steel strapping market (in 2002 50% and 2008 40%). • Furthermore Fortis is confronted with significant erosion of prices: Other competitors initiated price war and Fortis refused to continuously cut its price. This also led to the fact that Fortis loosed market share to its competitors. • These effects are coupled with the overall declining health of the industrial economy and the fact that Fortis as well as its competitors are closely tied to this. (Overall decline of market / demand) and the increasing price sensitive of customers.