1. For initial few years, company enjoyed good sales without having any major issue. In the year 1990 company’s management started noticing a change in the trend of industry which resulted in declining sales of Customs Molds Inc. Company’s management felt that majority of organizations in electronic industry is moving towards vertical integration because of the attractive benefits integration process provided to the organizations. Vertical integration process helps organizations in getting timely delivery of goods at lower cost. Integration process cut the margins of third parties and extra time they take in delivery of goods/ parts. Customs Molds Inc. started noticing downfall in numbers of order they use to receive which lead to decline in overall sales of company. Apart from changing industry trend, Company also faced other various issues like delay in order, defective parts supply and inter staff management.
Very recently company started receiving various complaints about delay in delivery. This could lead further reduction in number of orders. Few complaints about the defective parts were also received by the company. These kinds of complaints occurred due to bad production line and operation management. Management tried to allocate the staff from one department to other department to manage with delay in delivery factor but found it ineffective. Ignorance from senior staff members was noticed as many parts were moving out without inspection and testing.
If company keeps on doing operational mistakes, it will not only hamper the growth of the company but also impact the existing sales. It will be very difficult to sustain even existing number of orders. The biggest question in front of management is how to fight with industry trends and resolve existing operational issues.
2. To resolve the existing issues it is very important to understand the individual operation process thoroughly and how each process can develop competitive edge.
The process of manufacturing plastic parts comparatively takes less time. This process also starts with taking order from the client followed with procurement of raw materials then part fabrication and delivery to the client after inspection and testing of the parts.
3. In the present situation management need to work upon some options in order to improve their position. Management should focus their strategy on adding value at each and every level. Company management may work upon following options:
Customer Relationship – in the existing competitive era a healthy customer relationship can be very helpful in retaining the customers and increasing the orders. Customs Molds needs to focus on all the touch points with customer and offer a delight full experience to customer whenever customer deal with company . This can be done by effective management of order placement, design specification and complaint management process.
Product Development – management should focus on all product development activities and work upon how each activity can add value to the customer. At all the stages time taken by activities and cost incurred can be reduced. Employees can also add value to another process by performing their job in best manner, without any flaw and in less time.
Deliver as per Specifications – ordered should be delivered as per the specifications received from the clients. All steps to ensure a flawless product delivery need to be implemented.
Supplier Management – Customs Molds need to strengthen their relationship with suppliers in order to get early deliver and for further negotiation of raw material cost.
All these steps will lead in getting an upper edge over its competitors and will provide delightful experience to customers.
Reference
Lee J. Krajewski and Larry P. Ritzman, 2002. Operations management: strategy and analysis. 6th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
