a plant manager faced lack of capacity in its aluminum alloy production plant and had to select from two new specialty orders to take on because both of the orders cannot be filled simultaneously.
In this case students are asked for various analyses, including (1) industry size-up for the global metals industry and its part, the aluminum industry, (2) business size-up of the company’s current operations, (3) find out the benefits and risks for selection of any customer order, (4) determine the projected contribution margin rates for each order, (4) using differential analysis, analyze each customer order, and (5) define which order should be selected.