Westridge Cabinets Case Study Solution
Introduction
Westridge Cabinets was established in 1983. Later, due to its reputation, the company grew to become Alberta’s largest cabinet manufacturer. The company had a vast product range and a high reputation, which helped it to grow its customer base. Westridge Cabinets mainly manufacture kitchen and bathroom cabinets. The company mainly serves in east and west Canada and in some parts of United States. The company’s cabinets manufacturing is customized and they offer up to 50 different designs of cabinets.In 2011, Westridge was acquired by Signal Hill Equity Partners, which is a private equity firm.
The company serves to both, local consumers and builders. Orders are generally placed before 8-14 weeks of delivery. The area and necessary measurements have been reviewed by Product Administrator and the designs and delivery timings are discussed preliminary. The material bill is developed by PA as per the customer’s requirement and then forwarded to purchasing manager.
Confirm Ship Date (CSD) is set by the logistics manager approximately 25 days before the delivery date it is scheduled by the customer. A soft reminder call is given to builders before 17 days of CSD, if there is any manufacturing problem and to make amendments in CSD and thus, is named as Locked Confirm Ship Date (LCSD).And the installation managers confirm the installation schedule. Another call of delivery is made before 4-5 days of LCSD, however, the builder excuses that product is not ready on time and it would be delayed for a longer period. Approximately one third of the deliveries are pushed out to a later date, as the construction side would be facing some problems. These delays are up to one week or less. These delays also effect the product quality up to 20%. As the manufacturing is completed, delivery take place in one working day and installation is done in three to five days.
The Company has been using the same plant since 30 years for manufacturing the products. However, a person is hired to schedule the plant timings in order to maximize the plant capacity. Moreover, as the customized order fluctuates so much, plant is used to manufacture according to the level. Moreover, it is used to manufacture 250 boxes per day. Schedule is planned 17 days before so that manufacturer can get enough time to produce the product. However, in the last, the delivery is delayed due to extra time taken by manufacturer. The manufacturing lead time is scheduled to be eight to nine days but the manufacturers often took it long. The consequences of higher time result in wither poor quality or delayed deliveries.
The manager of the company wants to make an immediate plan as its time for making company’s monthly budget. Moreover, manager wants to solve this problem without increasing its cost.
Analysis
Formulation of operation strategy:
Operation strategy is developed in order to maximize the company’s operation. Moreover, an efficient operation strategy formulation is an important part of business management, as all the operations including manufacturing and facilitation of customers are served through this strategy.
However, the operation strategy of Westridge Cabinets is inefficient and serves customer very lately. The delivery is not made on time and therefore, company is losing its customers. Consequently, it is very important for the company to formulate an effective operational strategy in order to increase its customer base.
To formulate an effective operational strategy, that company have to focus on following resources and parameters:
Supply chain design:
Company is in dire need to improve its supply chain processes that have been held in the company. The raw materials to the manufacturing department must be shipped on time. Moreover, the company should also make its supply chain better so that the product is delivered on time to the customers.
Layout:
Layout of the company’s manufacturing department should be changed and should be developed in such a manner that would ease the process of manufacturing for the workers and staff. In addition, the layout of company’s delivery patterns should also be improving, as it would play an important part for improving delivery times.
HR & Job design:
The human resources department of the company should hire such people who are experienced and fine technicians, who possess vast knowledge of the plant and how to use it efficiently. As this will make the process of manufacturing fast and on-time, and will play maximum part in solving delivery problems.
Scheduling:
The scheduling of inventory, manufacturing and deliveries should be made by a professional, such as time manager, who will help the company to schedule its inventory process, manufacturing processes and on-time deliveries.
Maintenance:
To make efficient use of machineries and plants, it is very necessary to maintain them. However, the plant, which is used by the company for 30 years, should be maintained in such a way that it would take less time and give better results...............
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