A Case tells us a story of a company that is facing challenges. Your job is to help management improve the company's performance. You are the fixer! Here is my simplified format for a case study.

 

Question:

 

1) Give me an overview of the company's business including descriptions of their product line, target market(s), history of success or failure, ownership and management and the location. Which Process are they using currently. Is it appropriate?

 

2) Give us a description of economic conditions that may affect sales. Talk about Leadership Style that is being used now and make a recommendation regarding a better Leadership Model.

       

Mike Paterson, operations manager of the Diverse Industries International (DII) plant in London, Ontario, was mulling over the idea of restructuring the automatic dishwashing gel line. DII's industrial equipment contractor had recently suggested this $80,000 change. Although Mr. Paterson was fairly sure the investment was a good idea, he knew that he would have to justify the cost to the finance department and, if the proposal was approved, decide whether to reallocate direct labour on the line. COMPANY BACKGROUND In 1988, DII's parent company, Universal Products (UP) of Toronto, Ontario, decided to enter the North American commercial cleaning products market as a result of an industry report from a reputable source. The report predicted strong growth in the commercial cleaning products market and increasing popularity of "big box" retail outlets such as Costco that offered to sell consumer cleaning products in unusually large packages. For example, although dish soap was typically packed in 250 to 1,000 millilitre bottles, big box stores would sell containers as large as four litres at much lower prices per millilitre. After careful consideration by a team led by Mr. Paterson, in 1989 DII purchased an 18,000-square-metre plant in London Ontario, 200 kilometres southwest of Toronto. This plant, which sat on 35 hectares in the southern part of the city, had been owned by a large American private marketing company to produce its extensive line of cosmetic and household cleaning products. DII installed equipment to mix and package its consumer products in larger packages and produce a full line of industrial cleaning products. By 1997 as a result of internal growth and acquisitions, UP, through DII, had become one of the world's largest industrial cleaning products companies with divisions in Europe, Asia, Canada and the United States. Decades later.DII Canada employed nearly 800 people and had sales of roughly $120 million.