Assignment Questions:

1. How do you explain the large differences in the performance of the four plants making Release-ease? Why do some plants appear to be much better than others? To what extent can these differences be attributed to differences in scale, utilization rates, and other factors beyond the control of management? How much appears to be due simply to better management?

2. As Joe Spadaro, what would you do given the current overcapacity situation and information provided by the recent productivity study? In particular, what would you do about the Gary facility?

Reference - HBR case - Applichem (A) (Abridged)

Janice H. Hammond, Gary P. Pisano