Assignment

Review the enclosed case study. You will then answer the following questions:

1. Considering the operating environment described in chapter-1 of the textbook, how would

you explain the current business environment for Williams 3D Printers?

2. Considering the five primary manufacturing strategies defined in chapter-1 of the textbook,

which manufacturing strategy is being used by Williams 3D Printers?

3. Describe the key issues and the problems involved in the business situation presented in

the case study.

4. What's the central issue/ problem involved? Referring to the textbook chapter-2, what level

of planning is needed to address the central issue/ problem?

5. List and explain the two possible high-level approaches possible to deal with the situation.

List the pros and cons of each approach. (Hint: Growth option to expand the capacity to 40

printers, and the alternative approach to maintaining their current capacity and size).

6. Refer to the chapter-1 section "Conflicts in Traditional Systems." Do you think that each

approach from your response to question number 5 shall be equally supported by John,

Pamela, and Mary? If not, then for each approach, who will support, and who might resist?

Why?

7. Which approach will your group recommend to the management? Justify with reasons.

Williams 3D Printers

• The Williams 3D printer company was experiencing growing pains early in 2015. Jasper

  Williams had developed his own unique design for making a 3D printer with this relatively new

  technology that was growing fairly rapidly in interest and in competitors. He had started by using

  his engineering skills as an individual inventor, but with some borrowed money he was able to

  set up a small production facility. His sales the first year were modest, as he made and sold only

  five printers. Now that he had been in the business for three years, he noticed that near the end

  of his fiscal year, he was likely to sell more than 20 units. He only had three other people on his

  management staff: John Johnson, the financial officer, Pamela Lopez, the production manager,

  and Mary Andrews, the marketing and sales manager. The following conversation took place

  during their most recent monthly planning meeting, where the key item on the agenda was to

  look at plans for the next fiscal year:

  JASPER: "Mary, I think you mentioned that we are gaining a good reputation in a market that is

  growing rapidly, given that it is in the early stages of the life cycle. What do you think that means

  for sales this coming year?"

  MARY: "I think our good reputation is going to be a real plus. Not only do several of our original

  customers plan on buying another printer from us, but they have also told other potential

  customers that they like our design, and some of those potential customers are likely to buy as

  well. I think it is very likely that we could double our sales next year to possibly 40 or more

  printers."

  PAMELA: "We need to talk about thatperhaps you should hold back on making sales like that.

  We are already finding it tough to deliver on promises for this year. We have had a couple of

  late orders this year, and the only reason we didn't have more late orders was that our workers

  agreed to work on some weekends. Problem is, I don't know how agreeable they will be to that

  next year. While they like the extra money, they all have families and don't want to spend that

  much time away from home."

  MARY: "Look, Pamela, we have worked hard to get the good reputation to increase our sales.

  What good does it do if we can't meet the needs of people who want to buy from us? Last I

  knew, we were in business to make sales and therefore make money. We have a good profit

  margin on the printers that should make the company very profitable."

  PAMELA: "Well the only way we can really expand to sell and make 40 units next year is to hire

  a lot more people. We possibly could hire a second shift, but our workers are skilled people who

  are making most of these printers in a somewhat unique design based on the specific needs of

  the customer. Skilled people like that often have several options as to where to work, and I am

  pretty sure most would not like to work a second shift where they could not spend evenings with

  their families. We could try to double the number of workers on the regular day shift, but that

  would mean duplicating all the current equipment as well. Also, while today we probably have

  the space in our facility to fit duplicate equipment, if we grow more the following year we will

  also have to expand our space requirements."

• At this point John Johnson, the financial manager, had to break into the conversation:

  JOHN: "We need to think long and hard about all this. After three years we are finally looking a

  little better financially, but adding a whole lot more people and equipment is going to cost us a

  lot. Also, you have to keep in mind that the printers have a pretty long lead time to produce,

  given that each customer specifies at least some unique aspect of design based on their

  individual needs, and also it takes a fair amount of time to build them. That means we get to see

  the money from the sale only after many weeks after the order is placed, but in the meantime

  we have to obtain materials and pay workers for today's new -orderswhich are larger in

  number in this growing market we have. This implies that even though the profit per unit is good,

  we have a struggle with cash flow. Pamela, what about adding just one or two people as the

  sales grow, and then add some more later in the year as the sales continue to grow?"

  PAMELA: "I don't see how that can help. Adding a duplicate person without additional

  equipment for them to work with makes no sense, and even if they could do the work, the other

  people in areas we don't add would still have a lot more work to do without the time to do it."

  JOHN: "Well we might be able to get another loan to help, but do we really want to do that just

  at the point we are starting to show some bottom-line profit?"

  JASPER: "Okay, I understand each of your perspectives, but arguing back and forth doesn't

  help. We need to figure out something to do that we can all agree on. Let's get to work."

  Source: Chapman, S.N., Arnold, J.R.T., Gatewood, A.K., & Clive, L.M. (2017). Introduction to Materials Management

  (8

  th

  ed.). Pearson.