Case Study Questions: A focus on jeans

Jeans are one of the most commonly worn types of clothing around the world. Not surprisingly,

the thread which holds them together has to be strong and of high quality. Coats Thread is a

major manufacturer of jeans thread, supplying product to companies such as Levi$-$Strauss and

Vanity Fair $($who manufacture Lee and Wrangler brands$).$ The manufacturer of jeans thread

involves spinning the polycotton corespun thread, formulating and mixing the dyes, dyeing the

thread in batches, lubricating and winding the thread onto smaller reels and shipping these to

many jeans factories around Europe. Up until recently Coats sold product on a country$-$by$-$

country basis, with up to five of its plants each producing jeans thread for customers all over

Europe. Now all of Coats$$ jeans thread for its European markets is distributed through a single

plant in Scotland. All orders and deliveries are also dealt with by a single integrated supply chain planning and control system. This has led to significant advantages for both Coats and their customers. The Scottish plant could focus on the manufacturing and marketing skills necessary to sell into this market and their customers had a single point of contact when they wanted to discuss supply issues.

Questions

$1.$ What do you think are the main competitive issues in selling thread to jeans manufacturers?

$2.$ What, therefore, will be the main issues for Coats$$ operations management?

$3.$ How do the issues in Coats$$ operations management impact its operations performance goals

$($i$.$e$.$ which of the five performance objectives seem to be important or not and why$)$