Go through the given case scenario

$$There must be a better way of running this place!$$ said Dean Hammond, recently recruited General Manager of Boys and Boden, as he finished a somewhat stressful conversation with a complaining customer, a large and loyal local building contractor.

$$We had six weeks to make their special staircase, and we are still late! I$$ll have to persuade one of the joiners to work overtime this weekend to get everything ready for Monday. We never seem to get complaints about quality, as our men always do an excellent job $...$ but there is usually a big backlog of work, and something always gets finished late, so how should we set priorities? We could do the most profitable work first, or the work for our biggest customers, or the jobs which are most behind on$.$ In practice, we try to satisfy everyone as best we can, but inevitably someone$$s order will be late. In theory, each job should be quite profitable, since we build into the price a big allowance for waste, and for timber defects. And we know the work content of almost any task we would have to do; this is the basis of our estimating system. But, overall, the department is disappointingly unprofitable, and most problems seem to end up with a higher$-$than$-$anticipated cost, and with late deliveries!$$

Boys and Boden was a small, successful, privately$-$owned timber and building materials merchant based in a small town. Over the years it had established a large Joinery Department, which made doors, windows, staircases and other timber products, all to the exact special requirements of the customers, mostly comprising numerous local and regional builders. In addition, the joiners would cut and prepare special orders of timber, such as non$-$standard sections and special profiles, including old designs of skirting board, sometimes at very short notice, and often even while the customers waited. Typically, for larger joinery items, the customer provided simple dimensioned sketches of the required products. These were then passed to the central Estimating and Quotations Department which, in conjunction with the Joinery Manager, calculated costs and prepared a written quotation, which was faxed or posted to the customer. This first stage was normally completed within two or three days, but on occasions could take a week or more. On receipt of an order, the original sketches and estimating details were passed back to the Joinery Manager, who roughly scheduled them into his manufacturing plan, allocating them to individual craftsmen as each became available. Most of the joiners were capable of making any product, and enjoyed the wide variety of challenging work.

The Joinery Department appeared congested and somewhat untidy, but everyone believed that this was acceptable and normal for job shops, since there was no single flow route for materials. Whatever the design of the item being made, it was normal for the joiner to select the required bulk timber from the storage building across the yard. This roughly$-$sawn timber was then prepared using a planer$-$thicknesser machine which gave it smooth, parallel surfaces. After that, the joiners would use a variety of processes, depending on product. The timber could be machined into different cross$-$sectional shapes, cut into component lengths using a radial arm saw, joints were formed by hand tools, or using a morticing machine, and so on$.$ Finally, the products would be glued and assembled with screws and nails, sanded smooth by hand or by machine, and treated with preservatives, stains or varnishes if required. All the large and more expensive floor$-$standing machines were grouped together by type $($for example, saws$)$ or were single pieces of equipment shared by all $10$ joiners. Every joiner also owned a complete set of hand tools which they guarded and cared for with pride.

$1.$ To what extent could $($or should$)$ Dean expect to apply the philosophies and techniques of JIT to the running of the staircase cell?$(2\mathrm{.}5$ MM$)$

$2.$ What are likely to be the main categories of costs and benefits in establishing the cell? Are there any non$-$financial benefits which should be taken into account? $(2\mathrm{.}5$ MM$)$

$3.$How different would the cell work $($job design$)$ be to that in the main Joinery Department? $(2\mathrm{.}5$ MM$)$

$4.$ What risks are associated with Dean$$s proposal?

$(2\mathrm{.}5$ MM$)$