Part A: Case Study Read the case study below and answer ALL Questions given at the end of the case Dilemma of a Textile Contract Manufacturer David owns a successful textile contract manufacturing company that provide services such custom design, cutting, sewing, assembly, prototyping, packaging and labelling to many multinational companies. The company has done relatively well, earning preferred supplier status from these multinational companies.

However, over the last two years, there are many foreign competitors which narrow the competitive gap. These competitors adopted systematic production scheduling. They have also adopted computer aided design that produces quality design faster and with better accuracy. As a result, the manufacturing cost is twice lower. Foreign competitors have the capability to adapt their product specifications easily, offering more product varieties with faster delivery. Davids quality work team has also evaluated their closed competitors and visualized into a polar chart. Figure 1: Benchmarking Polar Chart On the other hand, Davids company has received many customer complaints especially defective parts, missing delivery schedule and slow to response. David realised that the company has not been proactive to evaluate their quality system on the production scheduling and design. He is aware that the company is losing out on cost and flexible delivery. David has commissioned an independent quality work team to evaluate their internal system. The quality work team evaluated and found many production gaps that affect quality. The production is slow to response to customer request on schedule changes. Production scheduling is erratic and done on excel spreadsheet. Data integrity is problematic. The production batch run is operated in long fixed schedule. Production lot is large. Work in process inventory is stacked up everywhere. Problematic incoming parts are left unattended at the incoming store. The quality team suggested to David to reinforce the Kanban system and to implement Just in Time methodology within the constraint department. Having these findings, David needs to act fast, else the company may not exist over the next two years. Question 1 Based on the competitive landscape shown in the benchmarking polar chart, interpret the chart and recommend TWO (2) conclusions. [10 Marks] Question 2 a) Based on the case above, relate the problems and explain how it affects quality. [15 Marks] b) The quality work team has proposed Kanban and Just in Time methodology to solve the problem. How will Kanban and Just in Time methodology solve the inventory and scheduling problems? Propose THREE (3) performance measures. [15 Marks]