The Executive Shirt Company (ESC) supplies many apparel retailers high quality products. They use a batch shop approach in their production, moving the shirt parts in batches of 100. ESC would like to expand and is considering getting into the custom-sized shirt market. Dwight Collier has received two proposals form Mike and Ike to incorporate this new product line into their current production system. Keeping in mind that Dwight Collier is knowledgeable about how to calculate process measures, provide analysis reflecting what drives these measures, how they relate to each other, and how the measure inform you about considerations for improvement and ESC’s current and strategy.
Analysis: Your analysis should presented be in three parts. Limit your analysis to 5 pages (1.5 spacing) plus appendices. The issues that need to be addressed in each part are presented below. Your presentation for these three parts should consider and address these issues, rather than just responding to the questions.
Part 1: Current System
a. Evaluate the current process using measures including cycle time, lead time (flow time), inventory, throughput (R), capacity, labor cost, labor content, and labor utilization; see table in page 10 of the case.
b. Discuss in realtion to this context what drives the metrics, particularly the cycle time, capacity, and lead time and how they are related.
Part 2: Your evaluation of Mike’s Plan should address the following:
a. What is the driver for Mike’s plan? Why does this make sense?
b. How do the measures change due to his choice?
c. How does his plan align and/or promote the company’s market strategy?
d. What are the the advantages and disadvantages of his plan?
e. What are some of the hidden costs of his plan? Does the cost per shirt truly represent the full cost and the cost of each product line?
f. What are some of the organizational / people issues that need to be considered in implementing his plan?
g. What modifications/ improvements might you suggest?
Part 3: Your evaluation of Ike’s Plan should address the following:
a. What is the driver for Ike’s plan? Why does this make sense?
b. How do the measures change due to his choice?
c. How does his plan align and/or promote the company’s market strategy?
d. What are the the advantages and disadvantages of each of his plan?
e. What are some of the hidden costs of his plan? Does the cost per shirt truly represent the full cost and the cost of each product line?
f. What are some of the organizational / people issues that need to be considered in implementing his plan?
g. What modifications/ improvements might you suggest?
Broad questions to consider as you review the case:
1. Draw a process flow diagram for the current manufacturing system and the two alternative
plans. The figures in the case would be good starting points for this. You don’t have to present
these in your analysis; but drawing them could help you think clearly about flow units.
2. What kind of manufacturing process does ESC use now? What batch sizes do they use? What
might be the impact of reducing / increasing the batch size?
3. To what extent might the choice to enter the custom-size shirt market lead to a loss of focus in
their operations strategy?
4. What determines the cycle time for the current process and each alternative plan?
5. What is the relationship between WIP and lead-time?
a. What is the effect of the changes suggested by Mike and Ike on WIP inventory?
b. Calculate the flow time (MLT, in case) for each plan.
c. What is the impact of inventory on flow time?
6. What operation in the current manufacturing system and the alternate plans determine the overall
capacity of the plant?
a. What is the bottleneck operation for the current manufacturing and each alternate plan?
b. How does this bottleneck relate to overall capacity?
7. How do batch size and type of manufacturing relate to WIP inventory?
8. What is the labor content for each manufacturing setup?
9. What is the labor utilization for each manufacturing setup?
10. What are the additional indirect labor costs, if any in each plan?
11. What improvements might you suggest to Mike and Ike’s plans?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Part 1 Current System a The current process at ESC can be evaluated using measures such as cycle time lead time inventory throughput R capacity labor cost labor content and labor utilization For examp... View the full answer