Case 2 Final Submission 5 PDF

Preview

Summary

Case 2 Final Submission 5...

Description

Case Study: Eastern Gear, Inc: Job Shop

No company has perfect product and process flow, and Eastern Gear, Inc. is not an exception. The first problem that I noticed is the lack of clarity into their business process. The focus of this company seems to be smaller, more customizable orders that meet specific client needs; with the report claiming that Eastern Gear uses a job shop process which is a special case of batch process. However, they have taken on larger orders lately, which has doubled the production time. These new, larger projects have created a jumbled flow of batch operations. “High-capacity Utilization will cause interference between various lots as they wait for labor or equipment…this results in a loss of efficiency in a batch operation (Schroeder, Goldstein, 2020, p 55)”. The next issue that can be identified in Eastern Gear is the lack of an efficient Process View of the Business. The office flow of the operations is outlined below: Figure 1: Process View of Eastern Gear, Inc.

As you might notice from this design, the product travels back and forth across the workplace as it is being manufactured. Although the machines may be grouped together, this layout reduces the efficiency of the production process and increases the travel time between workstations and wait time as a result. The case even goes so far as to say that no special workflow is utilized for different order sizes. The last major problem that faces Eastern Gear is the service recovery. With the company experiencing a 6 percent return rate due to poor quality/production, the production and review process is concerning (Schroeder, Goldstein, 2020, p.434)

Case Study: Eastern Gear, Inc: Job Shop

The best solution Rhodes and Eastern Gear should consider is adopting a lean thinking approach. The first tenet of lean thinking is to create value therefore reducing time waste. The second tenet of the value stream will help identify value-added and non-valued added processing steps. If there are any non-value steps, Rhodes should consider removing them. The third tenet of ensuring flow will solve the workplace layout issue. Ensuring flow means that the flow within a process is simple, smooth, and error-free, which avoids waste. Rhodes can use Little’s Law to help determine the capacity of each workstation, as well as the flow rate. By doing this he will avoid bottlenecks and help each station run more efficiently. Since they work as a job shop/batch operation, the fourth tenet of customer pull is less helpful as Eastern Gear does not mass produce. But if Eastern Gear combines customer pull with the fifth tenet of striving for perfection, they will be better able to limit the physical waste and reduce their rate of return. Since the company uses the “next available person” to review orders, it is highly likely that the review process is rushed and not done very well (Schroeder, Goldstein, 2020, p 434). Although the employees are highly or semiskilled, there should still be a better-quality inspection process. Hiring or redesignating an employee to be solely responsible for quality review before shipping would ensure that the product is correct before shipping, which would reduce transportation costs and increase customer satisfaction. The problems that Eastern Gear faces are clearly related to their operations strategy and the process design concepts. As stated earlier, they have recently changed up their target production from small orders to larger one. Which has created bottlenecks and requires the company to reconsider how they want to operate, whether it be job shop/batch operations for smaller orders or something more similar to an assembly line for larger orders as the industry grows. Due to the growing demand, revisiting their business strategy is a need that clearly relates to operation strategy. Since they are struggling with quality of product, they are also reevaluating their operations objectives. Since quality has not been their best objective, they must focus on cost, delivery, or flexibility. Overall, the solution is not an easy one for Rhodes. It will a lot of time and money to fix, but with the expected increase in demand in the coming years, it will certainly be worth fixing their operation strategy and business processes.

Case Study: Eastern Gear, Inc: Job Shop

References

Schroeder, R. G., & Goldstein, S. M. (2021). Operations management in the supply chain: decisions and cases (8th). McGraw-Hill....