An Assessment of the Cameron Auto Parts Company
The paper provides an assessment of the Cameron Auto Parts company, including their expansion into Europe as well as their restructuring initiatives. The paper also discusses the auto parts market and the general downturn in the industry. The paper believes that Cameron Auto Parts need to pull through the hard-times through an effective combination of cost-cutting, efficiency-adding and innovation, before the industry picks up again.
"Cameron Auto Parts functions within the automotive industry, having been founded in 1965. At this time in American history the Big Three automotive manufacturers were the largest consumers of the goods of Cameron, a situation which they would in the future seek to rectify by increasing their number of customers so as to decrease dependence upon the limited number at the time. In 1991 however the automotive parts industry would suffer a downturn, forcing Cameron Auto Parts alongside their competitors to reduce overall operating costs to make up for the decrease in sales and revenues. To accomplish this, the company was forced to reduce costs while investing in more modern equipment to streamline operations. To finance this, the company took out $10 million in credit at a rate of 9.5%, allocated to equipments and manufacturing systems so as to rise up the level of modernity, quality, and efficiency of the company. To increase the efficiency of a company and overcome the competition, it is recommended in the book Winning at New Products "There are two ways to win... by doing projects right, putting together a solid cross-functional team, doing the up-front homework, building in the voice of the customer, getting sharp early product definition and so on... the second way to win is to do the right projects. Even a blind man can get rich in a gold mine by swinging a pick-axe; it's not so much how you mine, it's the ability to pick the right gold mine." (Cooper 214) Cameron Auto Parts aimed to do exactly this, and to begin changed their
"Cameron Auto Parts functions within the automotive industry, having been founded in 1965. At this time in American history the Big Three automotive manufacturers were the largest consumers of the goods of Cameron, a situation which they would in the future seek to rectify by increasing their number of customers so as to decrease dependence upon the limited number at the time. In 1991 however the automotive parts industry would suffer a downturn, forcing Cameron Auto Parts alongside their competitors to reduce overall operating costs to make up for the decrease in sales and revenues. To accomplish this, the company was forced to reduce costs while investing in more modern equipment to streamline operations. To finance this, the company took out $10 million in credit at a rate of 9.5%, allocated to equipments and manufacturing systems so as to rise up the level of modernity, quality, and efficiency of the company. To increase the efficiency of a company and overcome the competition, it is recommended in the book Winning at New Products "There are two ways to win... by doing projects right, putting together a solid cross-functional team, doing the up-front homework, building in the voice of the customer, getting sharp early product definition and so on... the second way to win is to do the right projects. Even a blind man can get rich in a gold mine by swinging a pick-axe; it's not so much how you mine, it's the ability to pick the right gold mine." (Cooper 214) Cameron Auto Parts aimed to do exactly this, and to begin changed their