Bottlenecks in a Process

Bottlenecks in a Process
Dave Lorenzo
OPS/GM 571
March 19, 2012
John Yi

Bottlenecks in a Process
The country selected to produce the rolling transmitters for the keyless entry FOB is Japan.   Recently, Japan was struck with a massive natural disaster.   Because of the natural disaster, this caused a short term bottleneck in production.  
As no one can see a natural disaster, such as an earthquake and tsunami coming, there is no way to be prepared for such an event.   When the disaster happened, it did cause a short-term bottleneck in production.   Even though this happened, to make the product, the rolling transmitter still needs to be produced.   So during this down time, it would be best to find an alternative company that can produce the rolling transmitters.   However, this would only be temporary.   This will allow the continued production of the keyless entry FOB.
Another potential production bottleneck will be the amount of national holidays the country celebrates.   Currently they celebrate 15 holidays throughout the year.   With more holidays than the United States, production adjustments will need to be made to meet the customers’ demands.   This part of the Japanese culture could have an affect the assemblers’ decision to use a Japanese company; however, if the product produced meets the needs of the customer, there would be no reason to look at an alternative company.  
Japan over the years has been an ally of the United States.   With the production of the rolling transmitters exported to the United States, there are not any political issues that would hold up the exporting process.
Although Japan has had its struggles, most recently with the natural disaster, they continue to be a strong producer of quality products that meet the demands of customers and consumers.   Even with a small bottleneck in production, companies should think twice about relocating the production of a product based on a small issue.   Japan is one of the best countries to do business... [continues]

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