Thicketwood Ltd
Management of Organizations
COMM 1006
Operations
Thicketwood Ltd
Problem Statement
The current production process that Thicketwood Ltd is utilizing can no longer keep with the demand of custom kitchen cabinets. Management must implement a new step to the production line to increase efficiency; however, they must also maintain quality as the customers that are purchasing these cabinets expect top quality for the amount of money they are paying.
Problems/Sub problems/Issues
In the Thicketwood Ltd case there are a few problems and issues that need to be addressed immediately in order to keep up with demand. The current process that involves strictly human labor is no longer efficient as the demand for cabinets continues to increase. The current process has 5 steps which include cutting, drilling, routing, assembling, and finishing the cabinets. The third step in this process takes the longest amount of time to complete and also has the highest number of employees working on it. This step causes a bottleneck and everything is becoming backed up at this stage. Management needs to implement a change in order to try to become more efficient and meet demand but also continue to make quality cabinets. The company has come across an option that they believe will eliminate the bottleneck and allow the supply to meet demand. The option the company believes would be the most beneficial is a Computer Numeric Controlled (CNC) router. The decision that must be made is either to purchase the new machine or the old machine. Each machine has a different price and different life expectancy. By purchasing and implementing this machine to the production process it would also eliminate jobs on the production line, which may result in employees being transferred to different areas or may cause some layoffs which as a result can have a negative impact on the relationship between workers and management which is currently very good as a result of wages and benefits and there have
COMM 1006
Operations
Thicketwood Ltd
Problem Statement
The current production process that Thicketwood Ltd is utilizing can no longer keep with the demand of custom kitchen cabinets. Management must implement a new step to the production line to increase efficiency; however, they must also maintain quality as the customers that are purchasing these cabinets expect top quality for the amount of money they are paying.
Problems/Sub problems/Issues
In the Thicketwood Ltd case there are a few problems and issues that need to be addressed immediately in order to keep up with demand. The current process that involves strictly human labor is no longer efficient as the demand for cabinets continues to increase. The current process has 5 steps which include cutting, drilling, routing, assembling, and finishing the cabinets. The third step in this process takes the longest amount of time to complete and also has the highest number of employees working on it. This step causes a bottleneck and everything is becoming backed up at this stage. Management needs to implement a change in order to try to become more efficient and meet demand but also continue to make quality cabinets. The company has come across an option that they believe will eliminate the bottleneck and allow the supply to meet demand. The option the company believes would be the most beneficial is a Computer Numeric Controlled (CNC) router. The decision that must be made is either to purchase the new machine or the old machine. Each machine has a different price and different life expectancy. By purchasing and implementing this machine to the production process it would also eliminate jobs on the production line, which may result in employees being transferred to different areas or may cause some layoffs which as a result can have a negative impact on the relationship between workers and management which is currently very good as a result of wages and benefits and there have