Caso fleasher

CASE FLASHY FLASHERS, INC.
Jack Jacobs, the P & IM Manager of Flashy Flashers, Inc., stopped for a moment to adjust his tie knot and run his fingers through his hair before entering the office of Ollie Prout, the vice president of operations. From the tone of Prout’s voice over the telephone, Jacobs knew that he was not being called for a social tête-à-tête. COMPANY BACKGROUND Flashy Flashers,Inc., is a medium-sized firm employing 500 persons and 75 managerial and administrative personnel. The firm produces a line of automotive electrical components. It supplies about 75 auto parts stores and “Moonbird Silverstreak” car dealers in its region. Johnny Bennett, who serves as the president, founded the company. Bennett is a great entrepreneur who started producing cable assemblies in hisgarage. Through hard work, consistent product quality, and high customer service, he expanded his business to produce a variety of electrical components. Bennett’s commitment to customer service is so strong that his company motto, “Love Thy Customers As Thyself,” is etched on a big cast-iron plaque under his giant oil portrait in the building’s front lobby. The company’s two most profitableproducts are the automotive front sidelamp and the headlamp. With the recent boom in the auto industry and the rising popularity of Eurosport sedans such as the Moonbird Silverstreak, Flashy Flashers has enjoyed substantial demand for these two lamp items. Last year, on Prout’s recommendation—and for better management of the inventory system—Bennett approved the installation of a new MRP system. Proutworked closely with the task force created to bring MRP on-line. He frequently attended the training sessions for selected employees, emphasizing how MRP should help Flashy Flashers secure a better competitive edge. On the day the system “went up,” there was an aura of tranquility and good-will. The days of the informal system of fire fighting were over! A year later, Prout’s mood is quitedifferent. Inventory and overtime levels had not dropped as much as expected, customer service was getting worse, and there were too many complaints about late shipments. Convinced that this should not happen with MRP, Prout is attempting to find out what is going wrong. THE PROBLEMS Jacobs had barely taken two steps inside Prout’s office when his voice cut across the room. “Jack, what’s going on outthere? I’ve just received another call from a customer complaining that we’ve fallen back on our lamp shipment to them again! This is the umpteenth time I’ve received complaints about late shipments. Johnny has been on my back about this. Why isn’t our system working as it is supposed to and what do we have to do to hold onto valuable customers and stay in business?” Jacobs gulped and took a moment toregain his composure before answering Prout. “We’re trying our best to maintain the inventory records and BOM files. With our system, there’s a new explosion each week. This gives us an updated material requirements plan and action notices for launching new orders. Some of my group think we should extend our outputs to get priority and capacity reports. As you know, we decided to get theorder-launching capability well established first. However, we don’t seem to have a formal system of priority planning, and that’s creating scheduling problems on the shop floor. “I think our purchasing and marketing departments also are at fault. We seem to experience too many stockouts of purchased parts even though we’ve worked closely with Jayne Spring’s group to get realistic lead-time estimates. Andmarketing keeps taking last-minute orders from favorite customers. This plays havoc with our master production schedule.” “Well, I’m really getting fed up with this,” Prout cut in. “Talk with the people concerned and find out what exactly is going wrong. I’ll expect a complete report from you in two weeks, giving me all the details and recommendations for improvement.” Jacobs decided to get to...