Custom Molds, Inc Essay

Case is about family business (father and son tom turkey and Mason Miller), which began producing imprints and later added production of ductile parts to main business. Although production is traditionally being centreed on quality and design of some(prenominal) molds and plastic parts (mass production/ customization accordingly), total number of order is remained the same, but clients desires have been shifted.1). practise Molds Inc. has faced the fol low-toneding major issuesAlthough the number of parts orders remained virtually constant, the volume per order for parts has increase significantly during last 3 years. These, has created bottlenecks and has led to late deliveries of parts.Two antithetical processes (fabricating molds/producing plastic parts) take place in a single ease. above-named processes serve different customer needs. Fabricating molds requires more skill-oriented stuff, more flexible and soft process. Competitive advantage for finished molds (fabric ating molds process) is based on delivery and low address, and moreover this process has much more higher margin that for producing plastic parts.Sales mix changing has created excess readiness in mold fabrication.Changing electronics manufactures (Custom Moldss major clients) strategies has influenced order needs in unheralded way.Difficult to predict when? and where?.2). The competitive priorities for each of the individual processes are the quality, cost effectiveness and customer responsiveness. The changing nature of the industry was in the trend of manufacturers to develop strategic partnerships with suppliers. Hence, more and more demand for responsiveness was located upon suppliers to sustain the competition. In the Custom Molds case, as order for multiple molds began declining, the responsiveness of theindividual processes began suffering due to the capacity constrains (bottlenecks) at different stages of operations. This of course entailed the lost sales to customers .(All the individual processes that are carried out at Custom Molds are shown on the flow diagram in exhibit t 1).3). Our team suggestions areMold fabrication- to focus on small capacity/ specialized machines, and include more workers in supervising process.Producing of plastic parts- to focus on little number, but large capacity machines with insufficient stimulus (workers).Testing and inspection to move this area in the centre of facility (to make movement of goods more efficient and to make easier communications in the midst of inspecting/testing workers and managers).Office- a) to make order placement more truthful (matching might of order fulfillment with time promised) b) to identify customers needs more precisely c) compare changes and its influence on social clubs pay (taking into consideration return on income) d) due to the market demand company should make strategic decision and conclude if it is better to concentrate on molds or plastic parts (this is the most appr opriate alternative).