Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
By G.V.L. Kasturi
Overview
American Connector Company (ACC) and DJC Corporation (DJC): Midlevel competitors in the highly fragmented and highly competitive electrical connector industry. ACC and DJC each had distinct strategies and practices related to the operations and manufacturing within their respective corporations. DJC relied mostly upon efficient manufacturing processes as the basis for their competitive strategy and as the means to achieve their annual profit goals. ACC relied mostly upon their ability to offer customized connector solutions and high end products. DJC recently announced the construction of an US-based manufacturing facility located near ACCs facility. Faced with the threat of a highly efficient competitor launching a nearby production facility, ACC must develop a plan of action to limit DJCs intrusion into their
ACC: Sunnyvale
Planned from Initiation Dedicated production unit for each of the four types of connectors developed, thus in effect having 4 production areas Packaging: Standard (2000 units/reel) different from industry standard (1500 units/reel) Finished goods inventory: 56 days Production Schedule: Fixed & no change for special orders
Capacity and technology was added as and when required The whole production area was used to develop all products Packaging: Wide range from 10 piece loaded pack to 1500 units/reel Finished goods inventory: 38 days Production Schedule: Changed to meet customer demands despite 30 days of advance planning
ACC: Sunnyvale
Continuous & Reliable Operations Low Raw Material Cost goal (twice as costly as US) Tin R&D: Reverse engineering removing extra redundant features Process Technology: Preautomation; Old & Reliable Technology; Reliable upstream molding; In-house technology development Inter-functional coordination: using technology development
Not Reliable operations Raw Material Cost not an issue: Gold plated connectors
Kawasaki Plant
DJC: Kawasaki Plant The chief goals of the Kawasaki plant are:
T he plant must achiever asset utilization of 100 % Yield on raw materials must reach 99 %
Customer complaints should not exceed 1 per million units per output fulfilment of the above three goals would mean that Kawasaki plant would be the lowest cost producers in Japan.
Also the following factors would allow it to maintain low costs & strategic advantage:-
Proximity to major Japanese electronics companies P roximity to major raw materials suppliers A vailability of young, highly skilled workers
Sunnyvale Plant
ACC: Sunnyvale The chief goals of the Sunnyvale plant are:
Flexibility: 1 month prior to actual date High reliability: Latest production equipment
Product Innovation: 4500 different models in 1991, buying latest technology for its production channels
Catered to custom models Low Cost: Raw Material for packaging and product at low costs in addition to cheaper electricity costs.
They need to change their plant layout and have a separate cellular layout for the mass production of all four types of connectors which would be working 24*7considering the demand and have a separate layout for customization. They need to automate their process by which they can decrease their man power from 396.