Assignment:
Read critically and analyze the following scenario:
The toy industry is very fickle and innovation is critical. Sales for January 2017 showed only a 3% rise over January 2016 leaving the company managers concerned about meeting projected sales targets for 2017. In a 30-month plan, George Jepson, Jr., as CEO, together with Edward Mercury, CFO, set long-term goals for the company to include the following:
increase sales unrelated to NASA toys by 22 percent;
reduce company-wide costs by 5 percent within 15 months and 11.2 percent by the end of the plan;
create new technology based action toys;
use innovative technology in production to increase efficiency;
reduce carbon footprint by 5 percent.
In November 2016, the long-term planning team began to select the newest Galaxy product line. The choice of the right product design will hopefully stop the slump in sales and jump start growth. Tomorrow, February 4, 2017 is the final meeting of the planning team. The team will choose between three options:
produce 2 million Payload Nine toys or MMTJE1 for Christmas 2018;
produce 1 million Payload Nine toys for Christmas 2017 and 1 million MMTJE1 for Christmas 2018;
produce 1.5 million MMTJE1 toys for Christmas 2018.
The products have different production requirements. Payload Nine is designed to complement the International NASA Space Station series. Payload Nine is geared to the 7-10 age groups and contains building blocks to make the space shuttle with emphasis on the cargo hold and its loading arm.
Focus group results suggest that Payload Nine will sell well but it is not a "wow" product in the eyes of the group. It is not a trendsetting toy. The introduction of Payload Nine is estimated to jump NASA sales by 6.8%. Payload Nine requires little change on the production floor and supplies are easily obtainable. Production could begin May 1, 2017 and completed in time for the Christmas toy market. No additional personnel would be needed and existing production would not be delayed. Production costs would fit within the current year's budget.
The other project "Moon Mission to Jupiter's Europa" (MMTJE1) is a 3D engineered of the Curiosity vehicle used to, explore Mars. The toy is operated remotely allowing a child and parent to launch the capsule "Juno 1" craft, 500 ft. in the air, unload the rover called Galileo and move it along all terrain surfaces. Galileo takes pictures remotely and sends them to a cell phone. The toy is geared for the age 11-15 market but can be used with younger children as long as there is adult supervision. The toy is made from a 3D printer and consists of a plastic capsule and rover base with electronics added separately in production.
Focus group results suggest that it is a "wow" product and would also encourage sales of related toys and books as Jupiter's Moon Europa has been deemed by scientists as the most accessible and likely place to support habitable life as we know it to be. Children can view pictures and imagine a Moon currently covered in ice as a new space frontier adventure. An interactive video game is also envisioned. It will be the first intergalactic action toy that Galaxy Toys has ever produced. MMTJE1 is estimated to bring a 15% increase in unrelated NASA sales if rolled out in 2017 and 21.6% increase if rolled out in 2018. However, MMTJE1 is not production-friendly at this point.
The new production equipment, electronics, computer programming and trained personnel would not see production beginning before November of 2017. Anticipated budget costs of $450,000 necessitating a budget increase of $300,000 over all five plants would be needed. In order to meet the October deadline for Christmas 2017 sales additional labor would be needed with a cost increase of 20% over the projected $450,000 budget costs. In addition, the push would necessitate significant rescheduling of current production and likely require factory workers to put in overtime. Finally, the rush would be predicated on the assumption that production problems would not occur.
Keith Wisternick, VP of Production, has the job of aligning all the production teams for Galaxy Toys, and more specifically, he is the person that ensures that each of the plants are capable of producing toys that meet the quality standards of Galaxy Toys in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Also, part of Keith's job is to provide valuable input into the long-term planning process of the company. Every two years, Keith and his counterparts in the other departments meet to determine the new product line for the upcoming two years. They are presented with new ideas that have been developed by the Design and Engineering Department.
After soliciting input for recommendations on the toys that would most likely meet the company's future objectives, the Board of Directors narrowed the choices to Payload Nine and Moon Mission to Jupiter's Europa 1 (MMTJE1).
As VP of Production, Keith is very aware that his recommendation and vote lends great influence to the outcome. Lucky for Keith, he is not expected to provide his recommendation without first delegating some researching responsibilities to others. One person that he relies upon for research and analysis is Itza Yu who is a Production Manager. Yu has been tasked with creating a SWOT analysis for Keith's review. However, Yu has not had any prior experience with creating this type of information.
Strengths & Weaknesses
To further assist Keith, Itza Yu must also provide a detailed explanation as to what considerations led to the determination that certain facts should be classified as "strengths" while others were classified as "weaknesses." In other words, it's not enough to list various strengths and weaknesses, but instead, Itza Yu must explain "why" these facts were included in the analysis.