Assignment task:
You have been working as an operations assistant at ABC Company, which assembles and sells coffee makers. Your target market is North America, and you distribute your finished products in 15 models (8 colours for each model) through five large retailers in Canada and the U.S. You buy over 125 parts in different colours from 28 suppliers in Canada, China, U.S., India, and Vietnam. Because of having too many models and colours, you spend a lot of time on machinery setup and buying numerous parts in small quantities. Sometimes you run out of parts, so you import them by airplane. Furthermore, a couple of models have recently had technical issues due to the low quality of a specific part that is purchased from a new supplier in China. Finally, your price is a bit high, and your company has decided to gain a higher market share by using a cost leadership strategy. The Chief Operations Officer (CCO) has asked you to prepare a presentation for the Board of Directors and propose some solutions for materials management activities to make your products and company more competitive. You should prepare a presentation of 10 slides that covers some Dos and don'ts of the following aspects of your materials management decisions. The strategies should align with your business strategy, which is cost leadership.
- Risk management
- Capacity planning and management
- Vendor selection strategies
- Transportation
- Inventory management
- Quality management