Going to post the question I have and then post the case study itself.

QUESTION: Should DEP attempt to implement JIT and Lean again? State the rationale for your conclusion. Be convincing.

CASE STUDY: Integrated Logistics for DEP/GARD

Steve Clinton

Tom Lippet, sales representative for DuPont Engineering Polymers (DEP), felt uneasy as he drove to his appointment at Gard Automotive Manufacturing (GARD). In the past, sales deals with GARD had proceeded smoothly. Oftentimes competitors were not even invited to bid on the GARD business. Mike O’Leary, purchasing agent at GARD, claimed that was because no competitor could match DEP’s product quality.

But this contract negotiation was different. Several weeks before the contract renewal talks began, O’Leary had announced his plan to retire in 6 months. GARD management quickly promoted Richard Binish as O’Leary’s successor. Although Binish had been relatively quiet at the previous two meetings Lippet sensed that it would not be business as usual with Binish. While the contract decision ultimately depended upon O’Leary’s recommendation, Lippet felt Binish might pose a problem.

Binish, 35, had worked for a Fortune 500 firm following completion of his undergraduate degree in operations management. While with the Fortune 500 firm Binish had become extensively involved with JIT and quality programs. He had returned to school and earned an MBA with a concentration in purchasing and logistics. Eager to make his mark, Binish had rejected offers to return to large corporations and instead accepted GARD’s offer in inventory management.

GARD, an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for U.S. auto producers and aftermarket retailers, makes a wide variety of plastic products for automobiles and light trucks. Examples of GARD products are dashboards, door and window handles, and assorted control knobs. When Binish began working with GARD’s inventory management he applied the 80/20 rule, illustrating to management that 80 percent of GARD’s business was related to 20 percent of its product line. Over the next 3 years, as contracts expired with customers and suppliers, Binish trimmed GARD’s product line. GARD management was impressed with the positive impact on GARD’s profits as unprofitable contracts and products were discarded. A trimmer product line composed primarily of faster-moving products also resulted in higher inventory velocity.

So, when O’Leary announced his retirement plans, management immediately offered Binish the position. After taking a few days to review GARD’s purchasing practices Binish felt he could make an impact. He accepted management’s offer. As he learned his way around the purchasing department Binish tried to stay in the background, but he soon found himself questioning many of O’Leary’s practices. He particularly disdained O’Leary’s frequent “business lunches” with long-time associates from GARD suppliers. Despite these feelings Binish made an effort to not be openly critical of O’Leary. Such efforts did not, however, prevent him from asking more and more questions about GARD’s purchasing process.

O’Leary, for his part, felt his style had served GARD well. Prices were kept low and quality was generally within established parameters. Although O’Leary typically maintained a wide network of suppliers, critical materials were sourced from a limited number of them. In those cases contract bids were a ritual, with the winner known well in advance.

DEP was one such winner. Its polymers were a critical feedstock material in GARD’s manufacturing process. When O’Leary began sourcing from DEP nearly 15 years ago, there was no question that DEP polymers were the best on the market. GARD’s production managers rarely complained about production problems caused by substandard polymers. O’Leary reasoned that the fewer complaints from manufacturing, the better.

“Hi, Tom! Come on in! Good to see you. You remember Richard Binish, don’t you?” Lippet’s spirits were buoyed by O’Leary’s cheery greeting.

“Absolutely! How are you, Richard? Coming out from the old horse’s shadow a bit now?”

Binish politely smiled and nodded affirmatively. Light banter continued as the three moved down the hallway to a small conference room.

“Well, great news, Tom! DEP has the contract again!” O’Leary paused, then continued, “But there’s going to be a slight modification. Instead of the traditional 2-year contract we’re only going to offer a 1-year deal. Nothing personal, just that management feels it’s only fair to Richard that these last contracts I negotiate be limited to a year. That way he doesn’t get locked into any deals that might make him look bad!” O’Leary roared with laughter at his last comment.

“It is certainly no reflection on DEP,” Richard interjected. “It simply gives me a chance to evaluate suppliers in the coming year without being locked into a long-term contract. If my evaluation concurs with what Mr. O’Leary has told me about DEP I see no reason that our successful relationship won’t continue.”

“Entirely understandable,” replied Tom as his mind pondered the meaning of Binish’s evaluation. “I’m confident you’ll find DEP’s service and product every bit as good as Mike has told you.”

Following the meeting O’Leary invited Lippet to join him for a cup of coffee in GARD’s lunchroom. Binish excused himself, saying he had other matters to attend to.

As they enjoyed their coffee, O’Leary sighed. “You’ll be seeing some changes coming, Tom. The best I could do was get you a year.”

“I’m not sure I understand. As far as I know GARD’s never had a major problem with DEP’s products.”

“We haven’t,” O’Leary replied. “At least not under the guidelines I hammered out with management. But there will be some changes by next year.”

“Such as?”

“Well, you remember when I started buying from DEP? You were the leaders, no question about it. Now I knew some other suppliers had moved up since then but I figured, hey, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it! As long as DEP’s price was in line, I knew I wouldn’t have any troubles with manufacturing. Less headaches for me. Now it turns out that Binish has some other ideas about purchasing. I can tell you for a fact that he’s sampled several lots of DEP feedstock. He’s also invited other potential suppliers to submit samples. The long and short of it is that there’s not much difference between DEP and the competition in terms of product.”

“I still don’t clearly understand the problem, Mike.”

“In Binish’s terms, product merely becomes a ‘qualifying criterion.’ If everyone’s product is comparable, especially in something such as polymer feedstock, how do you distinguish yourself? Binish claims companies will need to demonstrate something called ‘order winning criteria’ to get our business in the future.”

“I still don’t see a problem. We have our reviews with GARD every year. Our service performance has always been found to be acceptable.”

“True. But acceptable according to my guidelines. Let me throw a number at you. On average GARD schedules delivery 10 days from date of order. I count on-time delivery as plus or minus 2 days from scheduled delivery date. That’s a 5-day service window. GARD’s minimum service threshold within this 5-day window is 95 percent. DEP had a 96.2 percent record last year using my window. Do you know what Binish is talking?”

“Probably 3?”

“Exactly. And do you know what DEP’s performance is if we use a 3-day service window?”

“No, Mike, I really don’t.”

“Well, Tom. Sorry to tell you it’s 89.7 percent. Worse yet, with Binish not only will the window decline but also the threshold level will be bumped up to 96 percent. And, that’s only going to be for the first 3 years after I retire. After that Binish is shooting for exact-day delivery only with 96.5 percent service capability. Right now using exact day DEP only has 80 percent flat. You aren’t even close to being in the game.”

“So we’ve got a 1-year contract essentially to demonstrate that we can deliver service as well as product?”

“You understand the problem now.”

Polymer feedback production requires a mixture of chemical compounds. DEP’s manufacturing process relies heavily on six principal compounds (A–F). DEP’s current procurement policy is to source each of these compounds from three sources determined through an annual bidding process. Typically the firm with the lowest price is considered the best bid. The top bid receives 60 percent of DEP’s business while the other two firms receive 25 percent and 15 percent, respectively. Management feels this policy protects DEP from material shortages and unreasonable price increases. Table 1 indicates the current compound suppliers and their performance statistics (percentage of business, delivery time from order date, fill rate).

DEP currently uses the following performance criteria:

1. Delivery of A: On-time considered 4 days from date of order ± 2 days.

2. Delivery of B: On-time considered 4 days from date of order ± 2 days.

3. Delivery of C: On-time considered 4 days from date of order ± 2 days.

4. Delivery of D: On-time considered 5 days from date of order ± 2 days.

5. Delivery of E: On-time considered 6 days from date of order ± 2 days.

6. Delivery of F: On-time considered 6 days from date of order ± 2 days.

7. Minimum acceptable fill rate on all compounds is 92 percent.

The manufacture of polymer feedstock is highly standardized. DEP has continually invested in technologically advanced manufacturing equipment. As a result, DEP can quickly change processes to manufacture different polymers.

To avoid material shortages and thereby maximize production, DEP normally maintains a 7-day supply of each compound. An earlier attempt at JIT manufacturing was abandoned after DEP experienced material shortages and production shutdowns. As a result, the manufacturing department is opposed to any reimplementation of JIT-type concepts.

The manufacturing department is electronically linked to the procurement and marketing/sales departments. Marketing/sales receives customer orders by phone or facsimile. The orders are then entered into the information system. This allows manufacturing to monitor incoming materials shipments as well as schedule production runs. Under this system most customer orders are produced within 6 to 8 days of order.

Following production, orders are immediately sent to a warehouse a short distance from DEP. At the warehouse shipping personnel verify manufacturing tickets, match the manufacturing ticket with the purchase order, and prepare shipping documents. Once the shipping documents are completed, the order is prepared for shipment (e.g., palletized, shrink-wrapped, etc.) and labeled. Once a shipment is labeled, delivery is scheduled. Three to 6 days normally elapse from the time an order leaves manufacturing until it is shipped from the warehouse.

Market distribution is divided between the private DEP truck fleet and common carriers. The majority of DEP’s customers are within a 200-mile radius. DEP trucks service these customers via twice-a-week delivery routes. Customers beyond this delivery zone are serviced through common carriers; delivery time fluctuates according to location and distance but rarely exceeds 6 days from time of shipment.

2. Risk and threats can be divided into four different categories; Natural, Material, Human or Organizational, and Human-caused or made. In a 500-word response, summarize each of these categories and give examples of risks and threats for each category. Then detail methods and measures security services can reduce the impact or effect of each of the provided examples.

Discuss different ways to build/strengthen capabilities as well as examples of companies that have used some of these methods? Explain.

there are three approaches to build/strengthen capabilities. These include, "developing and strengthening capabilities internally, acquiring capabilities through mergers and acquisitions, and developing new capabilities via collaborative partnerships." Developing and strengthening capabilities internally can include hiring the right sort of people that have the capability to develop new products in a fast and efficient manner. If this can't be done internally, then the company can accomplish this by merging with another business or acquiring another business that has the capabilities that are needed. If both of the above approaches do not work, a company can form a collaborative partnership with another company. This can help both sides of the companies by allowing them to share their knowledge and experiences with each other, as well as granting access to their suppliers. Therefore, building and strengthening the capabilities of each partner.

Why have Facebook and Twitter been erecting walls that block users from integrating these services? What is the free rider problem? Give real examples of this phenomenon in social networks and digital media.

What does the development of Nike’s code of conduct teach you about acting ethically?

A quality analyst wants to construct a sample mean chart for controlling a packaging process. He knows from past experience that whenever this process is in control, package weight is normally distributed with a mean of 20 ounces and a standard deviation of two ounces. Each day last week, he randomly selected four packages and weighed each:

Day	Weight (ounces)
Monday	23	22	23	24
Tuesday	23	21	19	21
Wednesday	20	19	20	21
Thursday	18	19	20	19
Friday	18	20	22	20

23 What is the sample mean package weight for Thursday?

Multiple Choice

• 19 ounces

• 20 ounces

• 20.6 ounces

• 21 ounces

• 23 ounces

24 What is the mean of the sampling distribution of sample means when this process is in control?

Multiple Choice

• 18 ounces

• 19 ounces

• 20 ounces

• 21 ounces

• 22 ounces

25 If he uses upper and lower control limits of 22 and 18 ounces, on what day(s), if any, does this process appear to be out of control?

Multiple Choice

• Monday

• Tuesday

• Monday and Tuesday

• Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday

• None

Please explain and define Staffing for Strategy Implementation as well as providing real-world examples.

describe 5 ways to be sustainable in a restaurant and how these measures can save costs at the same time.

For example, do not turn on every equipment in the kitchen when you first come in the restaurant in the morning. Only turn on what is needed for the next few hours. How does that save cost? It saves on energy costs such as gas and electricity.

How do you get this information? Research the topic on the Internet. The Green Restaurant Association is a good source.

Also, find attached an article about pricing to help you learn about the topic for this week.

Read the Case and Directions

State of Sand Crabs   Privileges & Immunities Equal Protection Discussion/Due Process - Issue & Rule Post due 10/17, Reply Post Due 10/19

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The state of Sand Crabs, facing the southern border of our country, has experienced an increase in crime, and a deterioration of effective policing. Most of the crime increase involves crimes of theft, robbery, burglary. Almost all have been crimes of violence without resulting arrests. Residents and businesses alike have been victimized. It has also been documented that over the years there has been an increase in illegal border crossings. Police have literally been under attack. There has been a 32% increase of officers injured during active crime deployment in the last 18 months. This has resulted in several full disability severances pf female officers. At the same time, the State Police force has experienced increased numbers of civil law suits and federal investigation attributed in a rise in the shooting of criminal suspects by a largely young officer base. Many senior officers claim that these young, limited English speaking officers lack patience when responding to crime scenes and do not understand local culture. Rising temperatures have made out-door patrols a grueling operation.

In response to these conditions, a group of state legislators are developing a bill, which will be introduced into the legislature with full hearing, to increase state police forces. It limits member of the state police force to male citizens of the United States who are over the age of 20 years and who have lived in the state for 12 months.

You are asked, using IRAC to review only the Privileges & Immunities, Due Process/Equal Protection Constitutional issues of this proposal.

Remember:

Issues of Constitutional questions must identify the source of the violation, the state actor (defendant), the plaintiff, and act in question

Rule: starts with the general rule (look to the constitution as the tree trunk) followed by elements or more specific rule. Do not name cases or mention facts.

Post: Issue & Rule Statement: Post your original Issue and Rule statement

discuss unethical influences you have and the safeguards you use to resist them.

D5/ISI: Please make sure the answer should be at least 30 sentences with your own words. Research emerging enterprise network applications and describe 3 that you think are most interesting and briefly explain why you believe this.

Give an example of a company that has competitive advantage over its rivals through a differentiation strategy. Describe how the company achieves their competitive advantage through differentiation.

Full Throttle orders a key part from an external supplier and needs to determine the optimum ordering plan for the next 5 weeks. The parts are ordered in bins that contain 200 parts per bin. They can order up to 4 bins per week. The planning team estimated the demand of parts of the next 5 weeks and the supplier gave them the following cost per bin for the next 5 weeks.

Week	1	2	3	4	5
Parts Demanded	750	425	300	575	700
Cost Per Bin	$2,000	$1,670	$1,840	$2,190	$1,680

They currently do not have any parts on hand and will incur a carrying cost of $7.50 per part based on average inventory. Develop an Excel model and solve using Solver to find their optimum ordering strategy.