Given the facts, it is critical for the Shipper Manufacturing Company to have a vision to become the leader in the market or niche that the company is focusing its market focus on. Additionally, it may adopt a strategic goal to attain the Malcolm Baldridge Award or compliance with applicable International Organization for Standardization requirements within a defined period of time.
The Shipper Manufacturing Company should hold a 'Voice of the Customer' exercise where both internal and external customer requirements and expectations are brainstormed and communicated. Additionally, the company should ensure customer satisfaction and incorporate customer specifications into the product engineering process by doing a 'House of Quality' exercise. Also, the company has a vertical organization that may add additional cycle time and lead to miscommunication of customer desires and corporate initiatives. They need a horizontal organization that can adapt quickly to the ever-changing demands of the customer and react immediately to change.
"The new Hewlett-Packard 9100A personal computer i...
"HP"-Garage in Palo Alto
English: This sign welcomes visitors to the headqu...The Shipper Manufacturing Company possesses a manual system in its processes that adds the human element. Often, this human element may lead to mix-up or inefficiency by causing delays in production activities because of operator error and negligence. It is disturbing that two individuals perform inventory and production control. Also, these individuals have created a manual system of record keeping and production planning which is not transparent and no personnel or process backups are identified in case of an emergency. The company should consider computerized systems or ERP packages provided by J.D Edwards, SAP or Oracle. Their use must be governed by established SOPs that provide clear instruction on operation, training and maintenance. Also, these applications should be capable of generating audit trails, metrics, and reports for management and to assure compliance. As far as the inventory control system is concerned, the company should look into industry...