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Two recent MBA graduates acquire a small and ailing metal-machining company that had manufactured small aerospace components. Through clever application of state-of-the-art manufacturing, engineering, and marketing/sales concepts, they turned the company into a growing and profitable business. The owners must now decide what new business opportunities to undertake given that they have achieved market share leadership in their niche.

In 1995, Toshiba was the market leader in portable computer sales worldwide. This case describes the assembly of portable notebook computers in Toshiba's Ome factory in Ome, Japan, providing insights into some of the reasons for Toshiba's success. In addition to describing production techniques such as dynamic line balancing, this case probes the nature of the Japanese workforce and the unique problems faced by Japanese businesses.

Gives the conclusion of the (C) and (D) cases.

As part of the restructuring effort underway at the Pratt & Whitney North Haven plant, Ed Northern and a group of Japanese consultants are transforming the manufacturing process from a batch process to a single-piece flow, and are organizing the machines and workers in product cells. Vane Cell 6 is the first cell to be created at North Haven. Business Unit Manager Garrett Mikits is faced with a challenge as the creation of Vane Cell 6 nears completion. A new order, which represents a large volume increase, challenges Mikita and his workers to find a way to increase production.

Because of conflicts between the vapor coat and pack coat cells over the decision to purchase new grit blast equipment, Business Unit Manager Tom Hutton has decided to form a second capital purchase team that will represent the pack coat cell. Meanwhile, the first capital purchase team has decided to purchase MacCormick equipment, traditionally considered less reliable than other equipment. Hutton is having misgivings about his decision to empower workers to purchase equipment, and wonders whether he should approve the purchase.

As part of the Pratt & Whitney North Haven restructuring effort, Ed Northern and his business unit managers are encouraging workers to make decisions and take an active role in improving the manufacturing process at North Haven. Business Unit Manager Tom Hutton has empowered a group of hourly workers to purchase grit blast equipment for two cells. The capital purchase decision runs into some problems when the two cells, the vapor coat and pack coat cells, fail to reach an agreement about which equipment to purchase.

Pratt & Whitney is a leader in the development and manufacturing of gas turbine engines for commercial and military aircraft. Economic conditions for the airline and defense industries are forcing the airplane engine builders to restructure. Ed Northern, a new general manager of one of Pratt & Whitney's largest plants, is determined to transform the North Haven plant into a world-class manufacturing organization.

Stonehaven is a disguised version of a shoe factory located in Central Europe that must respond quickly to mix and volume changes for the U.S.-based company. Shoemaking involves several distinctly different processes, which must be designed and managed in a way to give high performance (lead time, cost, productivity).

Focuses on developing a promising idea into a viable product design by considering customer needs early in the design process. Following an Alaskan fishing trip, Sandy Platter, a computer peripherals engineer, has a new idea for a portable water-filter device for use by outdoor recreationalists.

During the last decade, U.S. manufacturers have narrowed if not eliminated the competitive gap between themselves and such foreign rivals as the Japanese and the Germans. But how can they take the lead and retain it? What will it take to stay ahead? To answer those daunting questions, an ad hoc group of 27 academics and industry executives formed the Manufacturing Vision Group in 1988. They studies development projects at Chaparral Steel, Digital Equipment, Eastman Kodak, Ford Motor, and Hewlett-Packard. Development projects are microcosms of an organization. And when designed and managed well, they generate powerful, distinctive capabilities as well as winning products or processes. The most successful projects combine seven key elements, which, when applied comprehensively, optimize development, foster learning, and initiate change throughout an organization. Those elements are: core capabilities, guiding visions, organization and leadership, ownership and commitment, "pushing the envelope," prototypes, and integration.

To be a leader in global manufacturing in the 1990s, a company must excel in two seemingly contradictory ways. First, it must constantly build and refresh its individual areas of expertise so that it has the critical capabilities needed to stay ahead. And second, it must get its ever-changing mix of disciplines to work together in an ever-changing competitive environment. Most manufacturers, especially those companies that have reorganized themselves by cross-functional processes, have already discovered how difficult it is to integrate various disciplines and still maintain functional excellence. But development projects offer a solution. Development projects are the critical juncture where functional groups meet and are therefore the true test of an organization's integrative abilities. More important, they can be used as a tool for strengthening the relationship among functions, while still giving those functions the room they need to advance their own expertise. The Kodak FunSaver project illustrates how a company can encourage functions to work together effectively, enhance functional expertise, and create a winning product to boot.

Leadership is the key to developing great products--products that surprise and delight customers. To achieve that goal, all the technical elements of a product must work well together as a system. The manufacturing process must produce everything that the design requires and the product must be delivered to customers in an outstanding fashion. And if the development of a great product is not an isolated case--if one great product is followed by another and another--the result is a great enterprise. Leadership is the key to achieving that kind of consistency. Eastman Kodak's FunSaver camera and Hewlett-Packard's DeskJet printer are examples of development efforts that created great products. Each became the basis for a whole family of products that has created a significant business for its company. The Manufacturing Vision Group studies successful projects that had powerful guiding visions for business strategy, project, and product. Moreover, these three visions were mutually reinforcing, energizing the people on the teams, focusing attention and effort on the right things, and getting them done in the right way.

Connecticut Spring and Stamping Corp. (CSSC) is a small, privately owned metal working company with a reputation for providing quality products to its customers. CSSC's business is primarily the production of springs and stamped parts used in a variety of mechanical assemblies. While CSSC's customers are pleased with the level of quality, the company has in the past made frequent efforts to keep improving its quality, sometimes at considerable cost. The challenge to the new total quality manager, Andy Youmans, is to determine what direction CSSC should follow in improving its quality practices to assure customer satisfaction.

The plant manager of a film production operation wants to create and implement a new approach to quality within the next 12 months. Issues of personnel (and their roles), production processes (and their control), and quality standards must be addressed.

Describes the initial efforts at a film production plant to shift from a traditional QC inspection mentality to a worker-based process control mentality. Students can prepare SPC charts, propose actions needed, and combine steps into an overall action plan.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 693047