climbing rapidly, it was impossible to relate them to specific jobs. Nevertheless, this was
one of the items on Bills mind when he asked to meet with the production planning and
control staff.
As the meeting, Bills learned that there were several legitimate reasons for the late
shipments. First, much of the fault was not Ryders at all but was due to sub-contractors,
In fact, most of the recent cancellations had been on orders that had been subcontracted
out. Second, many of the in-plant delays at Ryder resulted from the inventory control
department not doing its job properly. The inventory control manager always seemed to
be short of one or two critical items when they were needed most. Third, engineering and
marketing nearly always insisted on last-minute changes even though this was the
theoretically contrary to company policy. These changes created endless problems for the
whole schedule and had even necessitated adding two more expeditors during the past six
months, while at the same time the backlog was going down.
As Bill returned to his office, he thought, There must be a better way. What are we doing
wrong?.
Prepare an analysis for him, clearly addressing the following issues and proposing some
recommended courses of action.
1.
2.
What would your comment be on the firms problems with respect to inventory
management?
3.
What changes would you recommend with respect to the firms aggregate
planning policy?
4.
How legitimate are production controls reasons for late shipments? Make
whatever suggestions you can to eliminate these problems.
*****