Sport Obermeyer free essay sample

Abstract This report deals with the analysis of the Sport Obermeyer case, an American company, founded in 1947, specialized in the creation of ski wear. The case presents some problems faced by the company as a long time since the design to production and placement of the product for sale. In addition, the company is struggling with the sales forecast, which ends up generating excess production and inventory in stores. And yet, an important decision on how the company should schedule production, which is divided between the factories in China, where labor cost is cheaper, and Hong Kong, where there is greater efficiency in production. Therefore, among the problems identified, recommendations are presented, initially, is to tailor the order quantity according to the minimum lot size of each locality, China and Hong Kong 1,200 units, 600 units. The excess inventory of finished goods could be sold in new markets. And the demand uncertainty problem could be solved by increasing the response capacity of production. This will allow reducing mismatch costs and consolidating activities. In addition, problems with the production can be minimized by means of negotiations with suppliers, retailers and Joint ventures in order to btain better operating conditions and reduction of lead time. So, the operational changes suggested involving reduction of SKUs and reducing the time between the product design and the first output. To change the current reality of Sports Obermeyer, some changes could be introduced, such as reducing the time between design and first production, reducing SKUs close work with retailer champions, improvement in cost reduction in China and Hong Kong. These measures would involve, for example, stakeholders in the business, such as retailers and factories. Thus, to implement these measures, the Sports Obermeyer should consider some ctions in the short and long term. In the short term, the actions could be related to the reduction of time between the design and the production. In the long term, the company could share knowledge among employees of the factories in Hong Kong and China, besides reducing the number of SWs. Finally, from the recommendations proposed, is believed to be possible to improve the efficiency of the supply chain and market share of the company. Table of Content 1 Executive Summary Introduction of the Company Sport Obermeyer 3 The Problem Statement 3. 1 Ordering Quantities 3. 2 Product Lifecycles 12 2 3 3. 4 Production challenges Analysis Recommendation 4. 1 SWOT analysts 4. 2 Solution for the Ordering Quantity Problem 4. 3 Solution for the Lifecycle Problem 4. 4 Solution for the Uncertainty in Demand Reactive Capacity 4. Solution for the Production Challenges 5 Recommendation on Operational Changes Implementation of Proposals 7 Hong Kong versus China Conclusion Reference List 18 7 136 14 168 16 17 Appendix Sport Obermeyer, Limited is a company based in the United States, Aspen Colorado. Sport Obermeyer business is based on skiwear. The company has evolved over a period of time to become a competitor in the clothing industry for skiwear. One of his core competences is the in- house designing department. The production will be covered by manufacturing facilities with Obersport Limited in Hong Kong and China. The clothing industry has all over the same problems to face. Clothes are highly dependent on taste; therefore the whole clothing industry faced forecasting issues. The case introduced the production planning for short product life cycles and allows an analysis of the companys production planning problem. This report allows a detailed introduction of the problems and how to prioritize them. The problems could be easily stated with: Different ordering quantities for different parkas, Short product lifecycles, Uncertainty in demand and Production challenges. After the prioritizations of the problems there will be finally mentioned the analysis. The analysis will help to recommend the future steps and which recommendation needs not to be taken into account. The company has got major given strength and opportunities they need to be focused on. The focus is important to come over their threats and weaknesses; it will be in detailed explained. This recommendation focused on the companies strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats will allow final solution, how to solve the major problems. In addition there will be a proposal advantage. Finally the two manufacturing plants will be evaluated to draw a conclusion how to go finally forward. 2 Introduction of the Company In 1947 a German immigrant, Klaus Obermeyer started to teach at the Aspen Ski School. He found out that a lot of his students were totally freezing all the time, so he decided to find a solution for this problem. The company idea was burn. The company was focused on skiwear. The estimated sales were nearly by US $ 32. 8 million only in the year 1992. The market share was split up between children and dults; for children 45 per cent and for adults 11 per cent. Sport Obermeyer, Limited offered a really broad line of fashion skiwears, like vests and shells (exhibit 1); however the most critical part were the parkas. The parkas were deviated in five different types for gender, women, men, boys, girls and kids prior to school. Nonetheless with the separation of the different genders it was not done. Each gender has included different styles and different sizes therefore the variety increased over the years. The production was done by the manufacturing facilities in Hong Kong and in China. Obersport Limited was a Joint venture.