Management

Part 1
Research Align Technology
They produced a dental appliance that required custom manufacturing. Because this was a new innovative product, accurate sales forecasts for the appliance were difficult to make. The company had built its production capacity ahead of demand. Now it has decided to find a more cost-effective strategy. The Sales and Marketing team has prepared an 18-month forecast of case sales that indicates a significant reduction in projected cases for July 2001, followed by gradual growth. To simplify the analysis, we will assume a linear projection for the increased sales and assume that the new projections are:

July 2001: 125 cases/day (Remember, we are in the 2000’s for this case)
Increase: 1 case/day/day and assume there are 25 workdays in each month
With this information:

Answer these following questions:

1. Assume these forecasts represent Align’s most reliable estimates of future case sales. How should the manufacturing team think about adjusting Align’s production capacity, given this forecast?

2. What is the “rightsize” for the capacity? What capacity (for each of the six processes) would you recommend for July 2001 and why?

3. After “right-sizing,” what decision processes would you recommend to increase the labor capacity as demand grows and why?
Will your policies change when additional machines are required to expand capacity?

Part 2
Review Toys R Us last 4 or 5 annual financial statements. Also,review articles about their demise. Write a 1 page document assessment using APA format that answers all of the following questions, using information in the annual financial statements, course reading and viewing materials, and supplemental research.
• What factors drove their decline in performance?
• What specific warning signs of poor financial health do you see when analyzing the financials?
• If this corporation were a supplier to you, what steps would you have taken to mitigate the risk of doing business with them after noticing they were in financial trouble?