L. & J. G. Stickley Inc.s Production Policy

NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.

NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Production Processing
40 Mission Dining Sets
Level Production Policy
Recommendations
Application
References

Introduction

The L.&J.G. Stickley furniture company has been around since 1900. It started as a family business and was established by two brothers Leopold and George Stickley. Its headquarters can be found in the suburbs of Syracuse, New York. The said furniture company focuses on manufacturing furniture made from fine cherry, white oak, and mahogany. Its specialty is mission oak furniture. However, the company also experienced major setbacks and it was sold. From a small operation with just a handful of full-time employees, Stickley now employs 1350 employees. It has showrooms in New York, Connecticut, and North Carolina but on a national scale, the company is in partnership with 120 dealers.

Production Processing

Stickley utilizes a repetitive production process. This is in conformance with their needs, the type of products that they are manufacturing, and the volume that they need to produce at a given time. Since 50% of their revenue comes from mission oak furniture they know what to focus on. Thus, the business requires the manufacturing of a relatively few numbers of standardized products. In addition, the volume of products that is required already reaches the level of mass production. It also requires long production runs as well as an assembly-line type of production.

In other words, the company is well-aware of the market and how it should respond. It is not unusual to receive an order of 40 mission oak dining room sets. The moment this type of order is received the factory floor knows the specific steps required from handling materials, sawing, and crating.

With 120 dealers all over the country and the need to produce a large volume of oak furniture with little variation calls for a repetitive process. The people working on the factory floor have a clear idea of the demand. A repetitive production process is also needed when precision tools are used. In the case of Stickley, they use an optimizer saw that enables them to maximize the use of wood and on a daily basis this computer-controlled saw can give them 20,000 board feet worth of materials.

Management can keep track of job status and location during production because the factory workers carefully maintain records using bar codes as well as recording the numbers stamped on every item in order to determine the location of each piece in the production process.

Although the company utilizes a repetitive type of production process, there are instances when this system is combined with a batch type of production process. This can be seen during the time when there is a need to produce components that are needed more often than the others. An example is a table and chair legs.

40 Mission Dining Sets

The efficiency of a manufacturing facility is tested whenever a huge order is received. Consider for instance if Stickley receives an order for 40 mission oak dining sets. The company has a profile of a mission oak dining set. In other words, the company is aware of the specification of a mission oak dining set. Thus, it is easy to determine how much board feet of oak wood is needed for a single set and multiply that by 40 will produce the correct amount of raw materials needed.

The main supplier of the oak wood will be alerted of the sudden upsurge in order in order to give them enough time to prepare and deliver the said material to the factory. At the same time management will determine the number of skilled and unskilled workers needed for the job. Since it is already known the amount of time needed to finish one order, the factory manager can easily compute the man-hours required to finish one set. The manager begins to finalize the work schedule based on these requirements.

Aside from oak wood, there are other ancillary materials needed. For instance, the person-in-charge of the optimizer saw must determine if the saw blade requires replacement. If a replacement is needed, it is time to make the necessary purchase orders before the raw materials are in place. There is also the need to look into the supply of sandpaper and glue.

Level Production Policy

A level production policy assures that there is work available for all workers and this means that it can solve the problem of idling. More importantly, the plant manager has an easier time managing workers and therefore he can hire a specific number of workers knowing that they can be utilized all year round. This is a good system especially when demand is constant all the time.

However, a level production policy can backfire if suddenly there is a change in the demand for a certain type of furniture. If a level production policy is followed then management can be caught in a situation where there is a significant number of items in the inventory and they cannot move it. This can cause the obsolescence of products. It is easier for a product to be damaged when in storage after a long period of time.

A level production policy cannot take advantage of changes in the prices of raw materials. In this type of production policy, the factory is required to buy the same amount of raw materials. It is also not possible to reduce the cost of production. In the case of Stickley, the electricity bill reaches tens of thousands of dollars. This can be reduced if the company allows the production process to slow down during lean months. On the other hand, the company is always ready to supply the demand for furniture all year round. If there is a sudden surge in the demand for a particular type of furniture the company is ready to ship the product because a component or part of the furniture is on standby and only requires a few components to be completed.

Recommendations

Although management keeps a careful record of components and furniture parts during the assembly process it is not clear how management can actually determine the exact location of unfinished or finished furniture. From the cutting to the sanding, gluing, and pressing, management has no idea where exactly the components are at. It would help if the company can develop a more sophisticated tracking system.

If there is a budget for the use of digital technology to track the whereabouts of a major component or an unfinished product then one strategy that can be implemented is the use of a radio frequency ID or RFID tag. A major component can be tagged with something that contains an RFID chip. The scanner in the factory can detect the signal sent by these RFID tags and the data goes into the managers computer. A software application will inform the manager for instance that there are 5 mission dining sets that are being built that day. By the end of the day, the manager can compare the data from the bar code system in place and the information is given at the beginning of the day to determine if the workers were able to complete the 5 dining sets.

Application

It seems that Stickley is going towards the use of lean management principles (Bell, 2006, p.5). The purpose is to reduce waste. This can be seen in the use of the optimizer a specially designed computer-controlled saw that can find a way to maximize the use of a unit of wood. A human being can process the same piece of raw material but does not have the capability to analyze the whole length and breadth of the wood and therefore a lot of material can be wasted.

On the other hand, the company is unwilling to fully commit to a lean management system. This conclusion is based on their insistence on a level production policy. A lean management system forces management to only create products based on demand and delivers the exact number of furniture to the customer or supplier. The goal is to eliminate inventory because everyone knows that the maintenance of inventory costs money in terms of storage and obsolescence.

It is also important that Stickley continue to find ways to speed up the production process. One way to do it is to reduce the number of components and unfinished products designated to an inventory of furniture pieces. This is a waste of time if it cannot be assured that a complete set of furniture can be created and delivered using these parts. If a lean management system is utilized then the company must devise a way to manufacture on-demand to eliminate any form of inventory.

References

Bell, S. (2006). Lean Enterprise Systems. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Click Here To Order Now!