Survey Paper
Christine Lopez
RES 341
September 1, 2011
Anthony Woo

Production at Pony Carburetors has dropped 29 percent in the last six months. The company has been in business for over 26 years and has never seen a drop in production. The company restores Ford carburetors and the restoration process takes seven to ten business days. Unfortunately the carburetors have been leaving at an estimated 27 days after the carburetor is received. How can Pony Carburetors raise production in a fast manner?
Questions
What time does the company open and what time are employees clocking in?
Are employees taking extra brakes?
Are employees staying at their work station and how many work stations are needed?
How many are employed at Pony Carburetors?
How many carburetors need to be shipped out so production can be kept up? Is there written steps to complete a carburetor up to par if so are the steps being followed?
Is production low because more carburetors came in compared to this time last year?
Rank the carburetors from hard to easy.
Is there changes in the Pony Carburetor “family” that would affect production?
Is the location of the company a problem?
The company came up with a new carburetor and most of the parts were made in India. This carburetor takes 88 parts and 38 of the parts are made in house or through United State suppliers. None of the United State supplier parts need special work to make them work correctly. Of the 88 parts made in India 53 need some type of special work done to them to work properly. Is this project worth the trouble or does Pony Carburetors need to give up the project and concentrate on another carburetor?

Survey
Pony Carburetors was started in Syracuse, NY over 25 years ago. About seven years ago the President of the company decided to move to Las Cruces, NM based on the weather to make production run faster and better. The company makes $900,000 per year and sells carburetors globally. On September 11, 2001 The United States experienced a traumatic experience and terrorist hit The World Trade Center. The week after The World Trade Center catastrophe the business started going through longer slow seasons. Slow season for Pony Carburetors starts the middle of October every year and ends the middle of February. During the slow time Pony Carburetors will produce carburetors generally asked for during the busy season. Recently the owner of Pony Carburetors was diagnosed with brain cancer and slowly started arriving late or leaving early during the work day. The doors open at 7:30 in the morning and close at 5pm. The employees slowly started imitating the owners arrival times, coming in half an hour to an hour late, taking extra brakes, and leaving an hour early. While most of the employees continued to be on time the amount of time the dissenting employees drained became an issue. There are 12 people working at Pony Carburetors and four employees do not work in the production department. Each production employee has to see eight carburetors pass through his or her station. Each carburetor has a checklist that needs to be initialed by the technician working on the carburetor. Last year, starting January and ending December, the company received 1400 carburetors and each carburetor is estimated to cost $600. The year is more than half over and 1100 carburetors have been received. The carburetors are staying longer in process and have not been leaving the shop when compared to the previous year. The process will take seven business days to get the carburetor to a customer, unless the carburetor has challenging parts. The four main products Pony Carburetors assembles are the Autolite 1100, Autolite 2100, Autolite 4100, and Holley 4150. The Autolite 1100 is the simplest carburetor to understand but the hardest carburetor to put together because this product contains smaller parts than the rest of the carburetors. The 2100 is the easiest carburetor, there are more parts than the 1100 but easier to handle. The 4100 is the same as the 2100 but has double the parts. The Holley carburetor is the hardest carburetor and can be put together by a knowledgeable technician in seven days. A technician with little knowledge can up to two weeks to send a phenomenal product out. Jon Enyeart was the President and owner of Pony Carburetors. He passed away fighting brain cancer and left the company to new management. The environment inside the shop is silent and full of zombie technicians. The new president of the company has given the company three years to pick up the pace to keep the company successful. The company will shut the doors if the pace has not picked up within the next three years. The company will continue to reside in Las Cruces New Mexico because the weather and altitude makes the production easier. The new carburetor will continue production at the beginning of 2012. This project will be moved to a different supplier and all parts will be made in The United States. This project will help production when slow season arrives during the future years.