INTRODUCTION
Sony Barcelona’s plant decided to implement the STAR project as part of their new system to redefine and reorganize their production plans in Europe. However the project ran into several problems. This report gives a suggestion to the top level management whether to continue with the Star Project or go for an independent strategy.

The Star project faced several problems due to some major reasons. They are: * Problems with NTT members: Many of the NTT members were not sufficiently experienced to handle a problem of this type. The team from Barcelona felt that they were more experienced than these NTT members. Moreover, the attitude of the some NTT members to the Sony Barcelona team ranged from indifference at its best and arrogant at its worst. The Barcelona team felt that the consultants did not respect their opinions even when they knew that the Barcelona team was more experienced than themselves. * Project team centralized in London: The decisions regarding the Star project were all being made in their HQ in London. The decisions for both Barcelona and Pencoed were being made there. The entire team was centralized in London. This lead to a lack of commitment to the projects in Barcelona and also the centralized decision making ignored individual factors which differed in both the factories were not taken into account and the project was developed as if both the factories were the unique replica of each other. * Differences with Pencoed: There were also some differences with the Sony factory in Pencoed, mostly with deadline issues and the type of implementation strategy. Barcelona and Pencoed differed on both these issues and both had valid reasons while putting forth their arguments. However, Barcelona officials and Pencoed officials have agreed to discuss these issues in a meeting and solve them out. But a positive outcome in this meeting cannot be guaranteed.

Sticking with the Star Project
While following the Star project to its logical culmination would integrate all the three factories and boost the company’s prospects in Europe it held too many pitfalls. A successful Star project seems unlikely. Even if the differences with Pencoed are thrashed out there are no guarantee that Star project would be fully successful at Barcelona. The Oracle team in Spain too is inexperienced to handle such type of projects and there is no guarantee that the inputs that the Barcelona’s officials give will be heeded.

An Independent Strategy
An independent strategy would eliminate all the drawbacks of the Star Project. It would be fully customized according to Sony Barcelona’s needs. However, problems may arise when integrating with the other two European factories.

Sony Barcelona would be better suited to follow an independent strategy and then try to integrate it with the other factories.