...Williams Machine Tools Company – A case study Background Williams Machine Tool Company was the third largest US based machine tool manufacturer by 1990. Williams felt the boom during 1980 – 1990 with record level profits. William’s success came from a single product line of standard manufacturing machine tools. The company focused chiefly on this product line rather than diversify with new products. Situation during early 90’s: The recession of the early 1990’s has significantly changed the market environment. Cutbacks in production have decreased the demand for standard machine tools and customers are asking for new products. Upper management has recognized the need for a new strategy but lower level management shows no flexibility to change. Situation during mid 90’s: By 1995 the recession has been over for a couple of years but nothing has changed within William’s organization and product line. Revenues and sales are decreasing rapidly. By 1996 the company was sold to Crock Engineering. Crock replaces all of the Williams senior managers when the company shows losses. Crock announces than Williams would become a specialty machine tool manufacturer as demand for specialty products have increased threefold. Situation during late 90’s: The upper management tries to change the company culture through project management, concurrent engineering and total quality management. Unfortunately long term employees are not on the same page as upper management and...
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...For 75 years, the Williams Machine Tool Company had provided quality products to its clients, becoming the third largest U.S. - based machine tool company by 1980. The company was highly profitable and had an extremely low employee turnover rate. Pay and benefits were excellent. Between 1970 and 1980, the company’s profits soared to record levels. The company’s success was due to one product line of standard manufacturing machine to ols. Williams spent most of its time and effort looking for ways to improve its bread - and - butter product line rather than to develop new products. The product line was so successful that companies were willing to modify their production lines around these machine tools rather than asking Williams for major modifications to the machine tools. By 1980, Williams Company was extremely complacent, expecting this phenomenal success with one product line to continue for 20 to 25 more years. The recession of 1979 – 1 983 forced management to realign their thinking. Cutbacks in production had decreased the demand for the standard machine tools. More and more customers were asking for either major modifications to the standard machine tools or a completely new product de sign. The marketplace was changing and senior management recognized that a new strategic focus was necessary. However, lower - level management and the work force, especially engineering, were strongly resisting a change. The employees, many of...
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...frame but most notable for contributions to the modern factory system * William George Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong (1810–1900) - Hydraulic power pioneer, founder of Armstrong Whitworth ------------------------------------------------- [edit]B * Charles Babbage (1791–1871) - Creator of the Difference Engine * George Herman Babcock (1832–1893) - Co-invented an improved safety water tube steam boiler, co-founder of Babcock & Wilcox * Joseph Cyril Bamford - Founder of the JCB company, manufacturing heavy plant, and especially backhoes * Eugenio Barsanti (1821–1864) - Early developer of internal combustion engine * Henry Bessemer (1813–1898) - Best known as the creator of the Bessemer Process * Karl Benz (1844–1929) - Generally regarded as the inventor of the gasoline-powered automobile, founder of Mercedes-Benz * Keith Black - American high performance automobile engineer * John Blenkinsop (1783–1831) - Steam locomotive pioneer, developed rack and pinion railway system * Thomas Bouch (1822–1880) - Railway engineer, helped develop the roll-on/roll-off train ferry * Matthew Boulton (1728–1809) - Steam engineer, associate of James Watt * Joseph Bramah (1748–1814) - Hydraulic power pioneer and inventor of the hydraulic press * Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1805–1859) - Design contributions include the Great Western Railway and the SS Great Eastern * William Brunton (1777–1851) - Early steam power pioneer, inventor of the Brunton's...
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...printed circuit boards: i ) single sided PCB ii ) double sided PCB iii) multi layered PCB PCB is commonly used in making electronic devices such as computers, home entertainment equipments, telephones, etc. 1.1 Company Background X Electronics (M) Ltd. is a subsidiary company build in north Malaysia during 1990. X Electronics (M) Ltd. headquarters are in Singapore. It started the Malaysian branch operation in 1991. X Electronics specializes in PCB production process from design and development stages to assembly stages. X Electronic caters flexible production whether it is mass volume or low volume production. The Process [pic] Figure 1 : X Electronics (M) Ltd. (Image taken from Google Image for PCB manufacturing plant layout) X Electronics (M) Ltd. facilities have already applied several lean tools in its PCB manufacturing processes. The company is committed to achieve short lead time delivery and low cost production by optimizing its humans, machines and material resources. Figure 2 : PCB Assembly Process (Image taken from Google Image) [pic] 1. Implementation of Lean in PCB Manufacturing Lean Application X Electronics begin applying lean tools in its manufacturing process in 2004 after receiving direct order from its headquarters in Singapore. This is due to lean being the main topic in...
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...opportunities here. He worked hard, took a few risks, and realized his dreams. I came to this company as CEO five years ago—giving up a senior VP position at a Fortune 500 manufacturer—because I saw big potential for Paragon Tool, then a small maker of machine tools. I didn’t make the move so that I could oversee the company’s downsizing! I didn’t intend to create value—for our customers, for our employees, for our shareholders—by thinking small!! I didn’t intend to shrink to greatness, for God’s sake!!! Okay, so I’m getting a little worked up over this. Maybe I’m just trying to overcome my own second thoughts about our company’s growth plans. I know it isn’t just about growth; it’s about profitable growth, as my CFO, William Littlefield, is always happy to remind me. “Nicky,” he’ll say, “people always talk about getting to the top when they should be focusing on the bottom…line, that is.” Quite a comedian, that Littlefield. But lame as the quip is, it tells you a lot about Littlefield and what, in my opinion, is his limited view of business. Sometimes you’ve got to sacrifice profits up front to make real profits down the line. To me, acquiring MonitoRobotics holds just that kind of promise. The company uses sensor technology and communications software to monitor and report real-time information on the functioning of robotics equipment. By adapting this technology for use on our machine tools, we could offer customers a rapid-response troubleshooting service—what consultants these...
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...Introduction Today, it is incredible to consider that in 1969 men landed on the moon using a computer with a 32-kilobyte memory, that was only programmable by the use of punch cards. In 1973, Astronaut Alan Shepherd participated in the first computer "hack" while orbiting the moon in his landing vehicle, as two programmers back on Earth attempted to "hack" into the duplicate computer, to find a way for Shepherd to convince his computer that a catastrophe requiring a mission abort was not happening; the successful hack took 45 minutes to accomplish, and Shepherd went on to hit his golf ball on the moon. Today, the average computer sitting on the desk of a suburban home office has more computing power than the entire U.S. space program that put humans on another world (Rheingold, 2000, p. 4). Computer science has affected the human condition in many radical ways. Throughout its history, its developers have striven to make calculation and computation easier, as well as to offer new means by which the other sciences can be advanced. Modern massively-paralleled super computers help scientists with previously unfeasible problems such as fluid dynamics, complex function convergence, finite element analysis and real time weather dynamics. Likewise, our daily lives are increasingly affected by computers, not only alleviating us from menial tasks but making it possible for us to accomplish more (Rheingold, 2000, p. 7). The personal computer (PC) has revolutionized business and...
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...assignment should specify your name(s), student number(s) and the assignment title. The assignment should be completed in Word format. Please show all workings. 3. Late assignments will not be accepted unless arrangements have been made with myself before the due date. EASTBORO MACHINE TOOLS CORPORATION In mid-September of 2001, Jennifer Campbell, chief financial officer of Eastboro Machine Tools Corporation, paced the floor of her Minnesota office. She needed to submit a recommendation to Eastboro’s board of directors regarding the company’s dividend policy, which had been the subject of an ongoing debate among the firm’s senior managers. Compounding her problem was the previous week’s terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The stock market had plummeted in response to the attacks, and along with it Eastboro’s stock had fallen 18 percent, to $22.15. In response to the market collapse, a spate of companies had announced plans to buy back stock, some to signal confidence in their companies as well as in the U.S. financial markets, and others for opportunistic reasons. Now Jennifer Campbell’s dividend-decision problem was compounded by the dilemma of whether to use company funds to pay out dividends or to buy back stock instead. BACKGROUND ON THE DIVIDEND QUESTION After years of traditionally strong earnings and predictable dividend growth, Eastboro had faltered in the past five years. In response, management implemented two extensive restructuring...
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...assignment should specify your name(s), student number(s) and the assignment title. The assignment should be completed in Word format. Please show all workings. 3. Late assignments will not be accepted unless arrangements have been made with myself before the due date. EASTBORO MACHINE TOOLS CORPORATION In mid-September of 2001, Jennifer Campbell, chief financial officer of Eastboro Machine Tools Corporation, paced the floor of her Minnesota office. She needed to submit a recommendation to Eastboro’s board of directors regarding the company’s dividend policy, which had been the subject of an ongoing debate among the firm’s senior managers. Compounding her problem was the previous week’s terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The stock market had plummeted in response to the attacks, and along with it Eastboro’s stock had fallen 18 percent, to $22.15. In response to the market collapse, a spate of companies had announced plans to buy back stock, some to signal confidence in their companies as well as in the U.S. financial markets, and others for opportunistic reasons. Now Jennifer Campbell’s dividend-decision problem was compounded by the dilemma of whether to use company funds to pay out dividends or to buy back stock instead. BACKGROUND ON THE DIVIDEND QUESTION After years of traditionally strong earnings and predictable dividend growth, Eastboro had faltered in the past five years. In response, management implemented two extensive restructuring...
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...management? Management is in a particular environment, organize resources for effective planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, in order to reach the established organization goals in the process. As Perter Drucker (1973) said that the management is a job, it has its own techniques, tools and methods; management is an organ, is to give life to the organization, active, dynamic organ; management is a science, and apply knowledge around a systematic; while management is also a culture. So it is knew that the management can be seen everywhere in people’s lives. For example, housewife need to arrange when should go shop some groceries, what time should go to pick up her kids, and how to balance the housework and office work. There are need she to manage that, if one part of the chain has problem, it may affect another apart of the conduct. Thus, it can lead to the focus of this article, Henry Laurence Gantt, who is one of the greater management thinker in the world, and in his early life, he was worked with FW Taylor and worked well. Gantt Chart is his legacy to management, which has been accepted as a commonplace project tool today in the management. Also his focus was on increased machine-shop production, through the use of effective measurement and planning (Weaver, 2012). Moreover, he also made some individual and contributions that is the task and bonus system (1901), the perspective of the worker (1916), and the social responsibility of business (1919). Scientific...
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...the entire organization. The substantial assets and human resources found in an organzation and how they can be better employed will be my focus. Companies have struggled for years running the business as usual and cannot get where they want to be due to a number of factors. They may have inadiquate budgets to perform the required activities under their current adminitration. Some have a surplus of inventories and excess works in progress that is treated as a resource instead of a liability. Most employees are over worked because of excess work that has no value added to production. Workers cost far too much and take too long to complete required work. Companies utilize huge inventory spaces due to work that adds no value and the inability to complete work in the scheduled time. If the problems are investigated and there are processes put in place to prevent the previous procedures from returning. The saying,"old dogs can’t be taught new tricks" is vastly fading away. Companies need to achieve important continuous advancements and achievements by eliminating any wasted resources and time. Why is it that after decades of doing business "it’s the way we’ve always done business" is a rule under review and propositions of change will not be swept under the rug? Companies waste thier physical assets and human resources. Dr. William E. Deming once said, "It is not enough to do your best; you must know what to do, and then do your best." Henry Ford knew that the continuous progress...
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...John Deere Company Samuel, Scanga Freshman Tech, 3rd Quarter Period 7 21, January 2018 John Deere was the first successful steel plow manufacture. John Deere was a very wealthy, historical company with amazing leaders. John Deere is still one of the most successful companies today. The Deere Company had a rough but interesting way of getting started. John Deere was the man who started the business. He was born in Rutland, Vermont on February 7, 1804 to William Rinald and Sarah Yates Deere. In 1805 they moved to Middlebury. He was the baby of three and in 1808 his father boarded a boat for England in hopes of claiming inheritance but was then never heard from again, he was presumed to have died at sea. At age 17 Deere took up blacksmithing and faced great depression of business in 1836 forcing him to move to Grand Detour, Illinois leaving behind his wife and kids. Then in 1837 he made the first of many steel plows. Year after year this small business grew. As the business grew in 1843 the company needed a partner, teaming up with Leonard Andrus. Then in 1843 the company bought him out. After that Deere moved the company to Moline, Illinois. The company had made 1600 plows by the year 1850. This is just the beginning of the John Deere manufacture. ( Deere and Company...
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...9-197-103 REV: MAY 21, 2004 WILLIAM J. BRUNS, JR. Precision Worldwide, Inc. In late May 2004, Hans Thorborg, the general manager of the German plant of Precision Worldwide, Inc. (PWI), scheduled an afternoon meeting with his sales manager, accountant, and development engineer to discuss the introduction by the French firm Henri Poulenc (a competitor) of a plastic ring substitute for the steel retaining rings presently used in certain machines sold by Precision Worldwide. The plastic ring, new to the market, not only had a much longer life than the PWI steel ring but also apparently had a much lower manufacturing cost. Thorborg’s problem stemmed from PWI’s large quantity of steel rings on hand and the substantial inventory of special steel that had been purchased for their manufacture. After a thorough survey, he had found that the special steel could not be sold, even for scrap; the total book value of these inventories exceeded $390,000. For nearly 90 years PWI had manufactured industrial machines and equipment for sale in numerous countries. The particular machines involved in Thorborg’s dilemma were made only at the company’s plant in Frankfurt, Germany, which employed more than one thousand people. The different models were priced between $18,900 and $28,900 and were sold by a separate sales organization. Repair and replacement parts, which accounted for a substantial part of the company’s business, were sold separately. As with the steel rings, these parts could often...
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...Management and Leadership Teresa Moore MGT/330 May 27, 2012 Mike Dillhyon, Jr. Management and Leadership It takes both great management and great leadership to run any successful company. According to Bateman and Snell (2009), “management is the process of working with people and resources to accomplish organizational goals,” and “a leader is one who influences others to attain goals.” Effective managers do not always equate to charismatic leaders. People in administrative and supervisory positions who successfully perform their roles and responsibilities do this without being great leaders. Though the two go hand in hand they play different roles within the company. Managers keep the company working like a well-oiled machine, while leaders empower their staffs with visions to what may come in the future because of their hard work. When done properly a company with great management and leadership chemistry is unstoppable. The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) has been just that – unstoppable. The YMCA is a cause-driven organization focusing on youth development, healthy living, social responsibility, and tackling the nations’ epidemic on obesity and inactivity. The YMCA was started in 1844 by a young farmer boy, George Williams, who became a department store worker in London, England. He organized the first YMCA along with 11 friends which began as a Bible study and prayer meeting for young men and evolved into a community outreach program. The YMCA...
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...The question we could ask is: what exactly is technology? Technology is generally used to meet the many challenges of globalization, and to control two concepts namely ‘time and space’ in human communication. This means that people working with technology create new ways and means to control and reduce ‘time and space’ in order to meet the global challenges we are faced with. We see that in the 21st century technology is another term used to represent our modern life style, thinking and behaviour. Technology is also used by people to improve their surroundings, and it involves having to have some sort of knowledge in order to use certain machines and tools to do so. Furthermore technology is used to control the world in which we live, and more specifically people use it to improve their ability to do work and improve products. This whole idea as to how we view technology is seen as the technological determinism approach. It has also been said that technology cannot work on its own, but rather it is found to work hand in hand with the environment in which we live (Lian, 2007). Therefore in my essay I will be looking at various types of technology from a technological determinist and cultural materialist perspective, and then looking at how these two approaches compare or differ from one another. This would also lead me to seeing if the cultural materialist approach does see society as being free agents and actually adapting technology to fit the culture. 1. The main ideas of...
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...Amanda Alt Sarah McCauley Kevin Randles Kexin Kie Ranesha Williams Cellular Manufacturing A manufacturing cell is a grouping of all the resources that are required to manufacture a part of a product. This includes the people, supplies, machines, tools and the equipment. The cell resources are arranged in close proximity to enhance communication and allow everyone to see what is going on in their particular part of the job. There are two types of cells and they are Product Cell and Process Cell. A product cell provides a finished product to one or to a few customers and team members typically assemble, test, package, and even ship the product. A process cell services multiple customers and completes multiple operations on a variety of products. There are several benefits of manufacturing cells. They allow you to product what is needed with minimum materials, equipment, labor, time and space. This all in all typically lowers operating costs. A cell has a simple and direct routing between operations which ultimately reduces leadtimes. Cells can also help eliminate waste by reducing excess inventory. Cells also reduce the waiting time for operators. They do not have to wait for supplies or tools as they are readily available at the cell. Workers will benefit from not needing to move throughout the plant because everything they need to do their job is kept in the cell. In-plant transportation is also reduced, as there is no need to truck parts from department to department...
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