Operation management of Tom Pulling Toys, a toy manufacturing company - Essay Example

? Operation Management Brief Summary Tom Pulling Toys, a toy manufacturing company, has in the recent had poor market response. The toys produced by the company have generated little sales in the recent past leading to low revenues collected and less profit accrued by the firm. One of the most probable reasons for the poor performance is the competition from other firms. In an attempt to remedy this, the management has sought to assess and improve the quality of toys that the firm produces. In aiming to regulate the quality of the toys that the firm produces, the management is seeking to instigate a different quality management tool and statistical process control. This strategy bills the number of toys bought from the firm within a given period and compares the number of those returned due to quality related issues. Its implementation is anticipated to offer more revelations and determine the cause of the decline in the market position. Introduction and Problem Description Tom Pulling Toys is an English toy manufacturing firm based in China. For a long time, it enjoyed positive market response maintaining the mantle of being at the helm of market leadership. However, as China develops and more toy manufacturing firms get set up, there appears to be a problem. The company’s performance has hit a snag in the recent past. This negative market response is attributed to the quality of the products that the firm produces. There is a great likelihood that the company has not been producing poor quality toys and this is evident in the high number of toys that clients return to the company with quality related defects. The fact that clients return defective toys to the shops was a clear indication of the fact that the company had been producing low quality toys. The problem under investigation, therefore, is to determine whether the speculation, that the production of poor quality toys is responsible for the poor performance of the company recently, is true. This is based on the fact that clients have been returning semi standard goods made by the company. In an attempt to determine this, the company is employing a quality regulating tool that is new to the firm and the market. This has been christened the statistical process control. Methodology and Results To effectively carry out the test on the quality of the products from the company, the research used random sampling of the toys and one aspect of the quality that was put under tight scrutiny was the colour of the toys. For a period of thirty days, the research was run on the colour defective toys with each day having a total of two hundred toys being collected. For the very thirty days, three toys were randomly collected and their heights measured and recorded in centimetres. The study carried out on colour revealed major colour defects on the toys with lots of clients returning to the firm defective toys. Colour is an important aspect of marketing; the marketing department ought to have put into consideration the effects defective colours would have had on the company’s product. Below is a table showing fifteen days and an average of 3% of returned toys on the basis of colour alone. Sample Number Number Of Defectives Units Inspected Percentage Of Deformities 1 3 200 1.5 2 6 200 3 3 7 200 3.5 4 6 200 3 5 6 200 3 6 9 200 4.5 7 2 200 1 8 2 200 1 9 7 200 3.5 10 8 200 4 11 9 200 4.5 12 11 200 5.5 13 3 200 1.5 14 5 200 2.5 15 6 200 3 Discussion and Recommendations Quality plays an important role in determining the market position that a firm holds. In the past, Tom Pulling Toys was known as the quality leader in the market which meant greater revenue collection. However, competition is an aspect of business and as it increases so should a company find leverages over competitors which for Tom pulling company would have been the quality of their products. Unfortunately, the firm was reluctant in checking into this and the result was the declining financial returns. The study revealed that, in deed, the firm was not taking into account the effect of quality of the toys they were producing and this led to the poor performance reflected in decreased revenues and profits. A key recommendation would be for the company’s quality assurance officer, Mr Smith, to put into consideration the type of market that Tom Pulling toys is targeting. As it stands, the market focuses on the quality of the toys than the price. The firm must, therefore, strive to satisfy this. Such aspects of quality as colour height and raw material must be put into consideration so as to produce toys that would thrill and retain the clients. Conclusion All businesses strive to make profit. Tom pulling company has had its highs but the fact that the management never thought of the fact that competition would at one time come was a laxity and a show of poor business planning. However, the current trend of poor performance can be reversed. The firm has been up and trying to find out ways and a positive step towards realizing that was determining the causal factor which, in this case, was the declining quality of their products. The firm can still find its way up to be a market leader it once was. Bibliography Gomez-Mejia, L., & David, B. 2008. Management: People,Performance, Change, 3rd edition. New York: McGraw-Hill. Kleiman, L. S. 2011, Mar 25. Management and Executive Development. Retrieved Feb 23, 2012, from Reference for Business:Encyclopedia of Business . ManFred. F.(2003. The Dark Side of Leadership. Business Strategy Review , 14-26. Read More