Kuiper Leda Benchmark

In today’s world operations management plays a key role in maintaining a competitive edge and long-term profitability for any business. Operations management is about getting the day-to-day work done quickly, efficiently, without any errors and at low cost (Chase, Jacobs, & Aquilano, 2006). While Operations Management deals with day-to-day operations efficiently, there are various specialties of operations management such as Supply Chain Management and Quality Management. Supply Chain Management consists of managing the purchasing of supplies, Inventory control management, capacity planning and distribution planning (Chase, Jacobs, & Aquilano, 2006).

Companies use supply chain management in order to gain competitive advantage in the marketplace. Organizations that use supply chain processes use various service and design strategies along with technology to manage their value chain process and interaction with suppliers and customers.

In the scenario, Kuiper Leda is a small hi-tech manufacturer that has not yet implemented supply chain practices in order to manage its supply chain process. Kuiper Leda has an opportunity to configure its supply chain in order to meet delivery needs for the order received from its customer Midland Motors. The problem is that Kuiper Leda will not be able to deliver the volume required to fulfill the order of Midland Motors with its current manufacturing capacity. Kuiper Leda will have to make a decision whether to increase in-house manufacturing capacity or to outsource manufacturing of products completely or partially.

The purpose of this paper is to benchmark and compare other companies that faced similar problems as Kuiper Leda and how they turned their challenge into an opportunity.

Austin Hardware and Supply, Inc.

Since 1960, Austin Hardware and Supply, Inc. have provided excellence products, competitive rates, prompt delivery and technical capability unrivaled by other companies in the industry. Austin Hardware and Supply, Inc. is a leading distributor of specialty industrial and vehicular hardware solutions. Austin Hardware and Supply, Inc.’s products include handles, locks, latches, hinges, hooks, holders, drawer slides, gas springs, fenders, rubber bumpers, weather-strip, edge trims, gasket, sealants, adhesives, fasteners, and much more. Austin Hardware and Supply, Inc. services primary industries include truck body, trailer, specialty and recreational vehicle OEM and repair centers such as fire truck, ambulance, rescue and emergency vehicle (Austin Hardware & Supply, Inc., 2007).

Austin Hardware and Supply, Inc. is a private supplier that has distributed over 15,000 quality products annually. Austin Hardware and Supply, Inc.’s sale is about $4.9 million annually (Austin Hardware & Supply, Inc., 2007). To keep up with their promises of top of the line products and timely delivery, the company opened more facilities around the United States to accommodate their customers. The company has facilities in Kansas City, Dallas, Atlanta, Reading, Elkhart and Visalia. The company’s facilities keep extensive inventory to fill any amount of orders from its customers. Austin Hardware and Supply, Inc.’s facilities stock all required hardware to assemble the products ordered by the customers. To maintain its competitive prices and still make profit, Austin Hardware and Supply, Inc. maintains a large inventory in its facilities. They do not assemble their products completely before there is an order placed.

As the orders come into the customer services department, products are immediately assembled and installed at the required facilities. With enough raw materials on hand Austin Hardware and Supply, Inc. would be able to assemble the products at their facilities and ship to the customers without having to worry about excessive orders and meeting deadlines. By keeping a large inventory, Austin Hardware and Supply, Inc. is able to provide quality services, the best product, and prompt delivery while maintaining adequate inventory to accommodate excessive and unexpected orders. In benchmarking, Austin Hardware and Supply, Inc. Kuiper Leda can use their method as a tool to identify best practices that can be implemented to help them obtain a competitive advantage. The benchmark process will also enable Kuiper Leda to use the information to help them determine the process to proceed when their customers order in excess amounts.

General Electric

Challenges can be found within any organization across all industries. What sets one organization apart from another is if and how the challenge is turned into an opportunity. The true challenge faced by all is how to plan for and effectively manage the opportunities faced by the organization. Kuiper Leda is a manufacturing organization faced with this