TO: Professor, MBA 731
FROM: L. Houston, Student, MBA 731
SUBJECT: Case: Chad’s Creative Concepts
DATE: August 24, 2014 Chad’s Creative Concepts, founded by Chad Thomas is a furniture company that designs and manufactures wood furniture (Krajewski, 2013). Basing the company out of Lake Erie in Sandusky, Ohio, the company molded its furniture designs the match the atmosphere of the lake venue (Krajewski, 2013). The custom-made wooden furniture designs are primarily to accentuate “a bit of the outdoors” inside. Chad’s Creative Concepts constructively focused on custom-made furniture allowing the customer to specify solely on the type of wood they prefer (Krajewski, 2013). The decision to sell to furniture outlets the custom-made furniture created a need for a standard line of furniture designs. Although demands of custom-made furniture are increasing it has created an abundance of inventory for the standard line furniture increasing costs. Analyzing Chad’s operations and supply chain goals will help to elude effectively of excess inventory costs.
Analysis
After analyzing Chad’s operations approach, it is obvious he needs to improve his current operation managing techniques. His current practices carry an efficient production team, but the operations team does not effectively fulfill their objectives. He needs to develop better decisions in regards to: process, quality, capacity, and inventory. Strategizing each of these decision areas will allow him to have better control over the entire manufacturing process, in-turn, delivering quality products at lower costs increasing profits. Chad needs to make prominent business decisions to reduce costs. The warehouse needs moved to a less expensive location. Acquiring a new location at lower cost will help to lower inventory cost helping to increase profits in the long term. Recruiting more employees to help run the production line will help to stay on target for both furniture lines. Deciding on an improved supply chain will help to
