Mueller-Lehmkuhl GmbH
Mueller-Lehmkuhl (ML) was a German producer of apparel fasteners. Apparel fasteners are used in the garment industry. ML had been producing apparel fasteners since the late 19th century. In recent years, they had achieved technological superiority which resulted in high margins for their products. ML valued reliability of their products and fast service to their customers. However, competition and domestic market saturation in the 1980s led ML to a crossroads in which they needed to decide how they would maintain domestic market leadership and while expanding to new markets.
Mueller-Lehmkuhl’s Apparel Fastener Products
ML utilized an integrated approach in the apparel fastener industry
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However, they still required the operator to position the material manually. Automatic machines were designed for use by high-volume producers. ML believed that the increased speed would offset the higher costs for the machines. Two of the automatic machines were pneumatically powered. The primary difference between them was that one machine positioned only one part of the fastener while the other machine positioned both parts of the fastener which increased its speed. The third automatic machine was electrically powered which made it significantly faster than the other two automatic machines, and it could attach multiple fasteners to the same garment.
ML had developed a policy of selling manual machines and renting automatic machines. Manual machines did not cost much, did not require service, and could be modified to attach different fasteners inexpensively. Automatic machines were rented on an annual basis because they would have been more expensive to sell and it provided annual income to ML. However, about 700 of the rented machines were returned each year. During the time that machines were in inventory, ML would modify the machines to attach different fasteners. This was expensive with an average cost per modification of $2000. If all 700 machines were modified during a given year this would have cost $1.4 million per year. It was also industry practice to provide preventative maintenance and
Sparkle Company is a Nigerian diamond mining company. Sparkle is a joint venture, 50 percent owned by Shine and 50 percent owned by Brighten. Both Shine and Brighten are U.S.-based companies with their functional currency being the American dollar. Sparkle Companies functional currency is that of Nigeria, being the Naira. During 2009, Sparkle had several transactions with its joint venture owners and outside parties. The details of Sparkle’s transactions are three loans, three expenditures, and one revenue stream. The loans the company took out were $1 million from Brighten, $1 million from Shine, and 300 million Naira from a local Nigerian bank. The expenditures
This case is talking about an executive retreat. It was introduced by John Matthews who was a executive had been selected to attend the two-and-a-half-week retreat. The retreat was more like a competition about academic and athletic. The team members should not only get know each other and cooperate with teammates but also need to compete with others. The whole participants were broken into five groups and their aim was to win the competition. There are several sessions about academic and athletic that the participants should complete. After the introduction part the case showed the experience of John. Before the group meeting John was wondering and worried about this retreat. When he was taking the first group meeting, he tried to learn
In order to meet customer demands for higher product quality, to comply with federally-mandated environmental regulations, and to reduce production costs, HCC must spend $2,000,000 within the next three years to upgrade equipment. The upgrade is expected to result in production efficiencies that will lower material and labor costs by reducing defective products, process waste, in-process inventory, and production man-hours through simplified work processes. It has been over a decade since significant modifications were made to the production facilities. Those changes were mostly technical in nature and did not substantially alter work processes or reduce overall employment. The average productivity gain in the industry for the past five years has been 3% per year. Financing for the loan to purchase the equipment
This case discusses Cross-Border valuation of projects. This kind of analysis is common for companies that are operating in many countries. Groupe Ariel is one such company that is considering investing in a project in its own subsidiary in Mexico. The company manufactures and sells printers, copiers and other document production equipment in many countries. As far as, expansion into new markets is concerned, company is very slow in taking initiatives as compared to its competitors owing to the recent recession. But the management of the company believes that better durability and lower after-sales service costs of their products enable
Owens & Minor is a distributor of surgical and medical supplies to hospitals and other health care facilities. Due to changing demand from customers, the company is facing increased operating costs, which has resulted in lower profit margins and even losses. In 1993, O&M recorded an $18 million profit, which was reduced to a loss of $11 million in 1995. The entire industry is experiencing similar difficulties. In an effort to resume profitability, O&M is evaluating alternatives to “cost-plus pricing”. Cost-plus pricing does not reflect the true cost of the services provided by O&M. Customers are demanding more of O&M while
Build the management-research question hierarchy, through the investigative questions stage. Then compare your list with the measurement questions asked.
When making a purchase to improve on many areas of operations there are always factors to take into consideration. There will be a great amount of capital expenditure for this equipment; however the potential for higher return on investment is remarkable. The initial cost of purchasing the MAGNETOM is approximately $ 1 million. There will be an additional cost of $500,000 to operate and maintain the machine. These costs will be reimbursed within the first eight months of extensive utilization if the all marketing for the machine is on point. Since we are currently paying a technician to operate our out of date machinery, there is no reason why this prediction cannot become reality. There will also be an offset of income inherited by the lack of errors made by the technicians after they have trained for the new machine . ("Magnetom espree -," 2013)
The main difference between investing in the Zinser machine and maintaining the status quo is an initial investment of $8.25 million and the receipt of $608,000 in after-tax sales proceeds from selling the existing machine. Additionally, there is an initial $50,000 ($32,000 after-tax) cost for training employees, but this cost is only incurred once (see exhibit 3). In their first year using the Zinser machine there will be a 5% decrease in sales volume, but selling price will increase 10%. Material costs per pound will be the same as the status quo, but conversion costs will decrease to $0.4077 per pound per year due to lower power, maintenance and return costs. Days of inventory held will also drop to about 20 days. All other assumptions are the same as the status quo. In this scenario, the NPV of the Hunter Plant is about $15.87million if Aurora invests in the new Zisner machine (see exhibit 3).
Price of the CNC machine is $80,000. The additional assumption we need to add to assumption already given is that:
Learned the manufacturing processes for apparel and home textile products beginning with product development, such as fabrics, through cutting, sewing, and finishing operations.
Reduction in Full-Time Employment: The current macro environment suggests a reduction in the number of full-time resources, because of the high labour costs. However, because of the aging population, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find qualified workers. Sounds counter intuitive; a reduction of full-time staff to cut costs, but many companies in the industry are paying premiums over scheduled tariffs in order to keep their current workforce.
apparel m akers. O ne s uch f irm i s H olly F ashions ( HF), l ocated i n C herry F lill,
Bioinspired Product/Process: Velcro was the bioinspired product of the bur’s attachment and detachment mechanisms observed by de Mestral. Velcro is simply an array of miniscule synthetic loops and hooks that form a crosslink to adhere, and detach with forced pulling. De Mestral coordinated efforts with local weavers to initially use cotton looping to mimic the burs. Nylon was deduced as the most efficient material, and although efficient machinery was developed to mass produce the product, success didn’t occur until NASA used it. Although not specifically needed for space, velcro provided many benefits for astronaut attire that promoted the product’s public image. The process proved difficult with issues occuring in density, size, and rigidity determination
Most apparel design and manufacturing houses in the world are required to go beyond the borders of their organization to source their raw materials for their production, and this is where MAS becomes unique. With its fabric division, MAS possesses the ability to offer a completely integrated supply chain from design to delivery.
Nonwovens showed up in the 1940s, and were later created with diverse progress in different nations. Nonwovens innovation was further enhanced and grew, especially concerning bonded nonwovens taking into account important compound fibers and engineered bonding techniques encouraging production of better and more helpful items for specialized use, apparel and family utilization. Nonwovens have an extensive variety of utilizations from furniture to the geo- and chemotextiles. Nonwoven fabric is a kind of fabric which can be created by different procedures other than weaving and knitting. Durable applications business is the biggest application region for nonwoven materials and items followed by expendable applications market. Durable applications incorporate home