Four Star Case Study Essay

quadruplet head is a mattress manufacturer cognise for a focus on quality, productivity and customer service. In rules of clubhouse to meet market demand from customers as well as controversy quad Star increased proliferation of mattress varieties offering a total of 230 opposite model types at one time. This change engenderd quatern Star to own deedal issues and bad inscription management, resulting in low profitability and productivity. Of the numerous problems faced by cardinal Star, proliferation of mattress varieties and its impact on operations and enumeration management is their biggest issue. This has had a major(ip) impact on the things that tetrad Star once prided itself on quality, productivity and customer service. Having 230 product variations created extremely coherent cabaret fill rates resulting in a loss of customers and created a great deal of customer dis felicity.There was also added pressure situated on quaternity Star employees to fill order s. Having so many unsatiable employees put Four Star at risk for loosing employees which would add additional stress to the business process. In addition, large dealers who would typically sell and inventory Four Star products began limiting the quash of mattresses stored due to their inability to previse which of the 230 varieties a customer would purchase. Instead, LDs would wait until a customer placed an order to request inventory from Four Star. Upon order placement LDs expected card-playing inventory arrival which is the level of service they were used to getting exclusively due to the stress placed on the Four Star manufacturing operation they were having trouble filling orders. This resulted in dealers no longer committing to placing orders with Four Star. Four Star in like mannerk on the burden of carrying inventory which was an additional expense for the disposal placing added stress on the overall manufacturing process. Four Star soon began to throw decreased sa les revenue. Sia Meng considered several natural selections to smoothly manage its operations.The first extract was to reduce the number of mattress models manufactured back to 40 or 60, levels at which the company stupefyd in 1996 and 1998. This would be a very effective sack up to the issues being had with Four Star since historical data shows that revenues and customer satisfaction levels were up and the company was not experiencing such turmoil in its manufacturing. In addition, it has also been proven by the behavior of the dealers that there are too many mattress varieties. Reducing model levels would help increase revenue. An some other option being investigated by Sia Meng is to insist on a minimum order size by dealers.This requirement from dealers would help streamline the order and doing process and allow Four Star a window of prospect to fulfill orders within a reasonable timeframe and increase customer satisfaction. The at last option being considered is to r educe safety stock requirements for finished mattresses. This is not a viable option for Four Star. The company is already having major issues and relocating would not fix the internal turmoil that exists. Below are my recommendations for how Four Star can reconfigure its product de marginination, manufacturing and order fulfillment process. Product functionFour Star should begin all mattresses with the same basic design and alter the product to meet customers needs. This could include adding much coils and the join cover depending on the customers request. This would allow Four Star to inventory and produce a limited number of materials call for to produce a mattress because all mattresses would use the same basic grammatical construction with modifications. For example, if Four Star received an order for one of its premium mattresses, the number of coils added to the mattress would be adjusted accordingly as well as the quilted cover. Doing so would reduce the fill rate and limit frustration of employees on the job(p) on the production line as they would be working to produce a less complicated product with less moving parts.ManufacturingIt is recommended that Four Star keep its facility where it is currently to work out the production issues they are experiencing before determining whether moving to another location would be more lucrative. There are currently too many other issues looming with the production line to isolate any one main cause for the issue. To Order FulfillmentTo improve the order fulfillment process it is recommended that Four Star enforce a minimum order quantity on its dealers. Doing so may initially increase inventory costs for Four Star but the long term benefits could outweigh this short term frustration. Enforcing a minimum order quantity would also allow dealers to roundabout better expectations with customers and increase customer satisfaction.