Case: Donner Company
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Donner Company is a manufacturer of printed circuit boards. They need to address several issues in their supply chain operations to improve their service level because net income in the month of September has drastically decreased. Before September, growth was steadily increasing every month. They found that the major problems include unpredictable bottlenecks in manufacturing, lower than expected productivity and lower than expected quality and delivery. After addressing these major issues, I find that investing in more CNC’s and phasing manual drilling out of the manufacturing process can go a long way to improve the service level of the company.
BRIEF OVERVIEW
The Donner Company manufactures customized printed circuit boards. The market for electronic devices is increasingly favorable, so management is trying to figure out how to maximize profits in by tweaking their supply chain operations. There are several problems that will need to be addressed in the areas of manufacturing processes (preparation, image transfer, and fabrication), supervision, order processing, facilities and layout, current operating problems, productivity, and quality and delivery problems.
FACTS OF THE CASE
The three stages of the manufacturing process are preparation, image transfer and fabrication. In the preparation stage, a 12” by 18” standard panel has holes punched in it. Then, in the image transfer stage, the holes are drilled and then processed through a copper immersion bath, washed and dried and exposed to ...