Delta Plastics, Inc. (a)

Delta Plastics, Inc. (A)

Chapter 5, p. 179-180

Michelle Harber

Instructor: Stephen Smith

March 7, 2013

Summary of Delta Plastics, Inc.

Delta Plastics, Inc. was a designer and manufacturer of household plastics. They sold their products through merchandise retailers and were well known for their high quality products.

Delta’s R&D group was always looking for ways to develop new products and they finally had one. The new plastic material they developed could withstand hot and cold temperatures so it was perfect for kitchen ware because you could take it out of the oven and move it directly to the refrigerator without the plastic cracking. Delta’s marketing team was very eager to get this new plastic out on the market because than they would be the first company to market this great invention.

On April 28th Isabelle Harrison, director of R&D stated in the meeting that was held prior to the “super plastic” going into production was the plastic even though durable still needed to be fined tuned. Mr. Chadwick, director of manufacturing disagreed because he wanted to get it out on the market before another company cornered it. Jose, director of manufacturing sided with Ms. Harrison. The final decision was made by Jonathan Fine, Delta’s CEO. He stated that since the product was safe, the “super plastic” would go into production. About a month later problems began in production of the “super plastic”. Jose was getting weekly defect reports on the new product. He knew he had to conduct an analysis of the new plastic and the standard plastic but he was nervous about what the results would show.

Answers to the case questions

1. Mr. Chadwick was not correct when he said that since the “super plastic” product was safe it should be put into production because their were defects that started happening after production began. In weeks 1-4 the new plastic came out with many cracks and air bubbles which the old plastic did...