Bose Corporation: the Jit Ii Program (a)

BACKGROUND

Dr. Amar Bose, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, founded Bose Corporation in 1964. Dr. Bose, along with one of his students, Sherwin Greenblatt, shared a love of music. Greenblatt, who was pursuing a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, became Bose Corporation’s first employee.

The first three years of the corporation, Bose earned its revenues by developing portable, battery-operated equipment. In 1968, they launched their first speaker: the 901®, which turned out to be a huge success. In 1970, they introduced the 501® speaker, which was half the size of the 901® and in 1973, Bose introduced the 301® speaker, which was small enough to fit on a bookshelf. During the 70’s , the Bose speakers grew in popularity and in 1982, the first automobile to offer a factory-installed Bose Sound System was the Cadillac Seville. By 1990, Bose sound systems were available in several other major automobile manufacturers. The dream of Bose Corporation was to be innovators in acoustics and electronics. The timeline below portrays how they have consistently introduced new revolutionary technology to the market:

In the 1990s, Bose Corporation was privately held and earned revenues estimated at $720 million. The company had branched out internationally and had a growing market in Japan, Europe, and the United States. Bose’s headquarters were in Massachusetts, but had three manufacturing facilities worldwide: One located in the U.S. (Massachusetts), one is Canada (Quebec) and the third in Europe (Ireland). Due to the growth of the company, Bose Corporation was considering opening two, possibly three new facilities.

PROBLEM

The main issue at Bose was seen by Lance Dixon, Director of Purchasing and Logistics, and head of Corporate Procurement. Year after year, Dixon noticed that as Bose Corporation continued to grow he needed more people in procurement; however at budget time, he would have to fight with management...