Foldrite Case Study

FoldRite Furniture Company

Rohan Ailani

Puneet Singh

Yousef Al Ramadhan

Aarti Mangla

Michelle Gorrio

Objective

To identify the best strategy for FoldRite to meet its need for extra production and labor during the March-August timeframe, and to analyze how to effectively implement it.

Executive Summary

FoldRite Furniture Company is located in Aurora, Colorado, specializing in folding chairs. The demand for FoldRite products is very seasonal, as folding chairs are in high demand in the spring/summer months. Traditionally, FoldRite experiences a surge in demand around May and increases shipments to dealers around April. However, in 2010, the market demand for FoldRite’s products was uncharacteristically high, which resulted in a need for a new strategy in order to meet this unexpected demand in terms of production as well as extra labor.  The best strategy is to change the process design. The design change will increase manufacturing productivity and lower work-in-progress time, making the system lean and more responsive. Taking these benefits into account, FoldRite should implement this strategy within the organization.

Introduction

At the start of 2010, FoldRite had three major categories with one product each- AlStrong, GreenComfort and CloudChair. AlStrong, a folding table in which recycled aluminum replaced the plastic top of the preceding generation tables, accounted for the largest projected share of the company’s total revenues, at 42%. GreenComfort, a stackable chair upholstered with a special washable fabric, was expected to generate 34% of the total revenues. Finally, CloudChair, a new folding chair that conformed to a variety of body shapes, was expected to provide the remaining 24% of the revenues, including a large portion of the company’s growth.

The demand for FoldRite furniture is seasonal and fairly stable, increasing in the spring/summer months. However, the development of the CloudChair (which won a number of design awards...