Reebok Case Study

a. Why are the lead times so long?

I think the lead times are so long mostly due to the long manufacturing time.

They include：

Ta powder that is under or over the desired particle size is scrapped, and sent to the melt shop for recycling. Also, any scrap from the sintering or wire forming operations is collected and recycled. It seems to me that this job will take some time.

Production planning and scheduling, however, continued to be performed manually.

The other reasons are that most of the schedule misses were due to equipment failures and one possibility is that there was a shortage of material, with no raw-material inventories from which to produce. So the rest work will be delayed and it must make an effect on the lead times . The sales volumes are ten times what they were 15 years ago, but the process hasn't changed.There seems to be an 'information black hole' - orders go to the mill, but the demand data doesn't seem to make it back upstream to the melt shop.

b. How might Starck reduce or effect the lead times?

Hold intermediate inventory

Eliminate paper-work delays

 Reduce cycle time for each process order

c. What are the costs from reducing the lead times? What are the benefits from

reducing the lead times?

Benefits：

If lead-time could be reduced to three weeks, they would have a substantial advantage in the marketplace, and would realize incremental sales volume.

New accounts and new business: Protect current business from switching to

substitutes or Chinese competitor

Possibly less inventory

Better planning and better customer service