Your company has been invited to look at possible improvements to the manufacturing system at Fly Fishing Reels.  Your colleague has already visited the company to collect the attached information.  Please work from these notes.  Unfortunately, he has been head-hunted and has left for a better job with more money.

You should prepare a report of around 2000 words as a proposal for the Chairman of FFR. 

1. Identify the company's business strategy and manufacturing strategy.  How do they intend to compete?  Is their strategy clear?

2. Assess the current state of the company's operations management, with respect to its competitive requirements as you see them.  Use sketched diagrams to describe the way orders are processed to manage their operations and to identify where problems lie.

(Hints: Do you feel that the computer system in use in this company is providing the production manager with all the information needed to take decisions? Does the system cause any problems?  You may wish to make use of a modelling technique such as IDEFo, DFD or flowchart.)

3. What factors are limiting the company's sales, cash flow and profits?  What problem areas would recommend the company to deal with first?

(Hint: You could examine the situation from the point of view of someone such as Eliyahu Goldratt, Shigeo Shingo or John Burbidge)

4. Describe in outline the solution(s) you would propose for the problems identified.