Columbia Industries, Inc. Case Analysis

Columbia Industries, Inc.

Case Analysis

Columbia Industries, Inc.

Columbia Industries is one of highly established, largest manufacturing of code- approved products. It was started in 1948 in British Columbia. Columbia Industries went on to flourish and in 1194 opened a branch in Toronto. They then decided to expand opening a new branch in Los Angeles globally. In 1997, the company faced a problem which needed to be addressed immediately.

1. Problem Identification:

In 1999, the plant manager, industrial engineer and the plant engineer recommended to the company’s general manager that they require seven new lift trucks. Lift trucks were essential at the warehouse as they are used to move heavy objects from one place to another. The issue with the old lift trucks was that there were safety concerns and one of the drivers had recently experienced a near accident while working. Another reason for the requirement of the new lift trucks is that the Vancouver plant has experienced a rapid sale and demand in the past few years. However, because of the unavailability of proper lift trucks, the company were unable to address the customer’s needs at the given time and eventually had to lose valuable customers.

Therefore, Columbia Industries require 7 new truck lifts which has the ability to do the job and provide a very reliable service. They should also consider the cost of these lift trucks and try to purchase life trucks which has a low cost of maintenance. They should also consider buying the trucks which has a low downtime and do not get depreciated quickly. These are the five key performance indicators or needs that Columbia Industries should keep in mind while purchasing the new lift trucks.

2. Situation Analysis:

Columbia Industries require seven new truck lifts so they can provide a safer environment for their workers and also these truck lifts will help them to meet the high demands and needs of the existing and new customers. The company needs to look into different suppliers and the products they are offering. The selection of the suppliers and the products depends on many factors such as price, cost of maintenance, depreciating value, quality, how far is the repair workshop of the supplier, etc. Keeping these factors in mind, Columbia Industries have decided to shortlist 5 suppliers who were in the contention of selling the lift trucks to Columbia Industry.

* Yale: Yale was the first supplier to send in a quotation. Columbia Industries have previously bought products from Yale and were quite satisfied with their services. The demonstration truck they sent in was quite different to the Hyster trucks Columbia were currently using and it took a while for the operator to use it.

* Komatsu: The Komatsu proposal arrived on the same day as Yale. The salesman from Komatsu listed the potential disadvantages of the competitors’ products but were unable to send in a demonstration truck for the operators to look into.