Five Star Tool Case Study

Five Star Tools is a small family owned firm that manufactures diamond-coated cutting tools, such as chisels and saws used by jewelers. The company was founded by Frederick Tuner. The current president is, his son, Maxfield Turner. There are three major processes involved in production of the stated tools. First, steel tools without the diamond coating are cut to size. Secondly, tools are sent to a chemical bath station, in order to prepare for the coating and sharping process. Thirdly, tools are coated with diamond chips in a proprietary process that simultaneously coats and sharpens the bald of each tool. This tools are than inspected, at which point defective units are repaired or disposed.

Betty Spencer, vice president of marketing, and Maxfield have discussed tenacious issues, regarding the timing of production. Betty has expressed her trepidation of continuing to take orders that will not be processed timely. This continuous occurrence will taint Five Star Tools reputation, as the company will be identified as an unreliable supplier, in turn causing detriment to the company. Given Betty's concerns, Maxfield has requested an analysis of product profitably from the accounting department. The analysis will allow Maxfield to evaluate the most profitable models. As well as identify the bottlenecking constraint in the coating and sharpening process, in order to improve response time and profitability.

Upon review of the provided information, management should ponder the imperative task of loosening the constraints of the coating and sharping process. This constraint can be lessened by staggering breaks of the department staff, in order to allot for continuous work throughout the day. Employees should be cross trained. Cross training will alleviating the work of the coating and sharping department, as well as minimizing down times in other departments. There should be an analysis performed in order to price outsourcing the coating and sharping