U.S. Stroller is a manufacturer and distributor of baby strollers. The company makes three
types of strollers. Their profits have gone down recently and new competition is entering
the stroller market. There have been proposals for the company to go to a JIT production
system or to a Cell approach fin their production process. The purpose of this case is to
show how a batch system can be dramatically improved by JIT or Cellular concepts. The
case clearly states and describes the changes that must be made in the production system to
achieve the companies goals. These changes include complete change in layout of the
production floor and a drastic overhaul of the current MRP system.
U.S. Stroller needs to make changes quickly due to a decrease in profits. Currently they are
not losing money but their current finances show poor percentage rates based on sales and
return on equity. New competitors are entering the market as well including two new
Japanese companies. Presently U.S. Stroller still dominates in the U.S. stroller market;
however they are in a vulnerable position on both quality and cost. U.S. Stroller cannot
delay making improvements, until after they have lost market share. They must improve
now in order to prevent the competition from advancing too much and to improve profits.
To protect their market share there needs to be a sense of urgency in making improvements
to ensure long run success.
The pros of using a pull system would be that each stroller would have its own area to be
