Case Study 2: Eastern Gear
Eastern Gear is a small manufacturing organization that makes custom gears. They
produce gears of numerous sizes, most frequently fulfilling small orders. They purchase the raw
materials once an order has been expected, and are typically able to fulfill the orders within 4
weeks. They have a relatively small leadership team, consisting of their president, a sales
manager, a head engineer, an expeditor, and a controller. The rest of their crew consists of
mostly skilled and semi skilled laborers, with about 50 employees in total.
There are a few primary problems Eastern Gear is facing. For one, it currently takes four
weeks for an order to make its way through the processing. This slow turnaround is directly
related to the constant interference of orders being processed in the shop. According to
Schroeder and Goldstein (2020), “The typical order spends 90 percent of its time waiting in line
for a machine to become available. Only 10 percent of the time is actually spent processing the
order on a machine.” This dramatic difference really slows them down, and their total order
turnaround time could be much quicker if they found a better balance. Another problem Eastern
Gear is facing is their rate of return. Although 6% of their products being returned isn’t
completely terrible, when you look one step further, it becomes alarming. Of those 6% of
shipments that are returned, 75% failed to undergo one or more critical operations. They are
returned due to the lack of something simple, like missing holes that were supposed to be drilled.
These simple mistakes should be able to be prevented easily. With that being said, these returns
slow them down and cost them quite a bit. It also makes them look bad, as their customers
should not have to deal with these types of issues on such a regular basis. Lastly, they currently
count on a few select people to handle very critical aspects of the business, with no one else in
the organization being trained for these rolls. If an employee like Sam Bartholomew or Matt
Williams took another job, they would be struggling to keep their process efficient. They do not
have a well thought out plan in the case that one of these individuals chooses to leave, or is away
from work for another reason.
There are a few things Roger Rhodes, Eastern Gear’s president could do to help alleviate these
pressing issues. In regards to their slow order processing, there are a few steps I’d take to help
get things moving more quickly. According to Weem.com writers, one of the best ways to
improve order processing speeds is to automate your order management process. Eastern Gear
currently has sales manager James Lord taking orders, gathering all info needed to complete the
