Emily Pegg
April 4, 2019
Flextronics: Deciding on a Shop-Floor System for Producing the Microsoft Xbox
Problem
Fextronics is a global company that began near Silicon Valley. By the end of 2000 they
had over 100 facilities in 28 countries, and each used their own shop-floor systems.
Guadalajara, Mexico was utilizing Datasweep which had shown success on a global
scale, could be costly to install and update. Sarvar, Hungary was utilizing a home-grown
system called Virtual Factory. Costs were much lower, hadn’t been tested on a global
scale or even outside of Hungary. Employees, engineers, etc. at each facility were
concerned about changing their system prior to the production for the Xbox beginning.
The Mexico facilities were having success with Datasweep but were less experienced
than Hungary which means they might struggle more in learning a new system. In
Hungary they felt strongly about the success of their system but had more experience
and could potentially implement the new system easier and with less hiccups. While
both systems were comparable, Datasweep and impressed the customer (Microsoft)
and was a major influence in Flextronics winning the bid to manufacture the Xbox.
Time restrictions are simple; must be launched for the 2001 holiday season, hitting
