Byte Products Not Meeting Consumer Demands

Byte Products not meeting consumer demands

1. Synopsis of the Case

        Byte Products Inc., is a sophisticated engineering applications and electronic components manufacturing company. Sales for the company annually are $265 million with an annual growth of 12% yearly. Byte Products is the industry leader and currently holds 32% of the market share. Being the company is the market leader and is steadily growing in production all three plants have come to a max capacity. All plants are running 24-7 at full production. The company cannot afford to turn away business in fear of competing companies out growing themselves. Byte does not feel comfortable outsourcing they’re manufacturing, domestic or foreign, in fear of patients and manufacturing process being compromised and used elsewhere. A solution must be made to increase production, yet still be in full control of its manufacturing.

ll.    Relevant Factual Information about the Problem or Decision the Organization Faced

        James Elliott, CEO and chairman of Byte Products went to the board presenting an idea to open a temporary plant to solve the demand for production while the company constructs a new plant. This new plant currently being built is in the southwestern United States and will take three years to complete. The proposed temporary plant is located in Plainville and can be up and running in three months. An ethical issue arises in regards to the Plainville plant if the employees should not be told that all jobs would be terminated once the new facility is operational. Outside of ethical means, this proposal seems to be a perfect solution to the companies under production problem.

lll.   Explanation of Relevant Concepts, Theories and Applications Derived from Course Materials

        At this point there are few issues the company has. First would be its strategic management plan. This case study states that the company is leading in its industry and has been steadily growing by 12%. This issue should have been seen long ago when current three manufacturing facilities had to expand into a third shift production. Before any decision is made on how to fix the current problem a focused forecast-based planning needs to be established for Byte Products. You never know what further complications might be discovered and need to be address now and incorporated into the new production plant.

        When the plan to build a new plant and open the temporary site was proposed to the eleven member board directors all members agreed exempt one. The single dissenter was name was T. Kevin Williams and was very stern in is objection to the proposed plan. He voiced the ethical morals that we would owe to the employees of the temporary Plainville plant. Elliott explained that the Plainville plant would require roughly 1200 employees. Williams responded back as “including spouses and children, something on the order of 4000 people will be attracted to the community” (Wheelen, Hunger, Hoffman, & Bamford, n.d.). William explained that the previous closing of this particular building caused a catastrophic effect of the community eight years ago.  Byte Products has a representation at stake and would have to tell the new employees that this is only a three-year temporary facility. This will avoid people from purchasing homes and the community developing due to a miss conception of the proposed manufacturing facility. The negative of telling the public this information is that it will not attractive employment and the plant may struggle to employ all 1200 in order to properly run the plant. Once he explained his case several other board members changed their vote and the proposed plan was rejected.