Sports Obermeyer Ltd

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

CASE 2 SPORTS OBERMEYER LTD.

GROUP: 5 - SUN

1503050011 Noopur Agrawal

1503050005 Uday Chokshi

1503050024 Syeda Ameerunnisa

SPORTS OBERMEYER LTD.

The case talks about the company Sports Obermeyer Ltd. a Skiwear and ski equipment manufacturing company based at Aspen, Colorado. Klaus Obermeyer formed Sport Obermeyer in 1947 and he had one goal in mind, to help his ski school students stay warm and dry. His love of the sport of skiing and engineering background combined early on to create the first down parka! Obermeyer remains a family-run, privately held company and Klaus’ contagious essence and zeal for life continues to stir every day. The company actively pursue Klaus' original goal by designing and producing products with advanced performance technologies at an affordable price for families. And, with Aspen Mountain as their backyard the company is lucky enough to test their products on some of the best terrain North America has to offer.

Obersports Ltd. was a joint venture established in 1985 by Kaluse Obermeyer and Raymond Tse to coordinate production of sports obermeyer in China & H.K. Obersports was responsible for fabric and component sourcing for sports obermeyer’s production. Raymond Tse MD, Obersports Ltd. was eagerly waiting for the season 1993-94 line. There’s one particular timeline discussed in the case regarding 1993-1994 season of the skiwear. For the purpose of 1993-94 season the company has to plan a year and a half ahead to sell its products on time which is a very critical task for the company as an operational point of view. The company used to participate in a Fashion Week organized in Las Vegas and used to receive almost 80% of its annual orders from the retailers.

The purpose of this Case Study is to determine how many units of each style Sport Obermeyer should produce during its initial phase of production (November through March) and during its second phase of production (March through October).  Factors that need to be considered in this decision are the risk associated with each style, from where each product will be sourced (Hong Kong or China), and the numerical and opportunity costs associated with the sourcing decision. Operational changes are also recommended in order to improve performance in the short and long-term. There are few operational and strategic issues discussed in the case which as a group we’ve analyzed and tried our optimum level to give solutions to the issues faced by the company.

Let’s see the below diagram to understand the company and its activities:

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THERE ARE FOUR MAJOR PEOPLE WHO WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE TOTAL BUSINESS ACTIVITIES OF THE COMPANY’S ENTIRE BUSINESS OPERTIONS

1. Klause Obermeyer

Founder, Sports Obermeyer

1. Wally Obermeyer (Son of Klause)

V.P. Sports Obermeye

1. Raymond Tse

Owner & President, Alpine

MD Sports Ltd

1. Shiu Chuen Tse

Operations Manager, Alpine

Though Wally was son of Klause the art of doing business of both father and son was very different than each other. Klause Obermeyer was known for providing value to his customers, he had a lot of trust of people working for him around him, and he has intuitive style of doing business of more relying on his past experience of business on the counterpart Wally Obermeyer relied heavily on formal data gathering and analysis as he was an MBA grad from Harvard University.

The company segmented its products based on gender segmentation and the main 5 segmentation of its products are

1. Men’s collection
2. Women’s collection
3. Boy’s collection
4. Girl’s collection
5. Preschooler’s collection

Let’s see the timeline of one particular season