Instructor’s Manual Abstracts
Vol. 2, Issue 1 IM Abstract: Sienci Labs: Managing Production (Push or Pull?)
Fatih Yegul; Stephen Thomson; and Joshua Hunchak
Case Overview
This case study describes the dilemma of Kye Allen, inventory and logistics manager at Sienci Labs (SL), a small business in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, founded in 2016. SL assembled and sold CNC machines to hobbyists and small business owners. In May of 2022, SL had been struggling with supply disruptions and inventory problems that caused lengthy delays in product shipments. Allen had been working on preparing the new material requirements planning (MRP) system for implementation to fix these problems and was almost ready to go live. At the same time, they just launched an applied research project to optimize SL’s production capacity based on lean production principles under the guidance of Allen’s former professor Fatih Yegul along with Stephen Thomson, director of the Centre for Supply Chain Innovation at Conestoga College.
With the new MRP system, Allen aimed to control the assembly operations on the shop floor and have a firm grip on the supply of raw materials and parts. Most MRP systems, by design, assume a make-to-stock environment and tend to push production flow through work orders issued to shop floor employees. However, in the first weekly meeting of the research project, Yegul and Thomson asked Allen to explore the feasibility of moving to a visual make-to-order production management system based on pull principles instead of using work orders. That would require a radical shift in Allen’s plans, but a pull system also had several advantages. Allen was in favour of the pull system but wasn’t sure if it was the right time to switch to a make-to-order approach when the company was in the middle of an MRP implementation.
Learning Objectives
By working through this case, students should be able to
- Benchmark the performance outputs of the push (MRP) vs. pull (lean) approaches to determine the most suitable one for a given production system.
- Interpret a current value stream map (VSM) to identify wastes (non-value-added activities) in operations and to recommend changes to the processes to reduce waste and improve lead time (future-state VSM).
- Recommend how to use MRP systems in pull-type visual production management systems to benefit from certain advantages of MRP software.
- Calculate takt time in manufacturing operations to design processes based on customer demand.
- Recommend appropriate measures for tackling supply disruptions to avoid a negative impact on production and order fulfillment.
- Outline the critical factors in selecting the most suitable MRP/ERP platforms to implement for a manufacturing business.
Course Suitability
This case study is ideal for advanced operations management and supply chain courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels. This case can also be utilized in an operations planning course or a management information systems course, as one of the main themes is the relationship between business processes and the material requirement planning (MRP) module as part of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
Recommended Reading
Dixon, D. R. (2004). The truce between lean and I.T. Industrial Engineer, 36(6), 42–46.
Kaur, K. & Kau, L. (2023). Global value chain. Conestoga College.
Shih, W. C. (2020). Global supply chains in a post-pandemic world: Companies need to make their networks more resilient; Here’s how. Harvard Business Review, 98(5), p.82
BDC. (n.d.). Buying an enterprise resource planning system: A guide for entrepreneurs. Business Development Corporation.
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