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At first, Classic Cabinets Pty Ltd manufactured mainly custom-made kitchens designed

purposely for the customer’s requirement. In this case, the production system was basically

make-to-order. In this system, a cabinet was manufactured set by usually by just one

customer and was delivered to the customer upon completion of the product. In general, the

business was producing unique products in low volumes. Every item was different therefore

the products cannot be stocked (Meredith & Shafer 2010). At this point in time, the business

was clearly customer service oriented since it produced highly customised cabinets in which

it was aimed to manufacture products on time and efficiently. In the make-to-order workplace,

a higher level of uncertainty, variability and variety was visibly present in effect made the

production systems and processes relatively difficult compared to other systems (Martinez-

Olvera 2009). Manufacturing companies that is associated with outputs that are make-to-

order, belong to the type of intermittent production systems. Intermittent production systems

are designed to manufacture in small batches. Since the business does not stock completed

products inventory, the advantage of this system is resources are not wasted in finished goods

that are sleeping in the warehouse. When the customer order is taken, design and production

will commence and the time needed for completion is high. Generally, make-to-order items

belong in this group and the time element is a great disadvantage. Every output is unique and

not identical by nature or in terms of design for cabinets. As a consequence, there is also the

variability of manufacturing and technological requirement and other constraints as a result

will put this system to its disadvantage. Overall, because of the higher level of

unpredictability and uncertainty with regards to customer orders will make the production

control and planning very difficult. Typically this type of production system is money

intensive since long lead time is required taken into consideration the unpredictability of the

customer’s specifications and requirements. All these situations made this type of production

system difficult and a disadvantage compared to other systems (Babu 1999). In the case of

Classics Cabinets Pty Ltd, the production system at this point was customer driven in which

customer orders are the primary concern. The business called for the production of the items

upon the receipt of the end user orders in order to meet the specific needs of the customers in

return giving highly customised products. To offer customers a reliable service and on time

delivery date, this production system required a detailed and realistic production planning and

control (Yeh 2000).

As with any other successful businesses, the sales of Classics Cabinets Pty Ltd increased and

resulted in the opportunity to accept several low volume contracts from builders for



jobs are different because of the customisation of the cabinets and the smallness of each batch

of the standardised cabinets. Accordingly, the production equipment and employees in a

work group is not definite and should be flexible in order to have higher production

efficiency (Luo et al. 2010).

Numerous production problems were encountered upon the introduction of the new builders’

kitchen on Classic Cabinets operations. Although, the new builders’ cabinet are standardised,

these are manufactured in a relatively smaller batches sometimes even just a single kitchen.

It is also evident, the effect to the production system the client builders imposition of more

strict delivery time requirements not mentioning that builders are very price conscious. As

the sales of the builders kitchen increases there is consequently and increase of job schedules

and volume of work in process. Job shop scheduling is considered as the most difficult or

complicated in production problems compared to other manufacturing environment

(Zandieh&Ghomi 2009). In this case, the production of the builders’ kitchen as a job shop

and the make-to-order customised kitchen contributed to a more difficult job scheduling. As

a result, a determined job schedule will become inefficient and will lead to a production

problem that will require a great deal of work to spend in the development of other methods

to come up with an efficient production schedules (Gomes, Barbosa-Povoa&Novais 2010).

Scheduling problems came up in job shop floor that will involve job assignment decisions,

staffing decisions and production sequencing like in this case. Machine scheduling is one the

most difficult problems that is presented in the increasing production of the builders’ kitchen.

Assuming that specific equipment cannot process more than one kind of cabinets at same

time, a classical hybrid job shop problem is presented in this case (Aytug, Khouja&Vergara

2003).

The addition of the builders’ kitchen to the production created a competition for the processing time with the customized cabinets on the same equipment. This is a classic hybrid

shop problem. The production problem can be illustrated in the processing of each job by

one only one equipment at every work station doing works for both the standardised and

customised cabinets at the same time. Moreover, the processing of this type of jobs at each

work station will change rapidly and considerably from one builder clients order to another

(Luo et al. 2010).



Subsequently, the new builders’ kitchen line lead to an increase in volume of work in process

that resulted into a factory space congestion with partially finished products. This situation

creates a production bottleneck due to the fact that there is a shifting of workload from the

existence of the builders’ kitchen operation to the customised cabinet operation without

pattern. Classic Cabinets is having the difficulty in predicting the workload clogged up

because of the nature of the different clients orders which are very variable and flexible

(Salegna& Park 1994).

Since there is an increasing and diverse demand of standardised cabinets, it is appropriate to

adapt the hybrid shop transformation system. A large warehousing or storage facility is

required is required and the demands of the standardised cabinets is relatively low but higher

inventory cost to carry. Moreover, the additional workload automatically created a slower

production output because the manufacturing capacity was distributed to the increase in work

volume (Sarker& Pan 2001).

The coordination and integration decisions of production, inventory and distribution

functions are among the daily operational decisions that Chinh Chu will take into

consideration to achieve an effective operation management strategy in order to minimise

total costs and maximise production efficiency. Chinh Chu should address the production

problem in coordinating a system wherein a facility production like in Classic Cabinets

manufactures different products that are distributed to a varied set of clients. Chinh Chu

decisions should aim in minimising the total production to prevent bottle neck problems and

also minimising inventory costs (Shiguemoto&Armentano 2009).

The primary production problem in this case is the hybrid job shop scheduling in the

production of the two different cabinets. Chinh Chu should make decision that will develop a

production of several different designs of cabinets on a single machine in a work station. Asthis problem is commonly found in any small shop manufacturing, it is mainly a concern in

job scheduling decisions (Brander &Segerstedt 2009).

On the other hand, Chinh Chu should also make decisions in the daily production planning.

Although, there will be a master production plan which illustrates what Classic Cabinets will

expects to produce, a series of daily production planning decisions that Chinh Chu has to

make. This will reflect the material, time and other resource requirements. The daily

decisions will take into consideration the builders’ and customised kitchen demands, pending



customers’ orders, raw material availability, inventory levels, production capacity and other

objectives. Generally speaking, production businesses are geared to maximise customer

satisfaction level and resource optimisation and minimise inventory levels. Chinh Chu will

make decisions that will ideally operate Classic Cabinet on a point next to the production

capacity on a daily basis and an inventory level next to none or zero and maintaining a

customer satisfaction at its highest level. Chinh Chu should have a daily production plan

with operational decisions that will operate Classic Cabinets in a consistent production rate or

pace, developing the minimum inventory level and take into consideration the ever changing

production pace due to the nature of the company’s production system. Despite having some

level of inventory is acceptable to meet builders’ and other customers’ satisfaction,

nevertheless this will increase costs. This is one of the day-to-day operational issues that

Chinh Chu will consider. Furthermore, to complicate the operational issues, Classic Cabinets

production is basically a multi-task process that involves varied operations which is

distributed to the whole operation (Vieira &Ribas 2008).

Daily production plan, schedule and control should be done by Chinh Chu to monitor

production activities and will allow Chinh Chu to manage a bigger part of Classic Cabinets

operations and also to diminish uncertainty. Its production planning and control should aim

at reduction of clogging up the production line. One operational decision is to hold backselected cabinets and not to process them to the production line. This will reduce work-in-

progress volume and process time in the system with a minimum effect on the overall output

and delivery performance. Different kinds of job sequencing heuristics or just plain job

prioritising were established operational move to reduce processing time and work-in-

progress inventory. Although, delivery time will be greatly affected but still the advantages of

this approaches can be taken into consideration (Newman &Maffei 1999).

Obviously in this case that the well-designed cabinets as its products is the main criteria for

Classic Cabinets distinct competitive advantage, manufacturers are now offering other

service products to accommodate the sale of their items. Chinh Chu needs to decide the

configuration of the company’s operations strategy to support and maintain effective

production. On the other hand, the several low volume contracts from builder clients

provides a long-term steady revenue, however, such situation can have benefits if the

production and operation strategies are effectively and properly applied on a daily basis.

Chinh Chu needs a deeper understanding on the day-to-day operational strategies to



successfully deliver the combined production of standardised and customised cabinets (Datta

& Roy 2011).

In the development of the operations strategy, several factors can be considered as influences

in its generation. In this case, because Classic Cabinets operates by producing standardised

and customised cabinets simultaneously, it created a complicated demand to its production

system. Customisation of cabinets reflects the trends in modern consumer age that reflected a

society in search of individualism and the breaking up of conventional social classes.

Products are not anymore with values but reflect images, status and statement of differences.

It is very clear, in this case that operation strategies will illustrate the end user’s demand and

production concerns. In order for Chinh Chu to best organise its processes, one should

analyse the key resources and skills. Based on the resource analysis, Chinh Chu will make

his operations strategic choice by focusing on the importance of resources in the development

of his operations strategy. The fundamental nature of this position it is importance on the

Classic Cabinets resources, capacity, capability and competency instead of a market driven

operations strategy that is very common with others (Lowson 2002).

This is also asserted by another article that operational effectiveness should be based on the

company’s capability in its operators and processes. It is crucial for Chinh Chu to configure

and manage the operation to support overall Classic Cabinets business strategies. In a small

business like Classic Cabinets usually will implement operations management theories that

include total quality management (TQM), just-in-time (JIT) and theory of constraints (TOC).

Total quality management (TQM) stresses producing the right outputs the first time while

just-in-time (JIT) stresses lean manufacturing. Moreover, in the theory of constraints (TOC),

this will assist small business like Classic Cabinet to focus on production system constraints.

It indentifies that the production system constraints limit the performance of the whole

system and will learn to manage these said constraints. Accordingly, this theory argues that

in a small business like Classic Cabinet, it should not customer requirements or quality of

output and workplace become the constraints in a successful operational strategy (Kohli &

Gupta 2010).

Lean manufacturing has helped in different industries specifically in cabinet production

industry to achieve operational and production success. This is achieved by the increase of

output and developing higher quality subsequently decreasing costs and waste. In lean



manufacturing, there are fewer requirements of capital, labour, machines, production time

and work space (Pirraglia, Saloni & van Dyk 2009).

On the other hand, in the furniture industry, it is generally recognised to adopt the Lean

Production system in order to compete the highly competitive furniture manufacturing world.

In this system, it basically uses less of everything compared to the job shop or hybrid job

shop transformation system. This means less labour, less work space, less capital for

equipment and also less time for the designing of the furniture output. Chinh Chu should

consider this kind of system since this will lessen the work-in-progress inventory on hand to

address the Classic Cabinets production problem of higher level of work-in-progress

inventory due to the additional workload for the builders’ kitchen. In this type of

manufacturing system which will fit Classic Cabinet due to the fact that there are less rejects

in the mean time manufacturing a wide range of different products. Each level in this system,

the process is activated by the requirement of material at the nest level. In this regard, a stage

makes a “pull” system for production and control. In the current production system of

Classic Cabinets, typical of a usual job shop system adopted “push” production control

wherein operations was activated by the presence of labour and material. The advantage in

this kind of system is its flexibility and its design to manufacture high quality output, just-on-

time at a very low cost.

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