Case Name :      Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Aggregate Production Planning

Authors :           Eric Olsen, Carol Prahinski, Jenni Denniston

Source :             Ivey Publishing

Case ID :            906D17

Discipline :        Operations Management

Case Length :    11 pages

Solution Sample availability : YES

Plagiarism : NO (100% Original work)

The general manager of the Wilkins plant in Paso Robles, California has received instructions from the head office to reduce inventory by 30% in the next quarter. Although inventory had been accumulating over the past years, this had been seen as a benefit to the company for a couple of reasons. One is that the cost of raw materials has risen in the past year. The second is that the company has a policy of no layoffs, so having inventory in stock allows the company to minimize the use of overtime and temporary workers. The general manager wondered whether revising the production planning process would be enough to solve Wilkins’ inventory problems.