Agile Electronics
Peter Gillen
(1) a one-paragraph summary of the case setting/background
The case is set in the auto parts supply industry. Automek is a supplier to Ford, the OEM in this case. Agile Electric, located in southern India, is a supplier to Automek. Automek has invested significant time and resources into the development of Agile due to its low cost of manufacturing capabilities. Agile has been asked to manufacture an actuator assembly for Automek. Agile is concerned about their ability to supply the assembly without assistance from Automek but their CEO is pushing them to step up to the challenge. Agile is also concerned about their downstream suppliers that Automek has chosen. During development at the OEM, actuator assemblies from Agile were rejected as failures twice. This has lead Automek and Agile to try and find a root case of the failure and try and develop a solution so it does not happen again. (2) a one-sentence description of the primary decision problem/issue;
.The issue here is the quality standards and processes in place at tier 2 and tier 3 suppliers within the supply chain and the problems it has created upstream leading to a decision of whether to invest in improving quality standard at these points or source elsewhere.
(3) a list of the key protagonists and their roles, possibly also their opinions and viewpoints;
Suresh Kumar: Vice-president of operations at Agile Electric. Responsible for addressing the quality concern received from their customer Automek. He believes Automek needs to deal with the quality issues identified with the suppliers supplying Agile because Automek chose them.
Raj Reddy: CEO of Agile Electric. He is pressuring Suresh to act fast on the most recent quality complaint from Automek.
Tom Smith: Automek Supplier Quality manager. Was concerned about going with Agile citing they had no experience with manufacturing this critical part.
John Aurthur: Automek Purchasing
(1) a one-paragraph summary of the case setting/background
The case is set in the auto parts supply industry. Automek is a supplier to Ford, the OEM in this case. Agile Electric, located in southern India, is a supplier to Automek. Automek has invested significant time and resources into the development of Agile due to its low cost of manufacturing capabilities. Agile has been asked to manufacture an actuator assembly for Automek. Agile is concerned about their ability to supply the assembly without assistance from Automek but their CEO is pushing them to step up to the challenge. Agile is also concerned about their downstream suppliers that Automek has chosen. During development at the OEM, actuator assemblies from Agile were rejected as failures twice. This has lead Automek and Agile to try and find a root case of the failure and try and develop a solution so it does not happen again. (2) a one-sentence description of the primary decision problem/issue;
.The issue here is the quality standards and processes in place at tier 2 and tier 3 suppliers within the supply chain and the problems it has created upstream leading to a decision of whether to invest in improving quality standard at these points or source elsewhere.
(3) a list of the key protagonists and their roles, possibly also their opinions and viewpoints;
Suresh Kumar: Vice-president of operations at Agile Electric. Responsible for addressing the quality concern received from their customer Automek. He believes Automek needs to deal with the quality issues identified with the suppliers supplying Agile because Automek chose them.
Raj Reddy: CEO of Agile Electric. He is pressuring Suresh to act fast on the most recent quality complaint from Automek.
Tom Smith: Automek Supplier Quality manager. Was concerned about going with Agile citing they had no experience with manufacturing this critical part.
John Aurthur: Automek Purchasing