Case analysis on British Columbia Box Limited (Revised)
(A B2B Analysis)
This case study involves a purchase decision to be made by the plant manager of Columbia Box Limited Vancouver regarding machine, flexo folder gluer. The BCB is part of an international company which specialized in packages of all types and the main product of the Vancouver plant was folded carton for consumer goods. The flexo folder gluer would combine printing with folding and gluing operations. The need arose because the existing machine was more than 18 years old and needed frequent repairs.
The plant manager was contemplating a new purchase or up gradation of the old machine. Purchasing the new machine would cost half a million dollar but the sales volume did not justify this expenditure. Hence the plant manager had to make a choice between up gradation and purchase. Each decision had its own positives and negatives. The purchase would require an investment of half a million dollar but would increase the productivity, whereas the up gradation would not be capital
The plant manager and the sales manager were developing a five year plan which included a significant plant expansion. The sales manager had assured Flynn of generating an additional million dollar sale if a flexo gluer of a larger size was available. Hence Flynn decided that this would justify the capital investment and went ahead with the purchase decision. There were other advantages of purchase over up gradation such as decreased set up time, less waste, less supervision and a higher quality product.
Suppliers
After much contemplation, various field visit, cost comparison, product feature comparison Flynn zeroed in on two suppliers Bale and Andrews.
Decision making:
Flynn had now had to decide between the two suppliers taking into account the various advantages and disadvantages of the machines provided by these suppliers.
Bale Advantages:
• Bale has offered free installation and has more experience in