Five Star Tools
Five Stars Tools Case
Five Star Tools is a small family owned firm that manufactures diamond coated cutting tools (chisels and saws) used by jewelers. In the past two years, the company has experienced growth and is at capacity in the coating and sharpening process. This has created a constraint, or bottleneck, that has caused the company to miss deadlines from several important customers. This case analysis seeks to provide solutions to the constraint problem.
The following is a table showing the costs associated with two chisels, the Model C210 and Model D400 Chisels:
The president of the company, Maxfield Turner, and Betty Spence, VP of Marketing, are looking for solutions to the constraints. There are quite a few steps that can be taken to loosen the constraint in coating and sharpening. Using Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints, the first step has been accomplished. Five Star Tools has identified the constraint to be the coating and sharpening department (which requires highly skilled workers and expensive equipment).
There are several steps that can be taken to loosen the constraint in coating and sharpening:
Cross train workers in other departments so that they can help in the coating and sharpening process
Add an inspection station before coating and sharpening so that valuable time is not wasted
Invest in additional machinery
Reduce defective units (each defective unit that is processed in the bottleneck and then scrapped is taking the place of a good unit that could have been sold for a profit)
Subcontract some of the work so demands could be met (this could be variable based on demand)
Implement a Resource Management team that would manage the scheduling of breaks so that all working are not taking breaks at the same time
Have the management team along with REM team implement overtime hours
Five Star Tools manufactures the C210 and D400 chisel models. If they are unable to loosen the constraints then they need to determine which model that
Five Star Tools is a small family owned firm that manufactures diamond coated cutting tools (chisels and saws) used by jewelers. In the past two years, the company has experienced growth and is at capacity in the coating and sharpening process. This has created a constraint, or bottleneck, that has caused the company to miss deadlines from several important customers. This case analysis seeks to provide solutions to the constraint problem.
The following is a table showing the costs associated with two chisels, the Model C210 and Model D400 Chisels:
The president of the company, Maxfield Turner, and Betty Spence, VP of Marketing, are looking for solutions to the constraints. There are quite a few steps that can be taken to loosen the constraint in coating and sharpening. Using Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints, the first step has been accomplished. Five Star Tools has identified the constraint to be the coating and sharpening department (which requires highly skilled workers and expensive equipment).
There are several steps that can be taken to loosen the constraint in coating and sharpening:
Cross train workers in other departments so that they can help in the coating and sharpening process
Add an inspection station before coating and sharpening so that valuable time is not wasted
Invest in additional machinery
Reduce defective units (each defective unit that is processed in the bottleneck and then scrapped is taking the place of a good unit that could have been sold for a profit)
Subcontract some of the work so demands could be met (this could be variable based on demand)
Implement a Resource Management team that would manage the scheduling of breaks so that all working are not taking breaks at the same time
Have the management team along with REM team implement overtime hours
Five Star Tools manufactures the C210 and D400 chisel models. If they are unable to loosen the constraints then they need to determine which model that