Total marks 80
Case 1 (10 Marks)
M/s Britecolor Paints Ltd. (BPL) is a manufacturer of decorative paints for households commercial premises and industrial application.
(a) M/s. BPL had embarked on a policy of satisfying every possible customer in respect of shades, delivery and durability. Thus it went ahead and created twenty-five depots, one almost in every major city. The manufacturing base however, was maintained at Pune. The factory received information in connection with stocks from depots J once in a week and there was no inter-communication between depots. Since they were in a competitive market, price was predetermined, i.e. the manufacturer had no liberty to price the product as per one’s own choice.
(b) In their effort to satisfy the customer, M/s BPL manufactured every possible shade by combining various primary shades and would await the prospective customer to carry out the purchase. It ensured that these shades were available at
each and every depot even at the cost of transportation incurred in sending goods in less than full truckload lots. This certainly provided a very high service level and customers who could get the shade as per their desire, were fully satisfied.
(c) While on one hand M/s BPL had a population of very satisfied customers, they had almost 50% of their total domestic sales lying as finish Goods inventory at various depots, on the other hand. (d) Industrial paints, though not very customised, the respective industrial customer was quite satisfied. Consequently, the inventory of finished goods was very low in this segment. But at the same time, realisation was also lower due to stiff competition from other industrial paint manufacturers than the domestic segment.
(e) Nevertheless, the economic runs of industrial paints were always assured due to high off-take by the industrial customers.
(f) The objective of the manufacturer was to increase the realization