Competitive position of the company

Fly Fishing Reels is a company which is among the top three fishing reel producers in the world, and currently employs about a hundred and forty people in the southern part of England. It has been in existence for the past five years, and has grown from a company of just six people to a business that is at present the major producers and manufacturers of fishing reels used in fly fishing. This company was formed when a former fishing reel company operating on the location faced bankruptcy and was taken into receivership. They are highly regarded in the market for their quality, as well as the performance of their equipment. Their market is solely centred on people or the ‘serious sportsmen’ who are willing to give a good price for quality equipment (Blosch 2015). They have over a thousand kinds of fishing reel models available for the public.

The company’s main competitors are in Japan and the USA. Both the quality and the performance of their products are superior to that of their competitors, and a number of their models are much more expensive than that of their competitors. However, the quality is what makes them stand out and appeal to the people who want to seriously take up fly fishing as a sport or a pastime (Koelewyn 2014). They also give discounts and offer special rates for their equipment every now and then. The price of their products is an added factor for them in the competitive market, and they sell their equipment through wholesalers and retailers. They would lose many prospective buyers if they do not make the items available on time, as the buyers are usually not willing to go through the waiting period for the new stocks to be available. The products that have the maximum demand are usually on the grounds of their style, build and reliability, coupled with their weight and strength ratio which is less than one (Koelewyn 2017).

When any business uses the strategy of Lean and Six Sigma, it eventually hits a ‘performance measure wall.’ This is because the reasons for their initial targets were all illusionary, and consequently they recognise the need to adapt improved techniques and strategies for better strategic management. In case of any doubt, the company can always go back to what it was initially trying to aim for when it had started out, and can work out their improvement strategy accordingly. The same is the case for the Flying Fishing Reels. They need to identify their original goals and address their strategic needs, also referred to as the Business Mastery Model.

• They need a leader who has a creative outlook and is willing to revamp the fundamental practices and rules of their organisation and the supply chain. This encompasses the vision, strategies, recognition of the requirement for improvements, and awareness regarding the company’s operations (Sagwa, K’Obonyo and Martin 2015). His method of communication and reinforcement should be devoid of doubt and bias, and there must be processes for regular feedback, recognitions, rewards as well as measures to counter undesirable performance or behaviour. The production manager of Flying Fishing Reels is highly experienced and has sufficient knowledge regarding the products of his company, and is able to recognise the models which require the same materials for production.
• Flying Fishing Reels needs improved innovation, as it is critical for anything that a business undertakes. This includes the development of new technologies, processes and products, and to make the entire operation better and faster with improved reliability at a lower rate of production (Jayawardhana and Weerawardena 2014). Fly Fishing Reels uses the process of die-casting for their general products, replacing the method with machine-cast solid aluminium for their premium range. Only their plastic reels do not need to be machined.
• The company must be adept at understanding the needs and requirements of their customers across markets, and learn to respond to those queries in real time. This means that they should master their profits to a level where it is acceptable to both the customers and their stakeholders.
• The supply chain for their equipment needs to be flexible and highly synchronised such that the logistics of supply and demand are met properly (Slack 2015). Customers do not like to wait for the stocks to get replenished, so they have to make sure that their supply is not disrupted. They also have to simultaneously adjust the upstream and downstream supplies. In the manufacturing of their equipment, benches are utilised for the successive stages of the process, some of which have riveting machines while some have presses (Geisel 2014). Instead of manually passing around the parts, they can deploy a conveyor belt to increase efficiency and reduce the time taken for this process.
• They need to master their integration and data interpretation so that they can sense and accordingly respond to newer opportunities and also estimate their outcomes in real time.
• They need better strategies for human resource management. Workers could be included to get additional input regarding newer and innovative products or techniques of manufacture (Talk 2016). A fresh perspective helps to understand the changing economy and brings about the inclusion of new skills and methods.
• The speed of production is to be amplified, and there should be a full-on synchronisation between the up and down value streams and the customer-supplier networks, and the quality should be improved, with more focus on lessening the manufacturing defects. The production of their fishing reels are a lengthy process, and have many steps to it, and a range of items are used to manufacture them. The variations are done usually by drilling, and each definite model is given a specific design or appearance.
• Strategies should be in place to reduce overhead costs, scrap and waste materials, and to improve the financial aspects (Wick, Pronovost and Fader 2016).

Therefore, customer experience needs to be improved by analysing and understanding the internal processes of the business. Fly Fishing Reels can also cut down on costs by getting a clear picture of what drives the main expenses of the company. Their manufacturing process needs to be more efficient and the resource productivity has to be amped up as well, along with the reduction of their response time.

Current strategy for competitiveness

At Fly Fishing Reels, the minor components that are used in the manufacture of the equipment are bearings, spindles, springs, pawls, ratchet wheels and the like. Some of these minor parts are bought from outside, while the rest are produced by the company themselves. There are more than a hundred kinds of reels that are manufactured, and they are of three broad categories –– plastic, die-cast aluminium, and solid material. Each category has a number of variations in terms of the reels, housing and attachment foot, with a wide range of paint options and drilling styles for reducing the weight of those fishing reels. There are reels with various operating mechanisms as well which give different kinds of control over the ratchet and friction. Their products are sold mainly through retailers as well as the wholesalers as they order products in large numbers, sometimes totalling up to almost as high as a thousand, including a number of premium range equipment as well. The factory of this company is constructed with separate divisions which deal with different kinds of processes, like die-casting, fettling, polishing and machining, turning and grinding, and painting and assembly. The factory lacks a conveyor belt and thus the parts have to be manually passed along the assembly benches by hand.

In order to cut down on the costs, the company needs to assess the costs that are involved in the different stages of production. The managers should find out which process costs them the least and then follow that procedure accordingly (Bianchi et al. 2016). If the in-house manufacture of the major and minor components of the fishing reels turns out to be more expensive than buying them from an outside source, they should stop and do away with that process, replacing it with parts bought exclusively from outside sources.

As mentioned earlier, there are over a hundred kinds of reels that are manufactured. The manufacture of the die-cast products includes several stages such as casting, machining, painting and sub-assembly, followed by assembly. The castings are sometimes used in a variety of products, and the differences are brought about especially by drilling. The products are then given a coat of paint, and graphics are printed to allot a distinct appearance to each model. The parts of the reels are attached and the foot riveted to the frame in the pre-assembly stage, and in the final assembly stage, the minor parts like the spindle, pawls and springs are attached together (Hoffey and Hoffey 2016). These are the components that are needed to produce the mechanical action of the fishing reel, and this procedure is just the same for the premium and plastic products, except the part where the die-casting is done. A solid machining is used for the premium products, and the plastic reels do not need to be machined at all. The work benches have riveting machines and presses, and the products are passed around by hand.

The orders from the customers are categorised by the type specified and the equipment for a couple of weeks is manufactured in batches. There is no formal or definite plan or capacity for the number of products or the types, but the management identifies the products that utilises the same components like any expert, and the work and purchase orders as per the production manager’s assessment is made available to the stores as well as the manufacturing plant. This gives rise to issues when there is an order which does not match the manager’s estimate, as he might have suggested manufacturing an alternate batch in order to keep his workers occupied.

Suggestions for strategy improvements

The size of a batch of products are dependent on the time taken for the paint job. This is because the time required by the equipment to change over from one job to another is about three hours, as the spray head needs to be adjusted accordingly for every different item. The paint tanks and the nozzles and holding equipment also need changing when loading them with a different colour. This slows down the manufacturing process to a great deal as a lot of time is wasted in this changing process (Chase et al. 2013). The company can practice a controlled loading of the paint tanks to make sure that the time required to change over to a new colour is reduced, but the amount cannot be drastically lessened either, as too small a batch of products would make it impossible to process all that workload. They need to make sure that the products that are in high demand are always in stock, as it has happened a number of times that the customers did not get the equipment of their choice simply because the particular stock was not released by the production manager.

The alloy of aluminium used for the die-casting is difficult to mould, and sometimes there are cracks and voids in the casings, which become more prominent after being painted (Sheller 2014). Up to 40% of the casings in a batch can be faulty, which makes them withdraw the stock and manufacture a fresh batch to compensate for them. An alternative for the company would be to develop a more malleable and easily cast alloy of aluminium or other light metal, or perhaps stick to the plastic reels to minimise the costs involved in the production of the extra stock (Hult and Rammerstorfer 2014). This will also reduce the time taken for the products to pass the pre-assembly and final assembly stages, and will also keep the prices in check as the increase in the cost of aluminium has forced them to increase their prices as well.

The managers need to single out their priorities and proceed accordingly to ensure that the company tastes success in the long run (Horovitz and Webb 2015). Although Fly Fishing Reels are among the top three manufacturers in the world, their products are much more expensive than their competitors, mostly because of the increase in the prices of the raw materials, especially aluminium. They need to acquaint their workers with a new material or alloy, or encourage them to come up with innovative ideas of their own, and concentrate more on the manufacture of the durable and cheaper plastic ones, as that would greatly help with their sales. The set-up of the factory also needs to be revamped, as the lack of a conveyor belt is a significant hindrance in the smooth functioning of the manufacturing process. 

References

Bianchi, A., Barnett, J., Dempsey, W., Giachinta, M., Hugenberg, M. and Talley, A., 2016. Applying Value-Focused Thinking to a Make Versus Buy Decision. Industrial and Systems Engineering Review, 4(2), pp.171-177.

Blosch, K., 2015. Bumper guard for fishing reels. U.S. Patent Application 14/662,023.

Chase, J.A.D., Topp, R., Smith, C.E., Cohen, M.Z., Fahrenwald, N., Zerwic, J.J., Benefield, L.E., Anderson, C.M. and Conn, V.S., 2013. Time management strategies for research productivity. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 35(2), pp.155-176.

Geisel, J.A., Allen Fly Fishing, 2014. Fly Reel with Detachable Drag Assembly. U.S. Patent Application 14/466,267.

Hoffey, J.J. and Hoffey, T.M., JR., 2016. Adjustable Fly Fishing Rod System with Transversely Loadable Line Guides. U.S. Patent Application 15/264,299.

Horovitz, J.H. and Webb, P., 2015. Top management control in Europe. Springer.

Hult, J. and Rammerstorfer, F.G. eds., 2014. Engineering mechanics of fibre reinforced polymers and composite structures (Vol. 348). Springer.

Jayawardhana, K. and Weerawardena, J., 2014. Conceptualizing the Role of Market Learning in Social Innovation-Based Competitive Strategy.

Koelewyn, R.W., Tand, Llc, 2014. Fly fishing reel. U.S. Patent D712,006.

Koelewyn, R.W., Tand, Llc, 2017. Fly fishing reel. U.S. Patent 9,554,565.

Nago, A. and Iwabuchi, M., Shimano Inc., 2017. Fishing reel portion. U.S. Patent D781,997.

Sagwa, E.V., K’Obonyo, P. and Martin, O., 2015. Joint and Individual Effects of Human Resource Management Practices, Organizational Learning, Employee Outcomes and Competitive Strategy on Performance of Firms Listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange.

Sheller, M., 2014. Aluminum dreams: the making of light modernity. MIT Press.

Slack, N., 2015. Operations strategy. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Talk, O.M., 2016. Operations management.

Wick, E.C., Pronovost, P.J. and Fader, A.N., 2016. Trans-surgical Disciplines Collaboration Is an Effective Strategy for Expediting Quality Improvement. Annals of surgery, 264(6), pp.915-916.