Mike Kitchen, Production Manager For Trip 7 Screen Printing Case Study Management Assignment Help

Task

CASE STUDY on TRIP 7 SCREEN PRINTING
Recently, Mike Kitchen, the production manager for Trip 7 Screen Printing, has been having problems with the company's main supplier of t-shirts. For several years now, Mr. Kitchen has ordered t-shirts from American Apparel, the largest t-shirt vendor in the United States, located in Los Angeles, California. He is preparing for a telephone conversation with the sales manager at American Apparel. Two days ago, he called customer service, and they put him on hold for 90 minutes. According to Mike, "It is now time for results."
Company Background
Trip 7 Screen Printing started in 1991. The company is located in Columbus, Ohio. Trip 7 Screen Printing specializes in custom screen printing and embroidery of textile products such as t-shirts, golf shirts, dress shirts, hats, bags, and sweatpants. The company also offers common promotional items such as pens and coffee mugs and even some unique items such as custom chocolates and Swiss army knives.
The company prides itself on pleasing its customers. Trip 7 Screen Printing of­fers free consultation services on artwork, garments, retail programs, and uniform programs. It also promises timely delivery of the finished products to the customer by trying to meet each individual customer's deadline. In order to accomplish such a demanding task of meeting each and every customer deadline, Trip 7 Screen Printing uses forecasts based on past sales history. The company's overall goal is to focus 99.99% on customer care.
Trip 7's screen-printing facility offers up to six colours per item on a wide variety of textile products. Also, Trip 7 Screen Printing uses only Tajima embroidery equipment, which has long been the forerunner in the embroidery industry.
Trip 7 has done screen printing and/ or embroidery products for several companies, restaurants, organizations, schools, and so forth. Some of these include FedEx, Ballet Met's performances, The Blue Bird Club, Buckeye Cafe, Byrne's Pub, Children's Hospital, and the San Quinton baseball team; Trip 7 also provides services to walk-in customers.
Process of Screen Printing
Screen printing is a print process where a design is transferred to a substrate by way of a screen. Inks are transferred through a screen to the garment to achieve the desired result. This involves exact pressures, specialized inks, and heat curing. The result of these processes is a long-lasting design.
The following is a step-by-step procedure of the screen-printing process:
Conceive artwork and send it to the computer for processing of a composite proof that specifies the colours, size, and location.
Create output film on vellum paper and make into screens.
Preregister artwork and check it for detail and quality.
Coat the screens with photosensitive emulsion.
Dry the screens and place them on a vacuum light table, which exposes the screens to a 3,000-watt metal halide light that burns the image onto the screen.
Wash out the screen with a pressurized washer at around 1,300 psi.
Double-check for accuracy.
Block, tape, set up, and squeegee press the design onto the garment by colour (each colour utilizes a separate screen).
Flash (dry) ink between each colour layer, which takes about one to two min­utes per shirt.
Repeat steps seven, eight, and nine for each colour in the design.
Current Situation
In the past, Trip 7 Screen Printing has had strong relations with American Apparel. American Apparel offers a wide variety of products, and even carries some not-so-common products such as the fitted ladies' polo t-shirt. With a wide variety of products from its supplier, Trip 7 Screen Printing is able to accommodate the various requests from its own customers. Trip 7 Screen Printing provides American Apparel with a considerable amount of business, over $250,000 in sales per year.
But within the past couple of months, Mr. Kitchen has been unhappy with the growing number of backorders American Apparel has had on Trip 7's orders. The situation has become such a problem that Mr. Kitchen has estimated that at least 25% of his t-shirt orders are backordered through American Apparel. He has contacted the American Apparel customer service representatives several times and has not received the results that he had expected. As a result, Trip 7 Screen Printing has had trouble making customer deadlines. The company also is incurring extra costs from its growing number of expediting orders from American Apparel and having to pay its employees overtime.
Mr. Kitchen knows that when Trip 7 Screen Printing fails to meet a customer's deadline, the company is breaking its promise to provide 99.99% customer care. If American Apparel cannot deliver its t-shirts to Trip 7 Screen Printing in a timely fashion, customer service will diminish. Being able to promise timely deliveries to its customers is a key competitive advantage for Trip 7 Screen Printing.
During the past two days, you were able to research alternative suppliers for Mr. Kitchen. The following table (next page) shows the comparison of t-shirt suppliers.
Company American Apparel Bodek & Rhodes Broder Bros. Virginia Tees
History Started in 1978 Started in 1939 Started in 1919 Started in 1984
Location Los Angeles, CA Philadelphia, PA Plymouth, MlPetersburg, VA
Mission Provide best products with refined styles, finest cuts, and most vibrant colours Be the best supplier for customers and be an innovator They succeed in helping their customers succeed Customer satisfaction is top priority and to have the inventory in stock for its customers
Brands Offered 4 brands with 16 types of t-shirts 32 brands 27 brands 31 brands
Shipping policies 5 days UPS Ground; same day if order before 5 p.m. 1-day UPS Ground; same day if order before 4 p.m. 1-2 days UPS Ground; same day if order before
3 p.m1-2 days UPS Ground; same day if order before
5 p.m.
Special Facts All fabrics 100% cotton; sweatshop free Over 500,000 square feet of inventory space Private label brand called Luna Pier Warehouse in Evansville, IN
Advantages Custom colours and sizes; 29 colour choices; organic brand; quantity discounts Exclusive distributor of Ultra Club; quantity discounts Order tracking online No minimum; special order accepted
Disadvantages 12-piece minimum; piece price (cannot mix) Must have insurance for shipping and handling Slow Web site; orders in boxes of 36 or 72 t-shirts No exclusive or private labels
Price of 72 t-shirts (shipping included) $170 $165 $168 $168.82
Case Analysis
Please Note:
Do not follow a report structure. Simply answer the questions
Total Marks: 30
QUESTION ONE (20 marks)
Please read the case on Trip 7 Screen Printing and discuss how Mr. Kitchen should approach the current situation.
Answer guide:
You are required to come up with a comprehensive enough solution to the problem with appropriate arguments.
Think, how Trip 7 can prevent future supply uncertainties. Should they change supplier? Why or why not? What type of relationship do you think is suitable in this context from Trip 7 perspective? Etc. etc.
There are rooms for being innovative in your answer. Try to incorporate relevant strategic theories/concepts that have been covered in the course. You should also bring in your overall understanding of SCM as well.
Within 1000 words
 

This Management Assignment has been solved by our Management Experts at My Uni Paper. Our Assignment Writing Experts are efficient to provide a fresh solution to this question. We are serving more than 10000+Students in Australia, UK & US by helping them to score HD in their academics. Our Experts are well trained to follow all marking rubrics & referencing style.
    
Be it a used or new solution, the quality of the work submitted by our assignment Experts remains unhampered. You may continue to expect the same or even better quality with the used and new assignment solution files respectively. There’s one thing to be noticed that you could choose one between the two and acquire an HD either way. You could choose a new assignment solution file to get yourself an exclusive, plagiarism (with free Turnitin file), expert quality assignment or order an old solution file that was considered worthy of the highest distinction.