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Easy Business Improvement Operations

Made to Measure

#Manufacturing #Consumer Goods
ProHub Comment

This case tests the candidate's ability to identify process inefficiencies within existing resources rather than seeking external solutions. The key insight is recognizing that specialization, not technology or hiring, can optimize production by leveraging existing employee skill sets uncovered through data analysis. The case rewards candidates who quickly move from understanding the exhibit data to calculating financial impact.

Estimated Time 15 minutes
Difficulty Easy
Source NYU
10 / 100
Our client owns a designer shoe-store that makes high end made-to-measure shoes for customers. The high-quality product has gained popularity rapidly and the client wants to ramp up production. However, the highly-skilled labor that our client employs is hard to come by. Our client wants us to help them figure out how to increase output without adversely affecting quality and the company’s potential profitability.

Clarifying Information

  1. There are no additional skilled shoemakers available in the market
  2. The shoe-making process has 3 stages, cutting, stitching and finishing
  3. Currently there are 15 workers, each of whom take an average of 12 hours to produce one pair of shoes
  4. Each shoemaker performs all three steps of the process under the current system
  5. If the candidate asks whether the process can be changed to one where shoemakers perform specific tasks, say yes
Mock Interview
Interviewer

Our client owns a designer shoe-store that makes high end made-to-measure shoes for customers. The high-quality product has gained popularity rapidly and the client wants to ramp up production. However, the highly-skilled labor that our client employs is hard to come by. Our client wants us to help them figure out how to increase output without adversely affecting quality and the company's potential profitability.

You

Thanks. Before analyzing, I'd like to clarify a few key questions...

Interviewer

Good question. Let me provide some background information...

You

Based on this, I suggest analyzing from these dimensions...

AI Score
Structure Analysis Communication Business Sense Quantitative
Practicing...
Score coming soon
Practice this case with AI Mock Interview

A luxury shoe manufacturer wants to increase production without hiring additional skilled labor. The solution involves reorganizing workers into specialized teams focused on their strongest tasks (cutting, stitching, and finishing), reducing average production time from 12 to 9 hours per pair and enabling output to scale from 60 to 75 pairs weekly while maintaining quality and improving profitability.

Key Insights:

  1. Process reengineering through specialization can solve production bottlenecks without external hiring
  2. Analyzing employee skill distribution reveals hidden optimization opportunities
  3. Constraints (no available skilled labor) force creative internal resource solutions
  4. Operations improvement requires data-driven decision making followed by financial validation
  5. Phased implementation with pilot testing reduces risk in established processes