...Value Chain Analysis The value chain analysis identifies all of the activities and strategies the organization must perform to conduct a successful business. (Potter) .The activities are classified into primary and support activities. Each of the activities performed will add value to the product and services provided by an organization. LEGO had incorporated various strategies to gain a competitive advantage. LEGO’s inbound logistics was not in proper shape. There was no control over the inbound logistics and management of inventory. The supply and demand of the goods was not in parity. In most situations, the forecasting was done dynamically without any evaluation of estimates. Later, LEGO management team synchronized the sales supply and demand by starting a sales and operations planning process (S&OP). This technique helped LEGO to optimize their demand planning, forecasting and inventory management. LEGO can accurately estimate their demand, supply and estimate customer demand for particular product during a given period. Using demand planning to develop accurate forecasts is critical for effective inventory management. Forecasts are compared to inventory levels to ensure that distribution centers have enough, but not too much, inventory to supply stores with a sufficient amount of product to meet demand. The optimal amount of raw materials was released to cater to the demand. This played a pivotal role in building an efficient supply chain management. VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS...
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...------------3 1.1 Lego design-------------------------------------------------------------------3 1.2 Manufacturing operation----------------------------------------------------3 1.3 Reasons for company’s success--------------------------------------------3 2 current business and operation strategy--------------------------------------3 3 Strengths and weakness-------------------------------------------------------3 4 Order winners and qualifiers-------------------------------------------------3 5 Environment analysis---------------------------------------------------------3 6.1 external analysis--------------------------------------------------------------3 6.2 Forces analysis---------------------------------------------------------------3 6 main expectations-------------------------------------------------------------3 7.3 main expectation--------------------------------------------------------------3 7.4 improvement from the relationship with Flextronics---------------------3 7 key challenges-----------------------------------------------------------------3 8 key issues-----------------------------------------------------------------------3 Reference---------------------------------------------------------------------------3 Appendix---------------------------------------------------------------------------3 Abstract This report is based on the case study of Lego Group’s outsourcing journey...
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...Lego, Consolidating Distribution 02 October 2015 ------------------------------------------------- Case Questions 1. What was the rationale behind the original distribution setup? The company’s focus on creativity, innovation and superior quality had, over time, created high complexity in the supply chain. LEGO’s motto – “Only the best is good enough” – had contributed to an emphasis on creating, selling and delivering toys at any cost, without regard for practicalities. Lego tried to establish itself as a just-in-time delivery company, but at a cost to itself. It accepted customer orders with immediate or next day delivery. Of these orders, 67% were for less than a full carton and only 62% could actually be delivered “on time”. to be close to the customer, LEGO used four regional DCs: two in France, operated by a third-party logistics provider and serving primarily the UK and southern European markets; one in Germany for the Central and East European markets; and one in Denmark for Scandinavia and the Benelux. The last two, also the largest, were operated by LEGO and employed just over 200 people. Almost 14,000 customers received direct deliveries from these four DCs. What are the advantages of a fully integrated centralized distribution in an Eastern European location? Proximity. A location in Eastern Europe allowed being close (16 to 18 hours’ drive) to LEGO’S main production facilities and largest single markets, Germany and the UK. For...
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...Supply Chain Paper MKT/421 December 15, 2014 Supply chain is the cumulative efforts needed by an organization to ensure that their product or products reaches its destination and ends up in the hands of their customers in the most effective and efficient way possible. Supply Chain Management is the production, shipment and distribution of a product. Supply chain management is something that affects almost everyone in the world. Supply chain management includes all activities from the development of the product, sourcing materials to make the product, production, and the logistics in getting the products delivered to the end sources. Effectively managing the supply chain process allows companies to control costs related to the production and distribution of the product. Properly executing the management of a supply chain is no easy task, but one that benefits everyone involved in the process. Company Profile The Lego Group began in 1932 by Ole Kirk Christiansen who began his toy making business with wooden toys. The name Lego was created by taking the first two letters of the Danish words Leg and Godt, which means “play well”. Lego’s are colorful interlocking plastic bricks that can be assembled and connected in millions of different ways and unlimited building possibilities. Since the Lego brick’s inception in 1958 they have become a globally popular brand sold in over 130 countries with products like toys, movies, games, and theme parks. The Lego Group...
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...Lego Case Study -Avinash Mavireddi 1. After Knudstorp has taken the control of Lego, the first thing he stressed on was the Supply Chain Management. Earlier, the components produced by Lego were primarily used for only one pattern or model. So the prototype designers were asked to use the same blocks for more than one design. This was the first step taken by Knudstorp that resulted in reducing the production of Lego components to almost half of what they were producing before. It also helped in reducing the expenses on the components mold significantly. The new approach has generalized the Lego components and this gave children an unlimited ability to think and create different models and design beyond what they can imagine. On the whole it even widened the range of products that Lego had. Another strategy that Lego employed was to induce the themes of films that were a huge success like Indian Jones and Star Wars. They didn’t stop at this and started to carefully maneuver into the Video games which featured animated Lego cast. All this growth in the company created a pressure on the Information Systems. Order management and fulfillment were the two sectors that were impacted severely and in turn it resulted in missing the customer demands. To overcome this situation, Employee management systems were widened by adding new employees to the stability and growth at many new locations. Product design and development were the other two modules which needs to be concentrated now...
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...LEGO - EMBRACING CHANGE BY COMBINING BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE WITH A FLEXIBLE INFORMATION SYSTEM History of LEGO Company The LEGO Group was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen. The company has passed from father to son and is now owned by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, a grandchild of the founder. It has come a long way over the past almost 80 years - from a small carpenter’s workshop to a modern, to a global enterprise that is now, in terms of sales, the world’s fourth-largest manufacturer of toys. The name 'LEGO' is an abbreviation of the two Danish words "leg godt", meaning "play well". The original Lego toys started with a wooden duck. But the first LEGO automatic binding brick is their most important product. The products have undergone extensive development over the years – but the foundation remains the traditional LEGO brick. The Lego Group began in the carpentry workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen, in Billund, Denmark in 1916. In 1961, Lego wished to expand sales to North America, but did not have the logistical capabilities to do so. Lego made an arrangement allowing Samsonite to begin producing and selling Lego products in the United States and Canada. On 7 June 1968, the first Legoland Park was opened in Billund. This theme park featured elaborate models of miniature towns built entirely from Lego bricks. The three acre (12,000 m²) park attracted 625,000 visitors in its first year alone. During the next 20 years, the park grew to more than eight times...
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...Rebuilding LEGO (short descriptive part of Lego a The Lego group is fifth largest toy manufacturer in the world On the surface, the Lego Group didn’t look as if it was in trouble. The fourth-largest toymaker in the world at the time (today it is fifth-largest), the Lego Group sold €1 billion (US$1.35 billion) worth of toys in 2004, ranging from its snap-together bricks for young children to Mindstorms, a line of do-it-yourself robot kits for older kids. Even in the digital age, its toys maintained a surprisingly firm grip on the market and seemed to adapt well to changing tastes. The company’s steady stream of new products routinely generated three-quarters of its yearly sales. Popular enthusiasm was so great that in 2000, the British Association of Toy Retailers joined Fortune magazine in naming the company’s classic bricks “the toy of the century.” But the Lego Group’s financial performance told another story. Despite its extraordinary hold on the imagination of children around the world, the Billund, Denmark, company was in trouble. The Lego Group had lost money four out of the seven years from 1998 through 2004. Sales dropped 30 percent in 2003 and 10 percent more in 2004, when profit margins stood at –30 percent. Lego Group executives estimated that the company was destroying €250,000 ($337,000) in value every day. How could such a seemingly successful toymaker lose that much money? Some observers speculated that the Lego Group had overdiversified its product line...
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...Rebuilding Lego, Brick by Brick How a supply chain transformation helped put the beloved toymaker back together again. by Keith Oliver, Edouard Samakh, and Peter Heckmann Lego art by Sean Kenney Photographs by Matthew Septimus On the surface, the Lego Group didn’t look as if it was in trouble. The fourth-largest toymaker in the world at the time (today it is fifth-largest), the Lego Group sold €1 billion (US$1.35 billion) worth of toys in 2004, ranging from its snap-together bricks for young children to Mindstorms, a line of do-it-yourself robot kits for older kids. Even in the digital age, its toys maintained a surprisingly firm grip on the market and seemed to adapt well to changing tastes. The company’s steady stream of new products routinely generated three-quarters of its yearly sales. Popular enthusiasm was so great that in 2000, the British Association of Toy Retailers joined Fortune magazine in naming the company’s classic bricks “the toy of the century.” But the Lego Group’s financial performance told another story. Despite its extraordinary hold on the imagination of children around the world, the Billund, Denmark, company was in trouble. The Lego Group had lost money four out of the seven years from 1998 through 2004. Sales dropped 30 percent in 2003 and 10 percent more in 2004, when profit margins stood at –30 percent. Lego Group executives estimated that the company was destroying €250,000 ($337,000) in value every day. How could such a seemingly successful...
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...S LEGO GROUP: AN OUTSOURCING JOURNEY w 910M94 PhD Fellow Marcus Møller Larsen, Professor Torben Pedersen and Assistant Professor Dmitrij Slepniov wrote this case solely to provide material for class discussion. The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect confidentiality. Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation prohibits any form of reproduction, storage or transmission without its written permission. Reproduction of this material is not covered under authorization by any reproduction rights organization. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, contact Ivey Publishing, Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 3K7; phone (519) 661-3208; fax (519) 661-3882; e-mail cases@ivey.uwo.ca. Copyright © 2010, Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation Version: (A) 2010-11-12 PROLOGUE The last five years’ rather adventurous journey from 2004 to 2009 had taught the fifth-largest toy-maker in the world — the LEGO Group — the importance of managing the global supply chain effectively. In order to survive the largest internal financial crisis in the company’s roughly 70 years of existence, resulting in a deficit of DKK1.8 billion in 2004, the management had, among many initiatives, decided to offshore and outsource a major chunk of LEGO’s...
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...Supply chain game – Lego game Supply chain game – Lego game XXXXXX Casper XXXXXX Casper Supply Chain Management Supply Chain Management Introduction First and foremost the game provided an understanding of the bullwhip effect and furthermore also insight to the challenges of distributing material and information within a supply chain. I have applied the cause-effect theory in order to obtain an understanding of the root causes, the reasons, to why the bullwhip effect, the result, occurred in the supply chain in the LEGO game (Slack, Chambers and Johnston, 2010). Hence the structure of this assignment will be based upon a cause-effect analysis which treats the experienced bullwhip effect as the result. Thus this assignment describe the causes of this effect identified through reflecting upon the LEGO supply chain game played September 25, 2015. Bullwhip effect The bullwhip effect is unexpected distortion of information observed in a supply chain and can be caused by demand fluctuations e.g. variability, which is processed and amplified through the companies in a supply chain. The demand fluctuations are amplified as they are processed upstream in the supply chain and hence the swings, the demand order variability, of the “bullwhip” can be expected to increase the farther upstream in the supply chain a company is located (Lee, Padmanabhan and Wheng, 1997). Reflections and learning outcome from the game I will divide this reflection and learning...
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...LEGO CASE STUDY Discussion Question: Q.1: How did the information systems and the organization design changes implemented by knudstorp align with the changes in business strategy? Advances in the field of information technology and introduction of new hi-tech form of entertainment such as tablets and gaming consoles had left Lego trailing in the entertainment field. Jorgen Vig Knudstorp was appointed as the CEO to revamp the company’s business process, organization structure and information systems. Knudstorp was quick to act and first made changes in the company’s production process. He encouraged designers to use the unused components in development of new products and design, thus reducing the number of unused components and reduced losses as the cost of production of each unit was very expensive. Lego created a new strategy to broaden the product range and target a new customer segment. Earlier Lego used to develop products which primarily targeted boys; with this new strategy they started developing products keeping a larger segment into perspective. They started developing products based on movie themes. Most drastic changes came in the organization structure at Lego, switching the employee pay structure, providing incentive for innovative product designs. Lego also started developing video games thus targeting a new segment of customers. All these changes in the business aspects of the company led to an increased revenue, increased demand and growth in the number of...
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...across the world to show just how fragile global supply can be. With almost 9% of the world’s economic output coming from Japan, these events have had a direct impact on many companies that rely on Japan for manufacturing parts, and have caused countless disruptions across the global supply chain. For example, it has been reported that Apple was facing tight supplies on the lithium-ion batteries used in its iPods. The bottleneck was traced to Kureha, a relatively obscure Japanese chemicals manufacturer which had to shut down its factory near Iwaki following the disaster. Although the company’s factory had remained intact, it was the damage to the ports that was creating the blockage in the supply chain. How does a company that outsources its production deal with unexpected events ranging from Japan’s catastrophic earthquake and tsunami to unprecedented floods in Australia or an Icelandic volcano? Until recently, many corporations entrusted their supply chain operations to middle level management. The chief purchasing officer, if he/she existed, usually reported to the CFO, CIO or COO. CEOs had relatively little exposure and experience in dealing directly with supply chains. Often, the purchasing officers paid more attention to cost and product quality than to the risk factors in sourcing. The earthquake in Japan is changing all of that since many global supply chains have been disrupted to varying degrees. The global supply chain is the natural outgrowth of a rational attempt...
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...Research paper Supply chain management integration and implementation: a literature review Damien Power Department of Management, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review a sample of the literature relating to the integration and implementation of supply chain management practices from a strategic viewpoint. Design/methodology/approach – The literature is examined from three perspectives. First, supply chain integration covers issues relating to integration of core processes across organizational boundaries through improved communication, partnerships, alliances and cooperation. Second, strategy and planning examines supply chain management as a strategic matter for trading partners, along with factors relating to the amount of planning required. Third, implementation issues concern factors critical for successful implementation, as well as issues specific to inter and intraorganizational aspects of supply chain initiatives are contained in this sub-group Findings – An important emergent theme from the literature is the importance of taking a holistic view, and the systemic nature of interactions between the participants. At the same time, it is also apparent that this requirement to take such an holistic and systemic view of the supply chain acts as an impediment to more extensive implementation. The strategic nature of adopting a supply chain wide perspective, on the one hand provides significant potential...
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...www.pwc.com/pharma2020 Pharma 2020: Supplying the future Which path will you take? Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences Previous publications in this series include: Pharmaceuticals Pharma 2020: The vision Which path will you take?* Published in June 2007, this paper highlights a number of issues that will have a major bearing on the industry by 2020. The publication outlines the changes we believe will best help pharmaceutical companies realise the potential the future holds to enhance the value they provide to shareholders and society alike. Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences Pharma 2020: Challenging business models Which path will you take? Fourth in the Pharma 2020 series and published in April 2009, this report highlights how Pharma’s fully integrated business models may not be the best option for the pharma industry in 2020; more creative collaboration models may be more attractive. This paper also evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of the alternative business models and how each stands up against the challenges facing the industry. *connectedthinking Pharma 2020: The vision # Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences Pharma 2020: Virtual R&D Which path will you take? This report, published in June 2008, explores opportunities to improve the R&D process. It proposes that new technologies will enable the adoption of virtual R&D; and by operating in a more connected world the industry, in collaboration with researchers, governments, healthcare payers and providers...
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...Boiling Frogs: Pricing Strategies for a Manufacturer Adding a Direct Channel that Competes with the Traditional Channel Kyle Cattani1 Wendell Gilland1 Hans Sebastian Heese2 Jayashankar Swaminathan1 1The Kenan-Flagler Business School, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 2Kelley School of Business, Indiana University January, 2005 1 Boiling Frogs: Pricing Strategies for a Manufacturer Adding a Direct Channel that Competes with the Traditional Channel Abstract In this paper, we analyze a scenario where a manufacturer with a traditional channel partner (i.e., a retailer) opens up a direct Internet channel that is in competition with the traditional channel partner. We first consider that in order to mitigate channel conflict the manufacturer, who chooses wholesale prices as a Stackelberg leader, commits to setting a direct channel retail price that matches the retailer’s price in the traditional channel. Under this general equal-pricing strategy, we determine the effect of more specific pricing strategies on prices and profits of the manufacturer and the retailer. These specific strategies are: (1) keep wholesale prices as they were before, (2) keep retail prices as they were before, or (3) select wholesale and retail prices that optimize profits for the manufacturer. Within these strategies we identify and summarize cases when the resulting prices are lower than the pre-Internet prices, and when they are higher, relating them to the respective...
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