Conclusions

What is the most realistic, prudent and viable alternative is to first attack those processes that are broken and that in turn are causing so much confusion in the company today. These include forecasting, model selection and optimization and the role of the channel in integration and localization. Underscoring these and many other problems is a lack of forecasting and synchronization of HP's manufacturing centers with both internal and external customer demands. As a result, Alternative 1, the creation of a Sales and Operations Planning framework is essential in that it first forces HP to look at what processes are most in need of repair, and then brings in a disciplined series of systems and processes to alleviate the many disconnects in the system today. The framework also has performance measurements and value-stream mapping to both monitor and change processes as need. What HP is in need of is a re-vamping of core processes for sensing, responding to, and managing customer demand.

Recommendations

HP needs to quickly gain insights into which core process areas of their Printer Division are not functioning correctly, starting...

Extensive process re-engineering is required, yet it cannot be completed in a vacuum, it needs to be part of a broader Sales and Operations Planning framework.
This framework needs to be quickly created through first mapping out then modifying the core process areas including forecasting, supply chain planning, manufacturing and production scheduling, and the adoption of lean manufacturing principles. These are all critical process areas that must first be redefined and then organized into a Sales and Operations Planning framework so HP can find the scalability of production efficiencies they are searching for. Only by attacking this problem at a process level will lasting change ever be attained.

Bibliography

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Manufacturers, Do you Know How Well Your Suppliers Perform? Boston, MA. 2005

Aberdeen Group (a). Global Supply Chain: What Are Innovators Doing? Boston, MA. 2006