This document discusses two case studies: 1) Productivity gains at Whirlpool where the company achieved gains through management introducing "gain sharing" and worker training overhauling manufacturing processes. Both management and workers benefited. 2) The US Postal Service which saw increased productivity from automation and zip codes but also competitive pressures that led them to reorganize, reduce costs, emphasize quality, and focus on satisfaction to reduce deficits and gain competitiveness. Increased email use however threatens postal service productivity.

1. Productions&operationManagement
Casestudiesonproductivitycompetitivenessandoperationstrategyformulation
Priyanka Hui Chowdhury ID: 120316
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2. CONTENT
 Case: 1 productivity gains at whirlpool
 Overview
 Question 1
 Question 2
 Question 3
 Question 4
 Case: 2 The US Postal Service
 Overview
 Question 1
 Question 2
 Question 3
 Question 4
 Question 5
 Question 6
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3. Productivity gains at whirlpool
Overview
Whirlpool appliance’s Benton Harbor
plant in Michigan, had a glories history
of productivity gains. But they had to go
through from hard times earlier. The
management and workforce get along
to achieve such productivity gains a
present times.
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4. Qus 1 what were the two key things that whirlpool
did to achieve productivity gains?
Management introduced “gain sharing”
Workers trainings with overhaul manufacturing
process
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5. Qus: 2 who has benefited from the productive
gains?
Management
Workers
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6. Qus: 3 how are productivity and quality related?
• Direct relationship
• Cost saving
• Little defective production
• Utilization of inventories
• Labor productivity
• Machine productivity
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7. Qus: 4 how can a company afford to pay its workers for productivity gains?
 Set fair payment rate
 Motivate workforce
 Draw relation among work and payment rates
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8. The US Postal Service
Overview
The US postal service s the largest postal service of the world. They process
and sort mail and ensure mail delivery services to their customers. With the
change in modern technologies, it bought many technical advancements like
automated mail processing machines and bar code readers. But it also
experienced huge competitive pressure from the competitors like FedEx,USP
and email, fax machine. To cope with these challenges it adopted many tactics
and strategies.
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9. Qus1 why is it important for the postal service to have a high volume of mail
to process?
• Determine most critical operations in whole operations
• Developing methods
• Establishing reasonable goals
• Ensure management support
• Encourage workers
• Measure improvement and publicize them
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10. Qus 2 What caused productivity to increase?
1. Use of automation
2. Introduction of zip codes
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11. Qus 3 what impact did competitive pressures have on postal services?
• Experienced slowdown
• Price reduction
• Developed service quality
• Introduced features
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12. Qus 4 what measures did the postal service adopt to increase
competitiveness?
 Reorganizing
 Cost reduction
 Emphasize on quality
 Focus on consumer satisfaction
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13. Qus 5 What results were achieved by the postal service’s changes?
 Reduction in projected deficits
 Cut production costs
 draw attention of new business
 Gain competitive advancement
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14. Qus 6 what effect will increased use of email on postal service productivity?
 Huge competition
 Cut demand of mail service
 Price reduction
 Introduce new strategies
 Allowed automated processing
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15. Questions ???
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