Abstract

This case uses a role-play approach to teach the concept of business process reengineering (BPR) and process mapping. Students assume different functional management roles of a fictitious company, ABC Inc., a smartphone manufacturing company in the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) industry. Due to small profit margins, the company requires a high inventory turnover involving lots of paperwork, resulting from frequent orders of small quantities of components. This purchasing practice will ensure there is a lower risk that components becoming obsolete reducing the burden on the company’s cash flow.

However, many suppliers now threaten to increase prices (and even cease doing business with ABC) because they have not received their payments within 30 days after goods delivery. To address the looming crisis, the General Manager decides to call a management meeting to identify how they can together best resolve the issue quickly.

This case takes the perspectives of the Manufacturing Manager, who demonstrates how a flow diagram could be constructed, to other role players of the case: General Manager, Purchasing Manager, Warehouse Manager, and Accounts Payable Manager, who joined the discussion meeting initiated by the General Manager.

Learning Objectives

This is a five-part role play in which students take up the roles of General Manager, Purchasing Manager, Manufacturing Manager, Warehouse Manager and Accounts Payable Manager. Through the role-play exercise, students will learn about: the process flow of a typical manufacturing operation and the roles of various departments; diagnose a process and identify problem areas; identify root causes for said problem areas; and develop a solution and action plan.