You have recently been hired as a project manager by the CEO of the ABC Firm, a large manufacturing firm (just one division of the XYZ Conglomerate Corporation). The CEO of ABC has been a manufacturing executive since the beginning of the 1950s. He and most of the managers and supervisors are steeped only in traditional manufacturing and operations methods, which are outdated. The board of directors has been concerned about lagging results of ABC versus its more modern thinking competitors.

You were hired by the CEO as the project manager with the specific charge to changeover ABC’s outdated manufacturing, forecasting, and scheduling systems to more modern methodology. You have successfully accomplished this very same task at 7 different companies over the last 20 years, so you feel confident that you can get the transition to occur, although you do have some reservations. However, with the patience of the board and the understanding by the CEO and most of the managers, you can show them how different life will really be under the new operations paradigms.

After your working lunch with the CEO, he asked you to prepare a memo, specifically for the senior management team, dealing with demand management and forecasting. As the CEO is a practical type of team leader, he asked that you specifically describe the following points in your memo:

• Traditional manufacturing methods
• Pros of traditional manufacturing methods
• An in-depth description of at least 2 issues faced by most manufacturing firms that have traditional manufacturing methods
• Contemporary methods to overcome the cons without losing the advantages of the traditional method