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Introduction

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS PIEDRA CLADDING STONES Rebtrade is home to the Piedra Cladding Stones and floor blocks, which are manufactured stones that replicate common natural stones used for veneer applications. Every stone piece is casted using special molds obtained from selected natural stones- imitating every small detail! The production process entails the use of high quality raw components, high level skills, manufacturing experience and an artful eye. Resulting into a stone product having a distinct combination of texture, color and cut for every design. In addition, Piedra Cladding Stones and floor blocks are lightweight making its installation easy and affordable than natural stones. As their slogan reads, "Piedra ............... better than natural stones." COMPANY BACKGROUND Piedra Systems Incorporated started in 1993 as Piedra Product Systems under Rebtrade International Corporation. From being a product line it rapidly became a strong leader in the manufactured stone veneer industry. With the solid reputation for innovation and high quality products, Piedra Product Systems evolved into an independent organization. In 1998, Piedra Systems Incorporated was established taking its name to high level of products. The company devised and reinforced its goal to meet the increasing demands for manufactured stones and other architectural finishes. Piedra Systems Incorporation has invested considerably in research and development providing continuous product development and monitoring to ensure that its product consistently meets high quality standard needed by its clients and its industry. Piedra Systems, Inc. is guided with TRUST and COMMITMENT in providing reliable products, SAFETY to our people and to the environment. RESPECT the needs and requirement of our customers and excellent PERFORMANCE in both products and services. With that foundation, Piedra Sytems Inc. will continue to provide products of superior quality, excellent innovations and commitment to serve the needs of every client worldwide. MISSION "Our mission is to be able to give our customers quality innovative products thru constant improvement that will satisfy their needs." ...read more.

Middle

This means that out of 6300 blocks produced a day, 315 blocks are rejects (see computation below) and 1575 reject blocks a week. Those rejects are laid aside and sold as class B. 35 batches / day 180 blocks / batch 35 batches x 180 blocks = 6300 blocks Batch 5% rejects: ( 6300 blocks ) ( .05 ) = 315 blocks 315 might seem a small compared to the 6300 total. What happens, though, is the rejects get stocked for a long period of time. This takes up a considerably large space in the storage area outside, taking up the space that could be efficiently allocated to more productive activities. The solution therefore is to go to the root of the problem, and reduce or possibly eliminate the rejects. In the operation, Piedra holds visual inspection only once, and it takes place at the final part of the production-at the posterior conveyor belt before the Cuber. This is to check the state of the blocks after curing/drying. It is recommended therefore to hold visual inspection at the critical part of the production: after mixing the aggregate with the pigment. Checking the quantity of each block and the right amount and blend of pigment in every quantified block will spell accuracy and good quality control. This will also eliminate the problem of inaccuracy of filling the block discussed earlier. Furthermore, it is recommended to double the amount of inspection (from 10 minutes to 20 minutes). The small amount of time allocated to the inspection might be a cause of unseen blocks sold that are of less quality. This is not far-fetched since they only hold visual inspection which is liable to error and decisions subject to personal mood. The current 10 minutes inspection meant only 3.33 seconds of inspection for every block. Doubling this into roughly 6.67 seconds gives a fair chance to accurately inspect each block. ...read more.

Conclusion

As of the moment, there still is no means to measure how accurate the sales forecasts are, and as a result, top management simply adjusts the forecasts based on the conservative approach as they anticipate that there would be minimal cash flow. Being a company that relies on the JIT philosophy, they save up on the costs of carrying bulky inventory. There is practically no need for them to maintain high levels of raw materials and finished goods inventory as they can always talk and negotiate with their customers, whether builders, developers, or direct consumers, to wait for delivery while the construction is still on going. Lastly, considering that the wall claddings and floor tiles are relatively bulky, it makes it even less prone to theft. Again, for now, the existing control tools seem to be adequate for the current size of Rebtrade. APPENDIX 1- Stock Ledger Card APPENDIX 2- Economic Order Quantity Model 1 Shayler, Mark. Low Carbon Design of Goods and Services. Retrieved via internet, September 7, 2008. Available at: http://www.oursouthwest.com/envec/archive/expert-briefing-envirowise-mark-shayler-2007.pdf 2 Baxter, Mike. The Product Design. Retrievd via internet September 17 2008, available at: http://books.google.com.ph/books?hl=en&id=2j6R1nMBL20C&dq=product+design&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=S5_NQXQtmr&sig=t2rlopJXyfbswLmjR4fvm2x1hcs&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPR8,M1 3 Retrieved via internet. October 04, 2008, available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_design 4 Heizer, Jay and Barry Render. An Introduction to Operations Management. Jurong, Singapore. Prentice Hall. 2006. 5 Global siding demand to rise 3.8% yearly through 2010. Retrieved via internet. October 05, 2008. Available at: http://www.marketresearch.com/product/display.asp?productid=1461615&g=1 6 Due to company policies, the group was constrained to limited information disclosed by Piedra Systems with regard to their product design strategy. 7 This was based on the interview with one of the workers on the Pulilan Plant. 8 Baxter, Mike. The Product Design. Retrievd via internet September 17 2008, available at: http://books.google.com.ph/books?hl=en&id=2j6R1nMBL20C&dq=product+design&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=S5_NQXQtmr&sig=t2rlopJXyfbswLmjR4fvm2x1hcs&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPR8,M1 9 Baxter, Mike. The Product Design. Retrievd via internet September 17 2008, available at: http://books.google.com.ph/books?hl=en&id=2j6R1nMBL20C&dq=product+design&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=S5_NQXQtmr&sig=t2rlopJXyfbswLmjR4fvm2x1hcs&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPR8,M1 10 Respondents are students from the University of the Philippines who has knowledge on the stone veneer industry. Qualities are enumerated based on their rankings on the survey. 11 Concrete Basics: A Guide to Concrete Practice, "Chapter 3 - Concrete Testing". concrete.net.au ?? ?? ?? ?? ...read more.

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