Case Study: Toy World Shunde Tu 000196745
Student Name: Shunde Tu
Student ID: 000196745
Course: MGT 121( Financial Management II)
Case Study on Toy World
I. Situation Audit
a) Plastic Toys Manufacturing Industry Overview
i. Highly seasonal, with a majority of sale volume generated between Aug. and Nov.
ii. Competitive landscape
1. Highly competitive, populated by a large number of companies
2. Fierce design and price competition, with short product lives and a relatively high rate of company failures
3. Low entry barrier resulted from low capital and technology requirements.
4. Influx of imported toys intensified competitive pressure on smaller firms.
b) Company Overview
The company studied in the case is Toy World, a manufacturer of plastic toys for children. More than 80% of the sale was generated between Aug to Nov. Toy World Inc.’s practice was to produce in response to customer orders. Therefore, the production was highly seasonal, and not more than 25%-30% of manufacturing capacity was used for the first seven months.
c) Product Overview
i. Produce a wide range of designs, colors and sizes for most of its product categories.
ii. Dollar sales of a particular product had sometimes varied by 30%-35% from one year to the next.
II. Problem Statement
The company’s production had been scheduled to accommodate the seasonality of sales. The production manager proposed to adopt level production to reduce labor costs. The feasibility and benefit of adopting level production would be studied in detail.
III. Problem Breakdown and Analysis
a) Pros and Cons of Seasonality Production, as compared with Level production
i. Advantages of Seasonality Production
1. Lower Inventory. Less storage and handling cost
2. Be able to respond to market changes. Since the sales of a particular product varies greatly year from year, it’s difficult to forecast the sales precisely, under level production
ii. Disadvantages of Seasonality Production
1. Overtime premiums reduced profits
2. Seasonal expansion and contraction of work force resulted in recruiting difficulties and high costs associated with training and quality control
3. Machinery was subjected to heavy use and frequent setup changes during peak production time.
b) A comparison of two methods of production from the financial perspective
I constructed a comprehensive model for the two scenarios (namely, seasonal production and level production) based on the assumptions given in the case. I attach the complete model at the end of the case study for your reference.
i. From the net profit perspective, assuming borrowing rate remained the same, the pro forma net profit for year 1994 under level production was $523,000, compared with $354,000 under the seasonal production, representing a 48% increase!!
ii. However, further analysis shows that, under level production, there would be serious problem with cash position, as the company accumulate huge inventory in the first 7 months that were not sold. Therefore, the company needs to borrow short-term loans from the bank to finance its operations. Below are two charts comparing the cash balance, bank notes outstanding and inventory level, under two production scenarios, on pro forma basis, assuming a minimum cash level of 200K.