Thomason Shore1 Case Analysis

8/6/2019 Thomason Shore1 Case Analysis

1/15

2008 Prentice Hall, Inc. 1 1

Thomson ShoreThomson Shore

vitual company tour


2/15


Content

Case Introduction About Thomson Shore

1. Production

2. Service

3. Process of produce

Answer of the

questions1. Why is forecasting important to a

company like Thomson - Shore?

2. What are the forecastingtechniques that Thomson - Shore

might find helpful when

forecasting?

3. What are the limitations of these

techniques for a business such as

book publishing?4. Can you think of other types or

approaches to forecasting thatmight help them?


3/15


Thomson Shore

1.What are the forecasting techniques that Thomson - Shore might find helpful when

forecasting?2.What are the limitations of these techniques for a business such as bookpublishing?

Can you think of other types or approaches to forecasting that might helpthem?


4/15


About Company

Thomson Shore : manufacturer of hard and

soft cover books.

The company which was started in 1972,is anemployee-owned company. T hey believed the best

employees would make up the best company. They

hired people who were not just experts in book making,

but who were obsessed with quality. They specialize in

all books for big and small publishers. Thomson-Shoreis leading the way with green press initiatives,also the

first book manufacturer to join the Green Press Initiative

(GPI).


5/15


Production

Books : Hard and

soft cover books.


6/15


Service

Self-publishing

Services

Offset printing

Digital printing E-book conversion

Market solutions

Distribution/fulfillment


7/15


Process ofProduce

for example : self-publishing, how Thomson-Shore puts your bestbook forward?

Step 1 Sales: It starts with the decision towork together.

Step 2

Customer Care: Planning makesperfect.

Step 3 Electronic Prepress: the expertsprepare your book for print.

Step 4

Manufacturing: Start the presses! Step 5 Shipping: make sure books gethere in time!


8/15


Questions 1

1. Why is forecasting important to a company like Thomson - Shore?

it is related to every process of the manufacture.

Designdesign Detailed product specifications:the quotation, the size of

the book ,the paper to chose,the design of the context andcover,the needs to print ,bind,ship etc.

Production and inventory controlScheduling of the Representative (customer care ,)Producer

experts, printe,bindery .materials control including thepaper,cover ,machine etc.

Quality assurance and control:Sales Representative

(communication ) customer care (Plan and design )Producerexperts (edit , design )printer (print)distributer (ship ,post ,flightetc)Supply chain management (paper mills )

Manufacturingchosing the proper machine and proper bindery


9/15


Reasons

1.Revenues :are derived from customers howmany customers and how they want theirbook published and what is the budget ofthem.

2.Operating:Forecast can be used by productdesign,marketing,labor management,operations, finance, scheduling andInventory management.

3.Material : Forecast can be used by materialcost .paper price forecats can help controlthe cost .

4.Manufacture model:Long period to produce

books,the budget gave to costomers is


10/15


5.Human resource plan :Forecasts

labor cost is important.since book

publishing mostly is intellecture work .

in each area ,forecasts is needed .it isvery important.


11/15


Questions 2

What are the forecasting techniques that Thomson -Shore might find helpful when forecasting?

Qualitative Methods

1.Juryofexecutiveopinion

Pool opinions of high-levelexperts, sometimes

augment by statistical

models

2.Salesforcecomposite

Estimates from individual

salespersons are reviewed

for reasonableness, then

aggregated

3.ConsumerMarket Survey

Ask the customer

To know how many books need

to be pulished and give proper

suggestions to the customers.


12/15


Quantitative methods

1.Moving Average Method

2.Exponential Smoothing

method

1.forecast the sales .

2.forecast the price of the paper

Moving average =Moving average = demand in previous n periodsdemand in previous n periods

nn

New forecast =New forecast = Last periods forecastLast periods forecast

++ aa ((Last periods actualLast periods actual priceprice Last periods forecastLast periods forecast)) Ft = FtFt = Ft 1 +1 + a(a(AtAt 11 -- FtFt 1)1)


13/15


Questions 3

What are the limitations of these techniques for a business such as book

publishing?

Qualitative Methods shortcomings:

1.Involves intuition, experience

2.depend on the high-level experts ,salesman and consumers , sometimes

more rely on experience and intuition.3. Poor accuracy and poor data basis.

for example , in China when the book is first introduced

to a famous publishing house ,it is underdog by the experts and the the

salesman .since it is very short ,not common .but when it is published very

popular.


14/15


Quantitative methods

Used when situation is stable and historical data exist .if the

situation is greatly change ,can not fit .Ex . financial crisis .

Require extensive historical data especially for ExponentialSmoothing tools , since price of paper is maily material cost of thecompany,so extensive data is needed.


15/15


Questions 4

Can you think of other types or approaches to forecasting that might

help them?

Multivariate Analysis is needed to use to help them .Finding relations

between variables or between columns in data tables. The objectiveis often to use one set of variables (columns) to predict another, for

the purpose of optimization, and to find out which columns areimportant in the relation.

if we can find the ralationship between inventory of paper and the

variables (customer"s demand ,paper price,quantity of

production,publish circle period,)we can Minimize inventory of

material .

if we can find the relationship between labor cost and the needs ofbooks ,the buget of the customers ,the quantity of the

productions ,the number of human resource , we can Minimize

inventory of material .

Thomason Shore1 Case Analysis

Documents

Transcript of Thomason Shore1 Case Analysis