At
http://www.carid.com/, formally known at Onyx International located in Edison, NJ, we have a medium sized stock room where we carry certain accessories. In this location we use a line product flow. We have most of the automotive accessories in our stockroom and ready to ship to the customer once we recieve the Purchase Order. With this purchase order, we look at what the customer ordered, and we go to the location at where the item is stocked, pull it off the shelf, and ship it to the customer. Their is no manufactureing time needed or no custom orders that have to be made because the items are already made for the specific vehicle. This is the most efficient way to run a business because the items are always there, and take virtually no time to get to the customer.
When the items start to run low, we use the Q System in order to reorder our items. Since their is no 1 item that sells more then the other, we wait until the first item to run low, about 5 items or so, then we do our inventory, then we order as much as we need to get to the specified number of items that is needed for the stock to be full. Sometimes we order more because the more we order, the least amount of money we spend for shipping in the long run. Since we order in bulk, our prices on the items are very minimal, and our profits on some of these items are anywhere from 3 times to 1000 times the price of the actual item. For example, we purchase portholes for about $0.65 for a set. We sell them online for about $55. So ordering 1000 of the sets would make sence because the profits overpower the carrying costs for this item.
The customer order process CarID uses is the make-to-stock (MTS) method for general merchandise such as Chrome accessories and HID lights. MTS is more convenient for us because customers recieve their items faster and this would meet their demands of having items quick. These items that we carry are already made, so we go ahead and ship it out to them. We do not have to assemble anything or put anything together unless they order multiple items and we just have to pull the pieces off the shelves and just put it in one box to ship out.
CarID also uses the make-to order (MTO) method for some grilles, dash kits, and some wheels. These items have to be made in our other warehouses and take more time to manufacture, thus taking a little longer before the customer can recieve the items. Customers are aware of the manufacturing time of these items, so they can expect to wait 2-6 weeks for their products
The cell
http://www.carid.com/ falls into in the process characteristics matrix is the continuous and assembly line flow. This type of product flow makes products available on order and customers do not have to wait a long period of time to get their items.
Some of the factors that influence the decision of process selection are market conditions and competition. For instance, there are many other similar companies that compete for these same items and they are offering very similar products at competitive prices. What customers are looking for are cheap prices for high quality accessories, fast shipping, and great customer service. In order to keep them as customers, these all have to apply. Even if one of these fail, customers can be going elsewhere to buy their products.
CarID.com adopts many of the mass customization methods. Many customer ask for a customized item, for example, black grilles for the black vehicles that are out. CarID.com used to sell only chrome grilles, but because of demand, we created a new line of black grilles and chrome/black grilles that are now on the market. This has boosted the profits of the company because the black grilles are cheaper to manufacture then the chrome grilles, but are priced more heavier because of the demand.
