RESPONSE: 4-1 Discussion 322 VA

Because Coleman Company is a make to plan company that runs a line process as indicated in the reading and is very much a company that builds its product, based on forecast from prior years; however, they look to the future as well with regards to current trends, weather, etc and for example when COVID became a prominent factor for all.  Because people were limited in most any kind of extracurricular activity that was behind closed doors, this afforded the opportunity for companies such as Coleman to be able to utilize any product that was manufactured and stored that had not been sent to stores for purchase to actually get rid of existing inventory and produce even more because of current forecasts with more people going outside and getting close to nature again.   With that forecasts for more product helped an already busy company to become even more busy, affording them to become fast moving and continued to build on their already stored product for increased sales.  Being able to always project for a camping season is not the easiest of tasks; however, this company has learned that it is better to have enough supply on hand than to not.

Labor flexibility is strong within this company as well and is a key factor in the manufacturing process whether it is a cooler, lantern, tent or camping stove.  Why because the labor flexibility is a such with this company that if one assembly line has to be shut down because they have used all the parts to build a particular product and close the line until parts arrive the next day, the employees to have the flexibility of being able to move to another assembly line to assist or start up a second line when building another product.  Cross training is imperative and rarely sees down time, running three shifts to meet customer demand.  Labor flexibility also affords the company to respond to market changes in their labor force, whether it is firing, hiring, working hours or conditions and compensation.  Another important factor is it helps boost production as indicated above.