Unicon Concrete Products – Case Report
Module Four
Operations and process Management
Josh Smith
March 30th, 2011
Lisa Rasmey

Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Issue Identification 4 Environmental and Root Cause 5 Alternative and/or Options 7 Recommendation and Implementation 8 Monitor and Control 10

Executive Summary
Mr. Li has an opportunity with Unicon to direct it in a new focused direction. With its competitive advantage it has established with the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HKHA). I recommend pursuing the blanket approval process with HKHA. These efficiencies could prove beneficial for both parties as this will greatly reduce lead time and costs. Façade and slabs is the growing trend in the industry and …show more content…

With our largest customer who makes up 80 percent of our sales. The HKHA have announced forecasts of 179 blocks to be tendered in the next year alone. Unicon’s current capacity is for 7 blocks per year with the current industry capacity of 20 blocks per year.
The trend is moving towards precasting material. If a blanket approval was negotiated. It would reduce the amount of additional costs drastically for Unicon. This would allow Unicon to standardize their product and take full advantage of stocking concrete facades and slabs. This would allow Unicon to focus on the quality of their product and allocate resources toward those structures as you will know exactly how many you will need for each job. As mentioned, this could be savings upwards to HK150,000 per block.

Alternative and/or Options
If Unicon wants to stay competitive is this booming industry. It will have to make some decisions on the direction this company would like to take. The strategy in this move could prove very successful if we take a look at the pros and cons of each alternative. This decision has a lot to do with what tradeoffs Mr. Li is willing to take as well as the risks that come with it.
1. Unicon could pursue the blanket approval. This would lock Unicon in with the HKHA and will guaranty steady work for the next 4-5 years. The cost reductions would be highly beneficial as you will not need to get engineering approval for each job. Once the standards are determined, Unicon will