Mtc Case Analysis

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Q4. Based upon 1 through 3 above, does MTC have the right set of projects in its portfolio? Explain your position.

- MTC did not have the right set of projects in its portfolio. MTC’s did not have a formal process for choosing development projects. Their focus to reach a break-even point to cover up initial expenses led them to take various projects which proved challenging for them. They took projects on the basis of their technical capabilities rather than keeping in mind their strategy (to improve manufacturing process).

- The fact that their resources were overloaded and their lead time was short, implies that the leadership did not clearly define the strategic objectives and deviated to make money from products rather than process. They did not have efficient operating plans due to the development of unique product for every customer. They had tremendous innovation going on but the returns were low.

- However, the breakthrough projects helped MTC to build technical capabilities and developed ‘Quickset’ process so that derivatives could be made with incremental changes. Albeit they had key patterns to develop products under each portfolio, there was a gap between having a clear strategy and implementing the strategy.

Q5. How many projects does MTC have the capacity to have underway and execute effectively at any given point in time?

- The number of projects that MTC had the capacity to have underway was uncertain given the unpredictability of the experimentation loops at the development stage. The resources were overloaded, implying that they had undertaken projects more than they could handle. The engineering process varied with the demands of different projects.

Q6. What should Catherine Sundback do regarding making capacity commitments?

- Catherine Sundback should devise a new strategy to leverage development and manufacturing resources. However MTC has a huge backlog and the current resources are overloaded, mostly working on numerous project at a time. Clearly, to accommodate more promising projects as per Block’s proposal, they need to make trade-offs and choose what not to do.

- Prioritize the projects strategically using the Qualitative methods (Aggregate Project Planning framework or Q-Sort method). Based on analysis in Solution 3 to segregate projects in three types of ambitions, Best practices say that resources should be allocated as per the level of ambition in the following percentage ratio: 70% - Core, 20% Adjacent and 10% transformational.

- The following factors should be kept in mind while making capacity commitments:

- Industry: Manufacturing company’s focus is on incremental innovation making it allocating less resources to transformational projects

- Company’s competitive position: Since MTC has an advantage of being at a competitive position, it should maintain its leadership position by emphasizing on its core projects

- Company’s stage of development: As MTC has developed a customer base, core should be more important and shift emphasis towards that of a more established company

Q7. How unique, in your opinion, are MTC’s problems compared to a typical company?

- New product development companies hope for a better market position and financial performance, however, things go wrong in development which is common for most of the start-ups. In case of MTC, they lacked an aggregate project plan. There was no consensus on accepting the kinds of projects. It was because they did not have enough data to analyze the markets for their products and hence accepted whatever their technical capabilities could support or if they were able to make profits.

- Clearly, MTC had an innovative direction in their activities as well as their projects. With every project they undertook, it was a challenge for them to come up with right material and process. Their resources were overloaded with work, most of them working on more than 5 projects at a time. MTC’s strategic goal was to scale up their manufacturing process for them to capture large segment of markets. However, there was a gap between their strategic plans and execution activities.

- In a typical company, they have defined standards and portfolios to handle processes in certain ways. Established organizations have enough funding and resources to work on creating best practices and for that matter some of them have Project Management Office (PMOs) to create the guidelines to be followed for projects. MTC being a start-up did not have best practices and project management guidelines yet in place leading to poor management and late deliverables.

Q8. If you were advising Spencer Quinn on how to build MTC into a successful company, what would you tell him?

- Since MTC has technological capacity and best technical teams, they just need to revisit the process to choose projects. I would advise Spencer Quinn to follow Aggregate Project Plan as mentioned below:

- Perform a Qualitative Analysis to classify existing projects into five categories as per aggregate project planning framework. Greater the degree of change, greater the number of resources required for the project.

- Estimate the average time and resources needed for project type based on past experiences. This would help Quinn understand the existing capacity and make decisions on whether to take more projects and hire more people.

- Identify the existing resource capacity

- Determine the desired mix of projects

- Estimate the number of projects existing resources can support

- Decide which projects to pursue

- Work to improve development capabilities

- In addition to the above, Quinn should articulate their organization’s Mission, Vision and Strategic Goals clearly to bridge the gap between the business operations and strategic objectives. There should be a set of best practices to be followed during the product development to prevent defect slippages and follow a formal project management methodology at the tactical level.

SUMMARY

- Gaining insights from various industry for the development of ‘Quickset’ was a huge success factor for MTC.

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