This document discusses operations and supply chain management for a Barcelona-based shoe manufacturer called Maians. It provides an overview of their production process, which involves stocking, cutting, making, vulcanizing, cooling, and packaging shoes. It identifies the bottleneck as the sole attaching stage, which takes 600 seconds per pair. It recommends improving machinery to decrease process time by 33%, redistributing lasting resources, reallocating employees to new machines, and purchasing additional sole attaching and cotton cutting machines. This would increase production from the current 109 pairs per hour to 237 pairs per hour.

1. Operations & Supply Chain ManagementGroup E – F2 IE Business SchoolOperations & Supply Chain ManagementGroup E – F2 IE Business School
Daria Aleshina
Jesús Monzó
Nicole Pagnoni
Joaquín A. Ramirez Mongil
Ramón Schmitt

2. Operations & Supply Chain ManagementGroup E – F2 IE Business School
AGENDA
ABOUT US
PROCESS OVERVIEW & DIAGRAM
PRODUCT-PROCESS MATRIX
COMPETITION ANALYSIS
MAINTAINING QUALITY
IDENTIFYING THE BOTTLENECK
RECOMMENDATIONS

3. Operations & Supply Chain ManagementGroup E – F2 IE Business School
WHO ARE WE?
A Barcelona based shoe manufacturer
who’s vision is to create “a footwear brand
built on three key pillars: 100% handmade in
Spain, Barceloneta Lifestyle and The Sole
Revival”.
Each pair of Maians is made strictly by hand,
giving them a detailed craftsmanship feel
that meets the urban beach style.
About Process Competition Quality Improvement

4. Operations & Supply Chain ManagementGroup E – F2 IE Business School
About Process Competition Quality Improvement

5. Operations & Supply Chain ManagementGroup E – F2 IE Business School
PROCESS OVERVIEW
About Process Competition Quality Improvement
STOCKING CUTTING MAKING
VULCANIZINGCOOLINGPACKAGING

6. Operations & Supply Chain ManagementGroup E – F2 IE Business School
About Process Competition Quality Improvement
PROCESS DIAGRAM

7. Operations & Supply Chain ManagementGroup E – F2 IE Business School
Lower Variety Moderate Variety High Variety
FLEXIBLE
(JOB SHOP)
PROCESS
BATCH
PROCESS
ASSEMBLY
LINE
About Process Competition Quality Improvement
PRODUCT-PROCESS MATRIX

8. Operations & Supply Chain ManagementGroup E – F2 IE Business School
About Process Competition Quality Improvement
 Worker-paced
assembly process.
 Factory capable of
handling production of
around 28 models and 7
sizes each.
 Majority of the work
depends on assembling
unique parts into a single
piece.
 Small production, hand-
made process.
 Outsources its
manufacturing division
to third parties.
 Main system adopted
in their shoe production
is molding.
 Allows them to use
batch process.
 Provide a much greater
variety of products.
 lower volumes.
 Job shop production
process.
 Provide various
different tailoring steps.
 capable of providing
completely unique
shoes.
 volume produced is
exceptionally low
(technically, one model
= one pair).

9. Operations & Supply Chain ManagementGroup E – F2 IE Business School
About Process Competition Quality Improvement
HOW DO WE MAINTAIN
QUALITY?
To maintain a certain level of quality,
Maians shoes have to go through
various tests conducted by the relative
Quality Control employees.
These procedures are made to ensure
that the products that leave the
manufacturing plant are of top quality.

10. Operations & Supply Chain ManagementGroup E – F2 IE Business School
About Process Competition Quality Improvement
 Vulcanization Test: made to assure that the vulcanization of the outer sole
process has been correctly executed.
 Needle Test: detects if there is any hazardous metal object found in the shoe.
 Bonding and Rubbing Test: conducted to see if the shoes adhesives are
capable of keeping their integrity throughout different environments.
 Size Measurement Check: ensures both shoes are of the same measurement.

11. Operations & Supply Chain ManagementGroup E – F2 IE Business School
About Process Competition Quality Improvement
OPPORTUNITY FOR IMPROVEMENT
IDENTIFYING THE BOTTLENECK
We identified the bottleneck to be found within
the sole attaching stage - press and stocking.
This bottleneck arises as the vulcanized machine
requires at least 600 seconds to attach the sole to
the upper-part. Thus, system capacity is 110 pairs
per hour.

12. Operations & Supply Chain ManagementGroup E – F2 IE Business School
About Process Competition Quality Improvement

13. Operations & Supply Chain ManagementGroup E – F2 IE Business School
Based on data analyzed we developed some suggestions that will improve the
productivity of existing machinery & redistribute the resources available:
1. Tackle the bottleneck: improving existing machinery, decreasing process
time by 33%.
2. Redistribute the lasting process employees & machines from 8 to 2.
3. Reallocate resources released from the lasting process to 6 new machines.
4. To smooth and refine the process we suggest purchasing 3 more “sole
attaching machines” and 1 more “cotton cutting machine”.
About Process Competition Quality Improvement
RECOMMENDATIONS

14. Operations & Supply Chain ManagementGroup E – F2 IE Business School
About Process Competition Quality Improvement
Applying these 4 recommendations we assume production will improve from
109 pairs/hour to 237 pairs/hour.
The process will look as illustrated in the graph.
109 237

15. Operations & Supply Chain ManagementGroup E – F2 IE Business School
Daria Aleshina
Jesús Monzó
Nicole Pagnoni
Joaquín A. Ramirez Mongil
Ramón Schmitt