Casetemplate2001.docVIP

IMD-6-0254 (POM 254) v. 27.03.2003 FIFE FABRICATIONS LTD Professor Roger Schmenner prepared this case as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a business situation. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Fife Fabrications, Ltd was operating as well as it ever had, but the continuing economic downturn in the summer of 2002, especially in the telecommunications sector, had taken its toll. From a peak of 180 employees in 2001, scarcely 100 were left and the sales draught had led to the company’s first monthly losses since the dark days of 1993 (refer to Exhibit 1). Nevertheless, the company appeared to be in better health than many of its competitors. A recent meeting with Agilent, Fife Fabrications’ largest customer, revealed the fallout of the continuing bleak sales picture as another of Agilent’s sheet metal suppliers had recently declared bankruptcy and still another had gone out of business entirely. This was some consolation to Archie Smith, Fife Fabrications’ managing director, but it still left him with a raft of issues to consider, both long and short term. Fife Fabrications and Its Early History Fife Fabrications (also known as FiFab) was a sheet metal fabricator that supplied mainly the electronics, instrumentation and telecommunications industries with metal enclosures. Key customers included Agilent, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, Kelvin Hughes, Solectron and Mitel. The company was located in Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland and had been in existence for 30 years. It was non-union. The company worked mainly with aluminum, but had broad capabilities in all kinds of sheet metal. Workcenters around the plant were dedicated to shearing (guillotine); punching or drilling holes or indentations into the metal; deburring and sanding; forming the sheet metal in a variety of ways; welding; painting; silk-screening; pemming (putting in insertions); and doing various assembly work for its customers. (Ex