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Case Study:
Hudsons Alpine Furniture








The Hudsons Alpine Furniture was founded in 1998 by Della Hudson and Ralph Hudson in the
regions of Queanbeyan NSW. It is relatively small firm which specializes in manufacturing of
customized timber furniture. The initial phases were marked by a smooth phase of orders.
Recently, the organization is facing a tough time as the number of commercial orders are
increasing. This paper focuses the production and operation management techniques used by the

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firm. Also, a set of recommendations have been provided in the paper which can be applied by
the organization to bring in a greater degree of efficiency (Greene 1994).
It has been analyzed in the case study provided that the management lacks a dedicated
production department. The management in the traditional times have been dealing with the
customised private users where delivery on time was relatively less important compared to value
and quality of the furniture ordered. It is also observed that the organization is applying the
Intermittent Production system. This type of system is useful when the required orders are
constantly changing and the specifications have to be changed substantially with every new
order. The other drawback identified with the current operational techniques in place is that the
senior management is lacking the required time for strategic thinking. Most of their respective
time goes in giving approvals for the peripheral issues. This should be intuitively changed to
delegation of the authority to a specialized department who will meet the senior management
once or twice in a week to get the due approvals on all the relatively smaller issues. The
production manager would also be empowered to take decision of similar nature unless it is of a
different nature which would require a discussion with the senior management. It is also
identified that Hudson Alpine Furniture must not at any cost neglect the existing opportunities
which they are presented with the given increase in the commercial orders. This will potentially
lead to expansion of their company. Thus, a there is a great need to devise out strategies which
can cater efficiently to both the needs of the customised orders and that of the commercial
orders, as both of them have a different nature (Varey 1995).
The Hudsons Alpine furniture had a vision that they wanted to create a demand for customized
goods and they have certainly succeeded in achieving that. However, with this has come an
additional opportunity where in the commercial users have also fancied their offerings of
furniture and are eager to use the products. This indeed is a result of the excellent services that
have been provided by the firm for their private users. One of the differences between the private
users and the commercial users is that the commercial users require huge volume of orders and
often the same has to deliver on time where time is the most important essence. This is not found
in the case of private users as they are more concerned about the value of the product offered and
things like quality and durability matter a lot to them. The commercial users are also highly price
sensitive in nature and they do expect certain concessions when they order bulk quantities. They

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are not very possessive about the quality but timely delivery matter a lot to them. Also, it can be
observed that customised products take a much longer time in processing of the completed work
in comparison to the commercial products where no details have to be checked and hence takes a
shorter time in processing. Thus, the two orders should be handled by using different techniques
and strategies as the requirements of the two orders are different and hence the system to handle
the order should also be different (Whitford 1998).
The organization currently serves both of these potentially different market segments which are
quite different in their characteristics as shown above. The orders for both are manufactured in a
single manufacturing unit in Queanbeyan (close to Canberra). The raw materials that are used are
of similar nature. The capacity of the manufacturing unit is limited and the huge orders received
leave out huge volumes of work in progress. This causes virtually no option for the firm to
accept more orders and they are not in a state to accept more orders. Hence, there is a need to
being in a change in their operational and production techniques so that they better manage the
flowing in orders with greater ease and efficiency.
The current scenario in the organization lacks a clear definition of a product manager who can
account for taking responsibility at various stages of production. Hudsons Alpine Furniture
lacks a clear definition in their operations and that is why they are facing troublesome time as the
production and sales orders came from different market segments (Whitford 1998).
The operations in Hudson Alpine Furniture organization needs to be redefined so that the
different involved departments have the required clarity while operating in their various
departments.
Initially, they need to focus on analysis and designing of the process that they follow. They need
to identify clearly how much does it take for a normal commercial order and how much
turnaround time to give final shape for a normal private order. There can also be quality
management team which would be dedicated towards checking the quality of the manufactured
furniture. The complaints of the end customer would also be noticed by him so that the same is
not repeated in the future. The supply chain management holds which is highlighted in the figure
below is main importance for Hudson Alpine Furniture House firm and they really have to
identify and prioritize the orders so that they are able to cater to the respective needs of the

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various different customers which are identified as the commercial users and the private users.
Lastly, there is a need to manage the project overall which can be handled by the senior
management as opposed to handling the daily peripheral activities which is happening currently
in the organization. Operating in this manner would give them a snapshot view of the operations
and hence they would be in a better position to handle the respective affairs of the organization.
Figure 1

Source: (McQuire 1999)
The diagram below also provides some useful insights for the Hudson Alpine Furniture House.
The first is to clearly identify the market place in which they are operating. As given in the case
study, the main customers are the private and the commercial users of timber furniture. It is safe
to assume that the growing numbers of orders in the commercial customers is a direct result of
the excellent services provided by Hudson Alpine Furniture to their respective private users. The
next parts of the diagram below shows the corporate strategy which is interlinked by the finance
strategy, operations strategy and the marketing strategy. The pre planning stage includes factors

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such as development of the product and the location of the plant. It also clearly charts out right in
front of the concerned department and the senior management what peripheral things are
required to be given and undertaken for various smaller tasks that would ultimately be used for
the final production process. Also, the diagram above clearly gives the requirements which need
to be considered upon the planning stage. Thus, it becomes an important utility as far as the
management of the affairs concerning pre planning, planning and control are concerned. The
same is lacking in Hudsons Alpine Furniture firm where the owners have virtually assumed the
position of handling all the departments of the organizations. The same notion needs to evolve to
better suit the needs of the changing and increasing demands and resulting revenue orders.
Figure 2

Source: (McQuire 1999).
Lack of control is also identified in the operations of Alpine Hudson Furniture as the
manufacturing unit is away from the actual physical set up of the organization. The customised
orders are the most important as they account for 60% of the volumes and 75% of the revenues
for the Hudson Alpine Furniture.
The above diagram also highlights the role of marketing research is also important for Hudsons
Alpine Furniture organization. With this, they can identify and carefully plan for the increase and

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change in the demands of the market. The analysis might just help to be fruitful for them for
finalizing their option of opening up a different segment of services for serving the commercial
users of their products. This would also assist them in making assumption of realistic figures
which can result in appropriate cost benefit analysis of the overall project, should they decide to
carry out the venture of opening up a new strategic business for serving the need of their
commercial customers (McQuire 1999)
As opposed to their current production system which is intermittent production system, the
Hudson Alpine Furniture system can apply a continuous production system where in they can be
benefitted from the system such as using machinery which can cater to both set of requirements
which the management handles namely the private users and the commercial orders. Also the
highly skilled labor of the firm can pay their dedicated attention towards the operations of the
requirements of the private users and the semi skilled or new employees in the organization can
make the use of equipments and machineries to cater to the needs of the commercial users. When
the highly skilled labors would be associated with the operations of the private and customised
users, then would also feel a certain degree of increase in their confidence and trust upon the firm
as they have been associated with the organizations primary task. This would be win-win
situation for both the organizations senior management as they would be able to cash in with the
experience of the senior level employees and the employees themselves would feel a sense of
recognition.
It has been observed in this paper that the commercial users often require a similar or a
standardized furniture product for their respective use as opposed to the customized and different
needs of the private users who often like to experiment with every fresh order they place. Thus a
continuous production system can cater well to the needs of the commercial users as the system
can support manufacturing of standardized product at huge volumes at the same time. This
would solve the problem of inventory and storage for Hudson Alpine furniture which they are
currently facing as given in the case study (McQuire 1999).
Thus, one of the major identified problems in this case has been the need to differentiate between
the commercials orders and the private orders. The current operational techniques followed by
Hudson Alpine furniture might result in great financial losses as the work in progress is really

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huge and also they are not in a position to accept the fresh and new order from either of the
parties which are namely commercial users and the private users (Berry 1992).
Thus, the management must sit down and focus on revising their current operational strategy.
One understood fact is the given situation that their market has spread and they have to cater to
both the needs of the commercial users as well as that of the private users through which they
make most of their respective business from. A proposed strategy is to create a branch of the
existing firm which would specialize in only customised offering which would cater to the needs
of the private users of timber furniture and other branch would cater to the needs of the
commercial users. This would also ensure that the respective customers have a clear
understanding of which branch of Alpine furniture is to be visited. The location of the two
branches can also be strategic in nature. The branch catering to the needs of the commercial
users can be placed at a location which is identified as a commercial hub. This would also solve
the problem of delivering the orders on time which is pre requisite of the commercial orders.
However, the branch must be equipped with the all the facilities of manufacturing where in the
order can be taken and end to end activities can take place. Ordering materials from any other
location would not be feasible and would result in deviation from the very idea of setting up the
branch in the commercial hub as strategically planned (Grnroos 2001).
References
Berry, LL & Parasuraman, A 1992, Services marketing starts from within, Marketing
Management, Winter, pp. 2534.
Greene, WE, Walls, GD & Schrest, LJ 1994, Internal marketing: The key to external marketing
success, Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 513.
Grnroos, C 2001, Managing internal marketing: A prerequisite for successfully managing
customer relationships, in Service Management and Marketing: A Customer Relationship
Management Approach, 2nd edn, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp. 33055.
McQuire, L 1999, Australian services marketing and management, Macmillan Education
Australia, Melbourne.

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Varey, RJ 1995, Internal marketing: A review and some interdisciplinary research challenges,
International Journal of Service Industry Management, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 4063.
Whitford, B 1998, Customer Service Excellence: How Organisations in Australia Are Exceeding
Customer Expectations, Beaumont Publishing House, Subiaco, WA.