Case 53 Problems in Pasta Land by Andres Sousa-Poza Old Dominion University The Food Factory has been operating in an underdeveloped country for approximately 10 years.1 Its parent corporation specializes in wheat milling, and it started the pasta factory as a \"side-line\" operation to process lower quality wheat our, which is a byproduct of the normal milling process. This low-gluten our is generally not suitable for the production of bread or for direct sale to consumers. In 2009, the pasta division is cononted with a major problem. It is too successful! The factory was designed around the mill. Production capacities matched the amount of efuent from the mill rather than coming from a sound marketing strategy. As shown in Table 53-1, by 2006, the pasta plant was no longer able to effectively serve existing customers. The plant that was designed to produce 600 tons of pasta per month on two production lines is now facing average monthly orders of approximately 800 tons. Furthermore, the corporate director of marketing estimates that orders could easily be increased to 1400 to 1800 tons per month