CASE TOYS, INC. Toys. Inc., is a 20-year-old company engaged in the manufacture has proposed a trade-in program through which customers car and sale of toys and board games. The company has built a rep- replace malfunctioning models with new ones. McNally believes utation on quality and innovation. Although the company is one this will demonstrate goodwill and appease dissatisfied custom. of the leaders in its field, sales have leveled off in recent years. ers. He has also proposed rebuilding the trade-ins and selling For the most recent six-month period, sales actually declined com- them at discounted prices in the company's retail outlet store, pared with the same period last year. The production manager, He doesn't think this will take away from sales of new models, Ed Murphy, attributed the lack of sales growth to "the economy." Under McNally's program, no new staff would be needed. Regular He was prompted to undertake a number of belt-tightening moves workers would perform needed repairs during periods of seasonal that included cuts in production costs and layoffs in the design slowdowns, thus keeping production at current levels. and product development departments. Although profits are still When Steve Bukowski, a production assistant, heard Keith's pro- flat, he believes that within the next six months, the results of his posal, he said that a better option would be to increase inspection decisions will be reflected in increased profits. of finished models before they were shipped. "With 100 percent The vice president of sales, Joe Martin, has been concerned inspection, we can weed out any defective models and avoid the with customer complaints about the company's realistic line of problem entirely." working-model factories, farms, and service stations. The mov- Take the role of a consultant who has been called in for advice ing parts on certain models have become disengaged and fail to by the company president, Marybeth Corbella. What do you operate or they operate erratically. His assistant, Keith McNally, recommend?Read the case study: TOY INC. AND MAKE A CASE ANALYSIS TIME CONTEXT: STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVE: ANALYSIS SWOT