1. What operational risks did SIS face when deciding to become a strategic supplier for Alden Toys???? Slagelse Industrial Services (SIS) had become one of Europe’s most respected suppliers of die-cast zinc, aluminium and magnesium parts to hundreds of companies in many industries, especially automotive and defence. The company cast and engineered precision components by combining the most modern production technologies with precise tooling and craftsmanship. Slagelse Industrial Services (SIS) began life as a classic family firm under Erik Paulsen, who opened a small manufacturing and die-casting business in his home town of Slagelse, a town in east Denmark, about 100 km south-west of Copenhagen. He had successfully leveraged his skills and passion for craftsmanship over many years, while serving a variety of different industrial and agricultural customers. His son Anders had spent nearly ten years working as a production engineer for a large automotive parts supplier in the UK, but eventually returned to Slagelse to take over the family firm. Exploiting his experience in mass manufacturing, Anders spent years building the firm into a larger-scale industrial component manufacturer, but retained his father’s commitment to quality and customer service. After 20 years, he sold the firm to a UK-owned industrial conglomerate and within ten years it had doubled in size again and now employed in the region of 600 people and had a turnover approaching ????200 million.

Throughout this period, the firm had continued to target its products into niche industrial markets where its emphasis upon product quality and dependability meant it was less vulnerable to price and cost pressures. However, in 2009, in the midst of difficult economic times and widespread industrial restructuring, it had been encouraged to bid for higher-volume, lower-margin work. This process was not very successful but eventually culminated in a tender for the design and production of a core metallic element of a child’s toy (a ‘transforming’ robot).