This research analyzes "The Timkin Company" case (Case 18). The results of the analysis are presented in discussions (1) providing background on the problem, (2) explaining the decision focus of the case, (3) describing the alternative choices available to the company, (4) presenting the recom mended solution to the case, and (5) developing a rationale justifying the recommended solution.
Many readers of "The Timken Company" case would be sorely tempted to state that the main problem affecting the company in 1980 (the time period of the case) was the inability of company management to focus on what should be the company's prime objective manufacturing and selling the best tapered roller bearings in the world. At some point prior to 1974, Timken began to produce the specialty steel required for its bearing operations. The company soon found that both its capacity and its expertise positioned it well to produce specialty steel products for other than its own use, and the company had, as of 1974, enjoyed considerable success in the manufacture and sale of specialty steel products for others to the point where it is a leading provider of specialty steel products.
Timken management, blessed with an inferiority complex, does not busy itself with the mundane matters of roller bear ings. Rather, the Timken management worries about why it is not known and loved as well for its specialty steel products, as it is for its roller bearings. Between 1977 and 1979, Tim ken's sales of specialty steel products increased a respectable 15.6 percent, or $72.3 million, while the company's sales of bearings increased 34.1 percent, or $235.5 million. Dilly dallying over one's ancillary product line is a sure sign of a management that does not have its head screwed on straight.
Nevertheless, in this case, the analyst must assume that father Timken's management knows best. Therefore, a strategy must be formulated to boost the unaided consume...