The major issue is how to make technological change happen in a company whose manufacturing processes and systems of management were built to satisfy another era. The specific problem is to introduce both plastic packaging and new process ingredients so that customers could microwave the soup. In addition, this had to be done with minimal upheaval of production while not incurring high development costs.
1. Do nothing -- In case the microwave food trend is just that, a trend, then the company could maintain its proprietary position as a soup manufacturer, a business that depends both on tradition and on a combination of innovation, cost control, marketing, developing new strategies and utilizing technological advancements in every step of the manufacturing process from ingredient purchasing through packaging.
2. Embrace the new technology and upgrade parts of the company's manufacturing arms to handle the new product.
Alternative one, do nothing, is recommended to give time for the following implementation plan to be instituted.
First the company must rethink what it wants to do with the Plastigon program. If the company does have a clear vision, then it has not been passed down to the lower levels of management for correct implication.
With a clearer focus, the company can then refocus its R & D, which is going off in several directions, and determine just what products it wants to market and exactly how it wants to package them.
The problem has been trying to overlay new tech ideas on an old tech system, and that seldom works, since the processes for creating and sealing metal cans is entirely different than creating and sealing the microwave units (Smith, 1995).
Smith, M. (1995, March 1). Bottleneck management: time factor in production). British Management Accounting, 73
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