Barco: Manufacturing strategy of printed circuit assembly

Abstract

Barco is a multinational active in image processing technology. Four of the business units (BU's) each have a printed circuit assembly (PCA) department, supplying the final assembly plant of the BU. The management of Barco considers merging the printed circuit assembly departments of the four business units. The four business units supply different markets, with different requirements. The case starts by describing the competitive success factors in each of these business units. The final assembly units obviously play a critical role in accomplishing the market requirements for all business units. However, in some of the business units the role of the PCA department is also very critical for competitiveness. This is the second element in the discussion. A third element in the discussion is the performance improvement (or possibly deterioration) that may result from the merger of the PCA departments. The case allows the teacher to go through the decision making for the merger of the PCA departments. While this is mainly a discussion on the manufacturing strategy at the level of the plant and the PCA department, it also offers the possibility to discuss the organisational issues that arise in such a decision, and the potential for outsourcing the PCA. A teaching note supplement is available to accompany the teaching note.