Publications
Publications
- May 1993 (Revised January 1994)
- HBS Case Collection
Cummins Engine Company, The: Starting Up "B" Crankshaft Manufacturing at the San Luis Potosi Plant
By: Robert H. Hayes
Abstract
Cummins Engine Co. is starting up production of diesel engine crankshafts in its plant in central Mexico. This operation requires much tighter tolerances than any product previously produced at the plant, and the young (recent MBA) manager who is in charge of the start-up is faced with several difficult decisions regarding the equipment to be used for crankshaft machining in Mexico. On the one hand, some of the equipment used for this purpose in Cummins' U.S. plant is inappropriate in the Mexican context. On the other, he has to operate under severe budgetary and supplier constraints. A subsidiary issue has to do with the long-term strategy for the Mexican plant, which has developed into one of the best in Cummins' worldwide network but risks being fragmented by the many opportunities for adding products that are available to it.
Keywords
Decision Choices and Conditions; Production; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Emerging Markets; Problems and Challenges; Industrial Products Industry; Mexico; Alabama
Citation
Hayes, Robert H. Cummins Engine Company, The: Starting Up "B" Crankshaft Manufacturing at the San Luis Potosi Plant. Harvard Business School Case 693-121, May 1993. (Revised January 1994.)