Joseph Hansen, president of Electronica, Inc., was concerned about the end-of-the-year marketing…

Joseph Hansen, president of Electronica, Inc., was concerned about the end-of-the-year marketing report that he had just received.
According to Asha Kumar, marketing manager, a price decrease for the coming year was again needed to maintain the company’s annual sales volume of integrated circuit boards (CBs). This would make a bad situation worse.
The current selling price of $27 per unit was producing a $3-per-unit profit—half the customary $6-per-unit profit. Foreign competitors keep reducing their prices. To match the latest reduction would reduce the price from $27 to $21. This would put the price below the cost to produce and sell it. How could the foreign firms sell for such a low price?
Determined to find out if there were problems with the company’s operations, Joseph decided to hire Ahmed Kumar, a well-known consultant and brother of Asha, who specializes in methods of continuous improvem