Business · Original Repewo Game
The Printing Press Dilemma
A printing company with unused capacity must choose between many small customers, several medium customers, one large customer, or a balanced mix.
Writer: RePeWo
Your printing company has unused capacity
You own a commercial printing company. Only 30% of production capacity is currently used. The goal is to reach about 80% without creating unmanageable risk. The team must choose between many small customers, several medium customers, one large customer, or a mixed portfolio.
- Printing company today:
- • Monthly capacity: 1,600 machine hours
- • Employees: 6
- • Current utilization: 30%
- • Target utilization: about 80%
- • Working capital is limited
- Small customers:
- • Examples: restaurants, schools, clubs, local shops
- • Monthly revenue per customer: about €700–€1,800
- • Approx. gross margin: 30%
- • Advantage: low dependency on any one customer
- • Challenge: many orders, frequent changes, more administration and setup
- Medium customers:
- • Examples: hotels, regional companies, medium-sized manufacturers, trade-fair organizers
- • Monthly revenue per customer: about €4,500–€11,000
- • Approx. gross margin: 23%
- • Advantage: useful volume with manageable concentration
- • Challenge: requires active sales and coordination
- Large customer:
- • Example: a national retail chain
- • Potential monthly revenue: about €45,000–€65,000
- • Approx. gross margin: 14%
- • Advantage: large recurring volume and simpler planning
- • Challenge: high dependency and strong customer bargaining power
Guest play is available. Results stay on this device unless a signed-in user explicitly saves them.
Each role looks at the same decision from a different business perspective.
Assign the five business perspectives
Managing Director
Balances growth, profitability, stability and customer-dependency risk.
- Collect one recommendation from every role.
- Define the maximum acceptable dependency on a single customer.
Finance Manager
Evaluates margin, cash flow, payment terms and financial concentration risk.
- Compare the financial attractiveness of the customer strategies.
- Explain which option creates the greatest cash-flow risk.
Production & Technical Manager
Evaluates capacity, setup effort, waste, utilization and quality risk.
- Compare varied short-run jobs with repetitive high-volume work.
- Identify which strategy is easiest and hardest to produce reliably.
Sales Manager
Evaluates customer acquisition, pricing pressure, loyalty and negotiating power.
- Assess how realistic each target customer group is.
- Explain the pricing and negotiation pressure of each group.
Operations & Planning Manager
Evaluates order volume, scheduling, deadlines and day-to-day workload.
- Estimate how many simultaneous jobs each strategy creates.
- Decide how much customer variety the current team can manage.
Round 1 — Which customers should we target?
Compare four options: many small customers, several medium customers, one large customer, or a mixed portfolio.
Each role should answer its main question and share the result with the relevant roles.
Role check-ins
Managing Director
- Which option do you recommend?
- What is your main reason?
- What is the biggest risk?
- Goal: increase utilization from 30% to about 80%
- Need to protect cash flow
- Recommendation
- Reason
- Risk
Final recommendation / output
A preliminary customer strategy.
Finance Manager
- Which group pushes hardest for discounts?
- Which group is likely to demand longer payment terms?
- Approximate margin by customer group
- Cash-flow limits
- Pricing pressure
- Payment terms
Final recommendation / output
A financial recommendation.
Production & Technical Manager
- How many job changes per day are manageable?
- Which model creates the most schedule pressure?
- Technical setup constraints
- Impact of variety on waste
- Scheduling pressure
- Expected job count
Final recommendation / output
A production recommendation.
Sales Manager
- What minimum margin is acceptable?
- Which payment terms are too risky?
- Market pricing
- Customer negotiating pressure
- Financial limits
- Cash-flow risk
Final recommendation / output
A sales recommendation.
Operations & Planning Manager
- How much setup time does each job change require?
- Which type of job disrupts the schedule most?
- Current planning capacity
- Limits of the six-person team
- Setup requirements
- Production constraints
Final recommendation / output
An operations recommendation.
Evidence Wall
Separate facts, assumptions, unknowns and sources.
Risk Heatmap / Risk Matrix
Discuss severity, likelihood and detection uncertainty.
Option Comparison Board
Compare alternatives using evidence, risk and cost.
Round 2 — A large-customer offer arrives
A national retail chain offers a three-year contract that would use 55% of total printing capacity. The customer requires a 12% price discount, 60-day payment terms and production priority during peak months.
Each role must decide one thing: accept, reject or renegotiate?
Role check-ins
Managing Director
- Accept, reject or renegotiate?
- What condition is required before signing?
- Maximum acceptable dependency
- Revised recommendation
- Required safeguard
Final recommendation / output
The Managing Director's final recommendation.
Finance Manager
- Can price or payment terms be renegotiated?
- Maximum acceptable cash exposure
- Negotiating position
Final recommendation / output
Financial conditions required for acceptance.
Production & Technical Manager
- Can other customers still be served on time?
- Real machine capacity
- Delay risk
Final recommendation / output
A technical recommendation.
Sales Manager
- Is the contract still attractive under these terms?
- Strategic value of the customer
- Financial risk
Final recommendation / output
A recommendation to accept, reject or renegotiate.
Operations & Planning Manager
- How much flexible capacity should remain?
- Needs of existing customers
- Usable capacity
Final recommendation / output
A workable operating plan.
Evidence Wall
Separate facts, assumptions, unknowns and sources.
Risk Heatmap / Risk Matrix
Discuss severity, likelihood and detection uncertainty.
Option Comparison Board
Compare alternatives using evidence, risk and cost.
Which customer strategy should the printing company choose?
Team decision result
No option is always best. A strong decision balances profitability, capacity, workload and customer-dependency risk.
Task 40 · Evidence 35 · Peer 25
Managing Director
80/100Finance Manager
80/100Production & Technical Manager
80/100Sales Manager
80/100Operations & Planning Manager
80/100The team balanced profitability, capacity, workload and customer-dependency risk.
If one of your assumptions is wrong, which part of your strategy fails first?