Background

The name 'LEGO' is an abbreviation of the two Danish words "leg godt", meaning "play well". It’s our name and it’s our ideal. 

The LEGO Group was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen. The company has passed from father to son and is now owned by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, a grandchild of the founder. 

Lego (trademarked in capitals as LEGO) is a popular line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, mini figures and various other parts. Lego bricks can be assembled and connected in many ways, to construct such objects as vehicles, buildings, and even working robots.

Lego began manufacturing interlocking toy bricks in 1949, since which a global Lego subculture has developed, supporting movies, games, competitions, and six themed amusement parks.

It has come a long way over the past almost 80 years - from a small carpenter’s workshop to a modern, global enterprise that is now, in terms of sales, the world’s fourth-largest manufacturer of toys.

The LEGO brick is our most important product. This is why we are proud to have been named twice – “Toy of the Century”. Our products have undergone extensive development over the years – but the foundation remains the traditional LEGO brick.

The brick in its present form was launched in 1958. The interlocking principle with its tubes makes it unique, and offers unlimited building possibilities. It's just a matter of getting the imagination going – and letting a wealth of creative ideas emerge through play. 

Lego Land

Legoland (trademark in uppercase LEGOLAND) is a chain o Lego-themed theme park. They are not fully owned by the Lego Group itself; rather they are owned and operated by the British theme park company Merlin Entertainment.

The parks are marketed to families with younger children (11 and under), and although they have a number of roller coasters, they are not as numerous or as extreme as those in other parks, and there is a greater emphasis on rides suitable for younger children.

The parks are split into various areas, which are common between the parks. For example, all four of the parks include a Lego miniland, a model village which includes models of landmarks and scenes from around the world made from millions of genuine Lego bricks.

The parks' rides are all Lego themed; many are made to appear as if they are built out of Lego bricks. They tend to be based on one particular line of Lego

PRODUCTS

 

Making Lego Bricks

All of the basic Lego elements start out as plastic granules composed primarily of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). A highly automated injection molding process turns these granules into recognizable bricks. The making of a Lego brick requires very high temperatures and enormous pieces of equipment, so machines, rather than people, handle most of their creation.When the ABS granules arrive at Lego manufacturing facilities, they're vacuumed into several storage silos. The average Lego plant has about 14 silos, and each can hold 33 tons of ABS granules. When production begins, the granules travel through tubes to the injection molding machines. The machines use very accurate molds -- their precision tolerance is as little as 0.002 millimeters.The machines melt the granules at temperatures of up to 450 degrees F (232 degrees C), inject the melted ABS into molds and apply between 25 and 150 tons of pressure. After about seven seconds, the new Lego pieces cool and fall onto a conveyor. At the end of the conveyor, they fall into a bin.

Costing Method: Activity Based Costing

Benefits:

possibly saved LEGO from financial ruin( lego suffered from massive loss during 2003-2004)

fact-based visibility, to understand where and how they were making and losing profits

evaluate the impact of choicesAlso, through ABC, they have been acting accordingly to make correcting decisions

Advantages

More accurate costing of products/services, customers, SKUs, distribution channels

Better understanding overhead Easier to understand for everyone Utilizes unit cost rather than just total cost Integrates well with Six Sigma and other continuous

improvement programs Makes visible waste and non-value added Supports performance management and scorecards Enables costing of processes, supply chains, and value

streams Activity Based Costing mirrors way work is done Facilitates benchmarking

References:

http://www.valuecreationgroup.com/activity_based_costing_advantage_disadvantage.htm

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/11/1129_makingof_lego/index_01.htm

http://technology.ezinemark.com/manufacturing-process-of-lego-toys-7736d660c2bd.html

Wikipedia