Eagle Manufacturing
I. Major Facts
A. Ted Jones is the supply manager at Eagle Manufacturing and has been faced with one crisis after another while trying to placate operations, plant maintenance and half the management team and assistants. He has put together a team of professionals but morale has started to be a problem. The senior buyer submitted his resignation insinuating that he is overworked and his health was suffering. Ted is aware that better training is needed.
B. The performance measures compared to the same period last year are good but there is still room for improvement. There was a problems with running out of parts and parts being of low quality. There are contract specifications that are not complete as the janitorial service isn’t completely aware of what is expected. The supply budget has been cut so that cheaper reproduction paper is being used and this causes machine jamming, thus leading to more downtown. The final fact was a very expensive robot that was estimated by only one supplier at $5.5 million was actually going to cost $7.1 million.
II. Major Problem
I think the major problem is a lack of communication combined with a lack of training. Ted is overloaded and doesn’t delegate enough work out and utilize the human resources available.
III. Possible Solutions/Alternatives
A. Implementation of a cross functional team would help tremendously. There are things that if the departments worked together as a team production and moral could be improved. Implementing input from all areas would help the underlying communication issue. The old saying of “one half doesn’t know what the other half is doing” is very true in this case study.
The disadvantages of a cross functional team include the amount of human resources that would be required for this to be successful as well as resistance for employees to participate, especially at a time when morale is low.
B. Ted needs to implement training and delegate some work. Ted is experiencing what the textbook describes as on “overload”, he has too much responsibility on him and facing potential burnout. His multitasking is becoming counterproductive. Employee