M/s. ABC Ltd is a medium-sized engineering company producing a large-range of product lines according to customer requirements. It has earned a good reputation as a quick and reliable supplier to its customers because of which its volume of business kept on increasing. However, over the past one year, the Managing Director of the company has been receiving customer complaints due to delays in dispatch of products and at times the company has to pay substantial penalty for not meeting the schedule in time. The Managing Director convened an urgent meeting of various functional managers to discuss the issue. The marketing manager questioned the arbitrary manner of giving priority to products in manufacturing line, causing delays in wanted products and over-stocking of products which are not required immediately. Production Control Manager complained that he does not have adequate staff to plan and control the production function; and whatever little planning he does, is generally overlooked by shop floor manager. Shop floor managers complained of unrealistic planning, excessive machine breakdowns, power failure, and shortage of materials for scheduled products because of which it is impossible to stick to the schedule. Maintenance manager says that he does not get important spares required for equipmentmaintenance because of which he cannot repair machines at a faster rate. Inventory control manager says that on one hand the company often accuses him of carrying too much stock and on other hand people are grumbling over shortages. Fed up by mutual mud-slinging, the Managing Director decided to appoint you, a bright management consultant with training in business management to suggest ways and means to put his "house in order".
Questions
1. How would you examine if there is any merit in the remarks of various functional managers?
2. What, in your opinion, could be the reasons for different Managerial thinking in this case?
3. How would you design a system of getting correct information about job status to identify delays quickly?
4. What would you suggest to promote co-ordinate interaction of various people to meet the scheduled dates?