Part One Progressive Case Study: Bill's Grills
Read through the Progressive Case Study information and answer the questions at the end of the case study. Be sure to reference at least 2 pieces of pertinent information from the text. Post your answers to the Progressive Case Discussion Board.
Part 8: (for use with chapters 14 and 15)
May 22, 2012 9:30 AM
It seemed that things were finally settling down and getting better. After confronting Jamaal about the steel cutters and benders, he created a plan to slowly replace upgrade them throughout the plant. Within two weeks scrap was down, and quality was up. Even better, after two more trips to China, and several Skype meetings, Patrick and Ken were able to cut a deal with TriTech (for a refresher, see Part 1 of the case). After a month of designing the igniter at Bill's R&D facilities (located in Texas, North Carolina, and Rhode Island), the final prints were sent to TriTech.
Bill's had been expecting the shipment of igniters from TriTech, and in anticipation of the shipment premade several thousand grills that left only the igniter to be welded into place. Several dozen large orders were on backorder, and awaiting the arrival and placement of the igniters-as soon as the igniters were welded into place, the orders would be filled. Everything was good. When Patrick arrived at the factory today, he heard that the shipment was just delivered and being unpacked. Yes!
May 22, 2012; 10:30 AM
Patrick was called into a meeting. Janet, Jose and several supervisors were in the room, and there were big problems. Apparently the igniters were the wrong size. Worse, in addition to being 3 cm too small in diameter, they included an ignition module that corroded during shipment. It was found that the original igniter design included a small battery that was not fully enclosed. The shipments were made in large containers that were placed close to the door of the cargo ship that carried it between the Chinese and US ports. The battery (and area around it) corroded during the month it spent in the salty ocean air during shipment. Between the incorrect sizing and the corroded battery, the shipment of igniters was useless. In a conference call between Sue the R&D manager, the leaders at the Texas and North Carolina R&D facilities (The Rhode Island leader was not available), the lead engineer at TriTech, and Patrick's leadership team, the following conversation was took place:
Sue: Let me start by saying that I oversaw this design process myself, and I stand by our design. I don't understand what went wrong-the design that went to TriTech was perfect.
TriTech lead engineer: We were instructed to use the battery, rather than an electric module by your North Carolina design team. We recommended the electric module, but battery power reduced cost significantly-we were only following the instructions of our contact from North Carolina.
North Carolina R&D leader: That is true, but our original design included full water resistant covers over the battery. The cover would have prevented the corrosion--what happened to the covers?
TriTech lead engineer: The cover was removed from the design by our contact at your Texas facility.
Texas R&D leader: That is true. We designed the igniter based upon the needs of the factory. After reviewing the materials, we determined that removing the watertight battery cover and reducing the diameter by 3 cm would reduce materials costs by $350,000. But, we only implemented the changes based upon recommendations and approval by the Rhode Island R&D team leader.
Jose: But why didn't anyone tell us that the igniter would be 3 cm smaller? We have now built 6,000 grills with holes in the side waiting for a 12 cm igniter. We can't weld a 9 cm igniter into a 12 cm hole! We will need to do some significant retrofitting to make them work. To fix this will take weeks, and the orders we planned to fill are already on backorder. We are at risk of losing several good customers.....
Janet: I don't care what happened. Fix it.
Patrick: The size of the hole doesn't matter now. With all of the batteries corroded, we cannot use these igniters anyways. We will need to find another solution.
Clearly mistakes were made, buy why?
Answer the following questions:
- First, describe your gut reaction to this situation. What do you think?
- What do you think are the root causes of the problems that Patrick faces today? What does Chapter 14 say about the problems that are seen here? Chapter 15? Be specific.
- How does power play into this situation? How could the situation have been avoided?
- Based upon what you have learned from the text, what recommendations do you have for Patrick. Be specific.
Part Two Progressive Case Study: Bill's Grills
Read through the Progressive Case Study information and answer the questions at the end of the case study. Be sure to include at least 2 pieces of pertinent information from the text. Post your answer to the Progressive Case Discussion Board.
Part 9: The R&D Problem (for use with chapter 16)
Date: July 1, 2012; 12:30 PM
After the big igniter problem, the company is still reeling. The ramifications were severe; they lost several big customers over it, along with creating a huge amount of scrap. To make matters worse, they were not able to recoup their payment from TriTech because the igniters were delivered as they had been designed-it was their own fault, not TriTechs. After a few weeks, purchasers were able to find replacement parts, but delivery took several weeks, and at significant cost. During that time, Patrick had hourly employees take a two week unpaid leave. After employees were asked to return, productivity was low-presumably because morale was low after the forced leave, and they were likely performing a work slow-down that was not sanctioned by the union. After what they have been though, Bill's cannot afford to have poor productivity now-all of the gains made between March and May were wiped out with the igniter snafu.
Answer the following questions:
- First, describe your gut reaction to this situation. What do you think?
- What can Patrick do to improve productivity? What types of leadership would be most appropriate? Use the information from Chapter 16 to answer this question.
- How can this situation be applied to the materials in chapter 17? Be specific.
- Based upon what you have learned from the text, what recommendations do you have for Patrick. Be specific.