Fhe Case Study

Michelle Stewart Operations Management FHE, Inc. Synopsis and Purpose Lum Donaldson is a product development engineering manager for FHE, Inc. The company manufactures pumps and related fluid-handling equipment. The company supplies products used to transfer liquids of all types, including paint, adhesives, and food products. The pumps supplied by the company are used by the automobile and appliance industries, in vehicle servicing, in home construction and in other ways. Lum has discovered that there is a need to improve the procedures, organization, and project control systems to make new-product introductions go more smoothly. Discussion Questions What steps should Donaldson take to improve the new-product development process at FHE? What could be done to clarify the organizational relationship between product managers, technical program managers, and manufacturing mangers? What can be done to better manage the work-load of the engineering services department? Evaluate the plans and the expected results from the new CAD-CAM system. Analysis Question1. What steps should Donaldson take to improve the new-product development process at FHE? Another step that Donaldson needs to take has to do with resolving the problem of coordinating the relationship between product managers, technical program managers, and marketing managers. Lum needs to clearly define the requirements necessary at each phase of project development so that the engineering services department is able to produce results in a more efficient manner than is currently possible. The new product development process can also be improved by greater communication between manufacturing and product design managers. Currently the product design department admits that once a product is developed it is typically “thrown over the wall to manufacturing”, because of this lack of communication product quality often suffers and problems arise