Cerebus
Cerberus Corporation
Cerberus is a successful producer of speciality chemicals. It operates nine large campus sites in the
United States, with a number of different units on each site. These business units operate independently, with direct reporting to corporate headquarters. Site functions such as safety, environmental, and facilities management report to a host of organization – typically the business unit that is the largest user of their services.
Susan Steele
Susan Steele has worked in the Facilities group at the Cerberus Richmond site for the last two years.
The facility manager, Tom Stern, reports to the General Manager of the largest business unit on site, the highly profitable Adhesives and Sealant Division. Susan started with Cergerus when she graduated with her business degree from Awsum University. She was excited about here new assignment—leading a project for the first time. She remembered Tom saying, “We have got office furniture dating back to the 80s. There are those ugly green-top desks that look like they came from military surplus! I am especially concerned about computer workstation ergonomics—it’s a major issue that we absolutely must fix! I want you to lead a project to transition our office furniture to the new corporate standard.”
Susan assembled her project team: Jeff, the site safety/ergonomics engineer; Gretchen, the space planner; Cindy, the move coordinator; and Kari, the accounting liaison for Facilities. At their first meeting, everyone agreed that ergonomics was the most urgent concern. All five business units responded to a workstation survey that identified injury-causing ergonomics. The team was developing a plan to replace old desks with new, ergo-adjustable furniture by the end of the year.
Susan asked Kari about the budget and Kari responded, “Facilities should not pay for this. We want the individual business units to pay so that the costs will show where they are incurred.”
Gretch spoke up: “You know,
Cerberus is a successful producer of speciality chemicals. It operates nine large campus sites in the
United States, with a number of different units on each site. These business units operate independently, with direct reporting to corporate headquarters. Site functions such as safety, environmental, and facilities management report to a host of organization – typically the business unit that is the largest user of their services.
Susan Steele
Susan Steele has worked in the Facilities group at the Cerberus Richmond site for the last two years.
The facility manager, Tom Stern, reports to the General Manager of the largest business unit on site, the highly profitable Adhesives and Sealant Division. Susan started with Cergerus when she graduated with her business degree from Awsum University. She was excited about here new assignment—leading a project for the first time. She remembered Tom saying, “We have got office furniture dating back to the 80s. There are those ugly green-top desks that look like they came from military surplus! I am especially concerned about computer workstation ergonomics—it’s a major issue that we absolutely must fix! I want you to lead a project to transition our office furniture to the new corporate standard.”
Susan assembled her project team: Jeff, the site safety/ergonomics engineer; Gretchen, the space planner; Cindy, the move coordinator; and Kari, the accounting liaison for Facilities. At their first meeting, everyone agreed that ergonomics was the most urgent concern. All five business units responded to a workstation survey that identified injury-causing ergonomics. The team was developing a plan to replace old desks with new, ergo-adjustable furniture by the end of the year.
Susan asked Kari about the budget and Kari responded, “Facilities should not pay for this. We want the individual business units to pay so that the costs will show where they are incurred.”
Gretch spoke up: “You know,