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CASE STUDY #1 Fall 2013
Struggling Operations in a Manufacturing Organization
You are the Chief Operations Officer a midsized window frame, aluminum siding, and tire recycling equipment manufacturing company located in the northeastern United States. Your company is organized along product lines, and you directly supervise the three people in charge of each of these product lines. The plants for these products are geographically dispersed over a two state area; the nearest plant is located only ten minutes away but the farthest plant is a two hour drive from the company headquarters. Although your company has been financially sound over the past ten years, over the past four months your company has been experiencing a serious cash flow problem. You believe part of this problem stems from the recent downturn in the local, regional, and national economy. However, you also believe this problem may be due to inefficient plant operations. You have called in the heads of the three product lines to determine whether plant operations can be improved to help alleviate the cash flow problem. The following is a more complete description of the three product lines and the people responsible for running these operations.
Navya started with the company 20 years ago assembling window frames and has been in charge of the window frame plant for a little over two years. Navya is in charge of 12 full time employees, and this is the first formal supervisory position she has ever held. Because she started at the plant immediately upon graduating from high school, Navya does not have a college education nor has she had any formal leadership training. However, as a worker Navya proved to be far superior to everyone else at the plant. She would often come to work early, leave late, and because of her expertise would be given many of the special window frame orders the plant received. When the plant supervisor job came open, you selected Navya to fill this position because of her
Struggling Operations in a Manufacturing Organization
You are the Chief Operations Officer a midsized window frame, aluminum siding, and tire recycling equipment manufacturing company located in the northeastern United States. Your company is organized along product lines, and you directly supervise the three people in charge of each of these product lines. The plants for these products are geographically dispersed over a two state area; the nearest plant is located only ten minutes away but the farthest plant is a two hour drive from the company headquarters. Although your company has been financially sound over the past ten years, over the past four months your company has been experiencing a serious cash flow problem. You believe part of this problem stems from the recent downturn in the local, regional, and national economy. However, you also believe this problem may be due to inefficient plant operations. You have called in the heads of the three product lines to determine whether plant operations can be improved to help alleviate the cash flow problem. The following is a more complete description of the three product lines and the people responsible for running these operations.
Navya started with the company 20 years ago assembling window frames and has been in charge of the window frame plant for a little over two years. Navya is in charge of 12 full time employees, and this is the first formal supervisory position she has ever held. Because she started at the plant immediately upon graduating from high school, Navya does not have a college education nor has she had any formal leadership training. However, as a worker Navya proved to be far superior to everyone else at the plant. She would often come to work early, leave late, and because of her expertise would be given many of the special window frame orders the plant received. When the plant supervisor job came open, you selected Navya to fill this position because of her