Week 6 MGMT HW

Case Incident 17.1

“Bird-Dogging” the Employee

Ace Electronics, Inc. is a small company located in Centerville. It is owned and operated by Al Abrams, a highly experienced electronics person who founded the company.

Ace's basic product is an electronic walkie-talkie that is sold primarily to the U.S. military. The walkie-talkie units are relatively simple to produce; Ace merely purchases the subcomponents—and assembles them with hand tools. Due to this moderate level of complexity, Ace employs semiskilled workers at low wage rates.

Although Ace has made a profit each year since it started production, Al Abrams was becoming increasingly concerned. Over the past six years, he had noticed a general decline in employee morale; furthermore, he had observed a decline in his employees' productivity and his company's profit margin.

As a result of his concern, Al asked his supervisors to keep a closer watch on the workers' hour-to-hour activities. In the first week, they discovered two workers in the restroom reading magazines. This "bird-dogging" technique, as management called it, or "slave driving," as the workers called it, failed to increase either production or productivity.

Al recognized that the lack of performance on the part of some employees was affecting the production of everyone. This phenomenon was caused by the balanced assembly line under which the walkie-talkies were assembled. If an employee next to a normally productive employee did not work fast enough, walkie-talkies would back up on the line. Instead of having a backup, however, the assembly line was usually readjusted to the production rate of the slower employees.

In addition, another situation developed to lower productivity and increase unit costs. Ace was required by the government to meet monthly production and delivery schedules. If it failed, a very substantial financial penalty could result. In recent years, the production and delivery schedule had become more difficult to meet. For the last eight months, Al had scheduled overtime to meet the production and delivery schedule and thus avoid the financial penalty. This overtime increased unit production costs and caused another problem: Many employees began to realize that if they worked more slowly at the beginning of the month, they could receive more overtime at the end of the month. Even the senior employees were slowing down to increase their overtime wages.

Al was very reluctant to fire employees, especially senior employees. Even if he was inclined to do so, it was difficult to catch employees slowing down or provide any reasonable evidence for such a rash action. Al was frustrated and perplexed.

Questions

1. Describe in detail the control dilemma at Ace Electronics. 2. Are Al Abrams and the employees getting the same feedback? Why or why not? 3. What should Al do?

Skill-Building Exercise 20.1

Out of Control?

Situation 1

The manager of a fast-food hamburger chain must ensure that the hamburger advertised as a quarter-pounder is actually 4 ounces, more or less. The company policy states that the quarter-pounder must come within 3/10 of an ounce of being 4 ounces in order to be used. A chart reflects the expected weight of the patty (4 ounces), the upper control limit (4.3 ounces), and the lower control limit (3.7 ounces). A sample of patties has been taken each day for the last eight days, and the average weight recorded for each day is recorded on a chart. On day 1 the weight is 4.1 oz. on day 5 the weight is 5 oz. on day 8 the weight is 3.8 oz

Questions for Situation 1

1. Should the patty preparation process be investigated?

2. Is there a problem? Why do you think so?

Situation 2

You are the owner of a car repair shop that specializes in tune-ups. On each work order, the mechanic records the time at which he began the tune-up and the time when finished. From these data, you can determine how long each mechanic spends on each job. You expect each job to take about 40 minutes; however, you know that if someone were in a hurry, the job could be done in as few as 20 minutes. Also, you believe that under no circumstances should a tune-up take over one hour. A recently hired mechanic recorded his time for his last 11 tune-up jobs. On the first tune-up he took 35 min. on his forth tune up he took 50 min. and on his last tune up he took 25 min.

Questions for Situation 2

1. Should you have a talk with this mechanic?

2. Is there a problem? Why do you think so?

Case incident 20.1

Production Problems

Braddock Company of Sea Shore City fabricates stamped metal parts used in the production of wheelbarrows. Braddock fabricates two basic styles of wheelbarrow trays: One is for a deep, four-cubic-foot construction model, and the other is for a shallow, two-cubic-foot homeowner's model. Braddock's process is simple. Raw metal sheets are picked up from inventory (Braddock presently maintains about 7 days' worth of the large metal sheets for the construction model and about 10 days' worth of the smaller sheets for the homeowner's model) and fed into a large machine that bends and shapes the metal into the desired tray. The trays are then inspected and packaged, 10 to a box, for shipping.

In the past few days, Braddock has been experiencing quality problems with both tray styles. Undesirable creases have been forming in the corners following the stamping operation. However, the problem with the construction model tray is more pronounced and appeared almost three full days before it did on the homeowner's model.

Several incidents have occurred at Braddock during the past week that Hal McCarthy, the operations manager, thinks may have a bearing on the problem. Shorty McCune, a machine operator and labor activist, was accused of drinking on the job and released a few days before the problem began. Since his release, Shorty has been seen in and around the plant talking to several other employees. About two weeks ago, Braddock also began receiving raw metal from a new supplier because of an attractive price break.

The only inspection the company performs is the post-fabrication inspection.

Questions

1. What do you think is causing Braddock's problem? 2. Why is the problem more pronounced on the construction model than on the homeowner's model?

3. How can Braddock eliminate its problem?