HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT - Case Study

Fast and Furious Inc. is a component parts manufacturer for the auto industry. Its workforce is diverse, with a majority whose first language isnt English. Many speak limited English, but those are mainly on the production lines. About 70% of its workforce work is on the production lines. Fast and Furious is privately owned, and the owners are thinking of selling. They have never taken part in day-to-day operations and are not familiar with how the firm operates. They relied on the managers to run the business as if it were their own. Due to their future retirement plans, they need to value the company for a sale. They commissioned an audit of Fast and Furious to plan for the sale by a team of professional consultants. After reading the audit they are concerned that they must postpone plans as things are bad. Key background: Fast and Furious manufactures parts for 4 car plants located in Brantford, Guelph, Alliston and Windsor. Radiators, fan belts and oil reservoirs comprise their main business but in 2021 they added the sale of computer chips to their product line to try and capture some of this market. To start the computer chip product line Fast and Furious management hired several engineers whose task was to set up the line. Management relied on this team of engineers to set the prices and establish the sales structure for the salesforce as well as to monitor and train the existing employees. Engineers had a different understanding of their role. Management consists of 4 managers, each in charge of a line. Salespersons sell all lines. Key findings are: There were several accidents on the computer chip line which resulted in the wastage of a months worth of chips. Employees were not aware of the extra care needed for this product, and they also couldnt properly use the manufacturing machinery. When the group of engineers were hired to create the computer chip line, they were told that their bonus depended on meeting the deadline date to set up the line. They did that and so earned their bonus for 2021. No bonus plan has been offered for 2022. The group of engineers believe their only task now is to make sure the production machinery for the chips works. There was a fire in the fan belt line area. New equipment had been installed and employees needed to monitor the temperature carefully to avoid overheating. Fast and Furious Inc. March 2022 Training is provided to the production employees in English, with detailed pictures labelled in English. Employees on the fan belt line received their training during lunch. The 4 managers receive an annual bonus based on their individual appraisal ratings. The manager of the fan belts line was accused of harassment by a member of the sales force. The manager has defended himself vocally by saying only that he took micromanagement to the extreme. The investigation is ongoing, and HR has been very busy interviewing members of the sales force and has expanded the investigation to the production line employees managed by him. Sales of radiators are at 175% of last years target, only 9 months into the year. Oil reservoirs are on target. Computer chip sales are very low. Fan belt sales are nonexistent as the fire created havoc with their inventory. No car manufacturer wants to wait for parts when demand for cars is so high. Fast and Furious Inc. is a component parts manufacturer for the auto industry. Its workforce is diverse, with a majority whose first language isnt English. Many speak limited English, but those are mainly on the production lines. About 70% of its workforce work is on the production lines. Fast and Furious is privately owned, and the owners are thinking of selling. They have never taken part in day-to-day operations and are not familiar with how the firm operates. They relied on the managers to run the business as if it were their own. Due to their future retirement plans they need to value the company for a sale. They commissioned an audit of Fast and Furious to plan for the sale by a team of professional consultants. After reading the audit they are concerned that they must postpone plans as things are bad. Key background: Fast and Furious manufactures parts for 4 car plants located in Brantford, Guelph, Alliston and Windsor. Radiators, fan belts and oil reservoirs comprise their main business but in 2021 they added the sale of computer chips to their product line to try and capture some of this market. To start the computer chip product line Fast and Furious management hired several engineers whose task was to set up the line. Management relied on this team of engineers to set the prices and establish the sales structure for the salesforce as well as to monitor and train the existing employees. Engineers had a different understanding of their role. Management consists of 4 managers, each in charge of a line. Salespersons sell all lines. Key findings are: There were several accidents on the computer chip line which resulted in the wastage of a months worth of chips. Employees were not aware of the extra care needed for this product, and they also couldnt properly use the manufacturing machinery. When the group of engineers were hired to create the computer chip line, they were told that their bonus depended on meeting the deadline date to set up the line. They did that and so earned their bonus for 2021. No bonus plan has been offered for 2022. The group of engineers believe their only task now is to make sure the production machinery for the chips works. There was a fire in the fan belt line area. New equipment had been installed and employees needed to monitor the temperature carefully to avoid overheating.

Training is provided to the production employees in English, with detailed pictures labelled in English. Employees on the fan belt line received their training during lunch. The 4 managers receive an annual bonus based on their individual appraisal ratings. The manager of the fan belts line was accused of harassment by a member of the sales force. The manager has defended himself vocally by saying only that he took micromanagement to the extreme. The investigation is ongoing, and HR has been very busy interviewing members of the sales force and has expanded the investigation to the production line employees managed by him. Sales of radiators are at 175% of last years target, only 9 months into the year. Oil reservoirs are on target. Computer chip sales are very low. Fan belt sales are nonexistent as the fire created havoc with their inventory. No car manufacturer wants to wait for parts when demand for cars is so high. Salespersons are discouraged with the current compensation plan. Radiators are paid at 2% of sales. Oil reservoirs are paid at 1.5%, fan belts at 3% and chip sales at 5%. The only problem is that there is little inventory of fan belts and the chips do not meet the car manufacturers needs due to the poor manufacturing process. The actual price of products is as follows - radiators are the most expensive, oil reservoirs and fan belts very low priced, and chips sale price exceeds radiators. There are rumors of a sale and no one in management is talking to the employees. Given the fires and low inventory employees think closure is imminent. Appraisal ratings for managers are above satisfactory, yet targets arent being met. Managers rate each other. The company received an increase in their Workers Compensation Fund assessment. The only overtime being offered is on the radiator line due to the demand. The owners have hired you to come up with a plan to fix things. Your task discuss the major issues that need to be dealt with (do not just repeat the facts but tell me why they are issues) then create your plan solve the issues and tell me why your plan will work.

Expectations: No more than 4 typewritten pages. Does not include title page with group number and student names. Be specific. Be detailed. Remember, this is an HR assignment. I am not looking for business type solutions e.g. business model changes. Use what you have learned in this course to create your solutions.