1. Illustrate how to select a Production Information Systems for Eastern Gear, Inc.
2. Depict the steps to manage the production process and the technologies that drive that process at Eastern Gear.

Case Study ORIENTRY Who EDET DOBITI 100 It 452 Part Six Case Studies EXHIBIT 5 Organization chart. President Roger Rhodes Engineer Sam Bartholomew Sales Manager James Lord Expediter, Malt Williams Controller Sam Smith Foreman, Joe Irvine appear to be behind schedule. Each order that is be- Occasionally, the company will receive rush orders hind receives a red tag, indicating that it should be from its customers. In this case, the order is referred treated on a rush basis. At the present time, about directly to Rhodes for approval. If the order is ac- 20 percent of the orders have rush tags on them. cepted, the raw materials are rush-ordered and re- Williams also spends his time looking for past-due ceived the next day. After receipt of the raw raw materials and lost orders as well as explaining materials, the order is rushed through production in late orders to customers. four days. This is accomplished by Fred Dirkson, a The organization chart for the company is shown trusted employee, who hand-carries the rush orders in Exhibit 5. Roger Rhodes is the president and through all operations. About 10 percent of the or founder of Eastern Gear. He handles contacts with ders are handled on a rush basis. some of the large customers, arranges the financing The workforce consists of 50 employees, who are needed by the company, and sits in on the weekly highly skilled or semiskilled. The milling machine production meeting. During these meetings, sched- operators, for example, are highly skilled and re- uling problems, employee problems, and other pro- quire at least two years of vocational-technical duction problems are discussed. training plus several months of on-the-job training. The company engineer is Sam Bartholomew. His Within the last quarter, 10 new employees have responsibilities include design of the company's been added to the workforce. The employees products, procurement and maintenance of equip are not unionized, and good labor relations exist. ment, and overseeing of the supervisor, Joe Irvine. The workforce is managed using a family-type Bartholomew also attends the weekly production approach. meetings, and he spends about 10 hours a week on the factory floor talking with individual workers. Discussion Questions The company is currently experiencing about a 6 percent return rate on completed orders due to 1. What are the major problems being faced by poor quality. In 75 percent of the cases, the returned Eastern Gear? orders have failed to undergo one or more opera- 2. What action should Rhodes take to solve his tions or the operations have been improperly done. problems? For example, in one returned order, all the gears 3. How can this case be related to operations strat- were missing a hole egy and process design concepts