Mini Case (8 marks)

A Doorable Solutions needed The situation: A meeting has been called by the CEO of Adoorable Doors, a door manufacturing company. The Directors of the Human Resources, Operations, Information, Marketing and Financial Managers have been called into a meeting by the CEO because of a setback in the company. You are an independent consultant called to try and sort out and resolve an issue. In the past, the 50 employees (line staff) were able to output 1,000 units of wooden framed doors per month. That works out to 20 finished units per person per month (on average). Recently, some of the machinery was replaced with newer machines that were to be more efficient. They were more complicated but it would speed up the process. Since the machines have come in, the production has actually gone down to 850 units per month which is 17 units per month per employee (on average). Some of the older employees feel that the machinery makes it more difficult to output the products and that some corners might be cut so that they are trying to keep up with the demands but that it should not be impacting the quality. They feel that the old machinery was fine and they would have liked to have kept it the way it was. A situation has emerged where the quality of products has started to impact the company reputation. The number of public complaints and returns of the products has increased. Each of the people in the meeting have an area of importance and priorities. Sometimes these priorities might conflict with others in the organization. So now we have a meeting happening. What should the company do to help solve the issues? Your task: a) Who is to blame? Provide your suggestion and why they are to blame. Justify your answer. (2 mark) b) Explain and apply the four foundations of management and how it relates to Adorable doors. (4 marks) c) Explain the importance of financial planning as applied to Adorable doors (2 marks) Below, are small pieces for each director to help add more background to the meeting. Human Resource Manager - People Your responsibility is to ensure that the right people are hired, trained and motivated. You will make sure that the employee is your priority and that no matter what, you will always put them first as a priority because without good people, you are not able to function as an organization. In this situation, you feel that operations of the company are not doing that great. You feel that the processes that they have recently changed has made it so that you are getting more complaints from workers that they have to work longer hours and weekends. They feel that they are not getting overtime and that they are not being valued as they would like to be. Operations Manager - Process Your responsibility for the running of the companys inputs and outputs. You control how the work flows. Your priority is to ensure that whatever the targets established by the company must be met regardless of the situations that occur. This might mean people have to work longer hours or on weekends during challenging times. We all must contribute to the overall objectives of the organization. In this situation, with a rising number of faulty outputs, everyone is looking at you as the area that needs to be fixed. You know that it is not a machinery issue because there are no maintenance problems. You feel it is an employee issue and feel that human resources is either not training staff properly or hiring people who might not be the best fit. You need to then convince the Human Resources Manager that they need to fix the system. Information Manager - Information Your responsibility is in both the amount of information available to managers and the ability to manage information. Your role is critical to the overall organization because you integrate the technology to support the operations manager. People rely on you for information to anticipate the targets and how we are to meet them. You must also relay the information to the other departments. In this situation, all you know is that there has been an increase in the faulty products and a rise in customer complaints. Quality control is on the decline. You know that the operations manager has a responsibility on the process. Your findings are that the new implemented system might have some faulty bugs in the system and might not be as efficient as was thought. The staff might not be fully trained as they should be and it is taking longer for them to produce the products. Marketing Manager Promotion Your responsibility is to develop pricing, promoting and distribution for the goods in your organization. You help the organization determine who the customer is, what they need and how to get it to them. While many of the others focus on internal aspects, your priority is to focus on the external aspects and make sure that we are known. You rely on the Information manager for critical input so you know what and how to promote the outputs. In this situation, all you know is that customers are complaining and this is starting to impact our company image and brand. You dont care who is responsible but something needs to be fixed and it has to be fixed now. If we dont do something, there will be even greater negative impact to our company and this can hurt our reputation. You need to know what is being done to fix the situation so you can come up with a strategy to deal with the negative impact this is going to have. Financial Manager Planning Your responsibility is planning and overseeing the financial resources of the company. Your priority is to make sure we are in excellent economic standing and doing well financially. When there are issues and problems that impact our financial health, you must step in and decide what is needed to improve the situation. While each area might feel they have an important role, you feel that the financial aspects are critical or the company could get into deep financial trouble. You are always monitoring and making sure the financial health of the company is a priority. In this situation, you can see that the current situation is not looking positive. If it is not fixed soon, then this could have a negative financial impact on the company. Right now, it is all fine but a crisis is emerging. If things can be fixed now, then things should be fine. You must inform the Human Resources Manager and the Operations Manager that we need to determine the issues and to fix it as soon as possible. You must rely on the Information Manager to keep you informed of how things are going.