Systems analyst Jack Blount has been hired as a consultant to a large national distributing company to develop a new system for inventory control. The company is extremely large and has manufacturing plants and offices throughout the country. Mr. Blount decided to focus his attention initially on the Chicago plant.
He first interviewed the plant manager. The discussion was very productive, and after several meetings, he felt that he was in a position to make suggestions for improving the system. Based on this, he prepared a systems analysis report for review by the company’s chief accountant.
In his meeting with the chief accountant, a number of problems arose. The chief accountant told him that a number of employees had complained to him, “Mr. Blount said he was going to have a number of employees laid off.” Several supervisors complained that they were being replaced by computers. The situation had got so out of hand that a number of employees were on the verge of striking. Such a strike could cost the company thousands of dollars in a very short time. For this reason, the chief accountant informed Mr. Blount that the company did not wish to proceed with systems design and implementation. Mr. Blount was very disappointed to hear this because he felt that a few simple changes to the existing system could be very helpful in terms of solving the company’s problems. Required Has Mr. Blount made any mistakes? If so, what did he do wrong?