Acme Manufacturing - Problem Definition - Case Study Example

Solution Аррliсаtiоn Rероrt Student Name Institution Solution Аррliсаtiоn Rероrt Executive summary Acme Manufacturing is a company within the motor vehicle industry. The company has been in business for the past twenty years and has been making components for motor vehicles. The company workforce comprises of 250 employees in total. The labor force is divided into workgroup to improve their effectiveness. The company manufacturing system comprises of cutting of motor vehicle materials, initial and finishing machining, painting and labeling, assembling, quality assurance testing, packing and dispatch, products marketing and management. Problem background In a span of twenty years, Acme manufacturing company has been successful in its operations which involve making vehicle components. However, this success trend has changed recently and meeting production deadlines has become difficult (Wood, Cogin, & Beckmann, 2009). It is notable that the motor vehicle industry is characterized by leading the revolutionary process of reeling over motor vehicles that include the use of materials, energy, and equipment as well as the hiring process. Acme being in a position to meet its deadlines and delivering on what they have pledged for as a whole remains an integral part of any business. A project can slide off its rail easily, thus a company should make sure that it is able to deliver on time (Wood, Cogin, & Beckmann, 2009). Mastering the art of meeting and managing deadlines among the employees is possible, but a plan must be in place and especially if there existed a plan which later failed to work. It is notable that deadlines are crucial within a company perimeter especially for the professional growth of employees. This is because without a well-developed culture of timeliness a connection in the chain of business procedures risks of becoming broken. Production deadlines are applied in a workplace to enable a business to maintain momentum and continue being productive at a constant rate. One thing to note about deadlines is that without them, people would work at their pace while other employees would exert tactful amounts of energy while others would slow and maybe never get their jobs finished at all. One thing that ACME should understand is that without clearly set deadlines for each group of employees the pace of employees becomes hard to manage. The company has a group of 250 employees who works in groups, which is an important step that is encouraged by clear set job deadlines. Therefore, the sudden failure to meet production deadlines could be as a result of employees not being in up to date with each other an aspect that discourages productivity because the culture of failing to meet deadlines has already developed. Problem definition Acme manufacturing key problem is on meeting production deadlines. A few measures can be applied in order to ensure that deadlines are more functional by including group meetings, competitions among employees and introducing awards. These meet ups enables group members to know each other and help build team motivation. This acts as great ways of bringing up novel ideas and implementations. Additionally, competition comes in and evokes the employees’ competitive side where everyone wishes to be recognized for hard work, and none of the employees wants to come last (Campion, Medsker, & Higgs, 1993). The problem identified above of failing to meet production deadline can have been contributed to my numerous issues. One important to note is that Acme 250 employees organized into workgroups to focus on their part of the manufacturing process and Due to the nature of working in groups, team members in some instances can find they are not working in an effective way, thus negatively affecting their progress and capability to be successful. The problem of failing to meet deadlines is mainly being accelerated by some common problems within is workgroup. One of the problems has already been identified which is a failure to complete the task by the set deadline. This is likely to be triggered by a number of things namely; inability to establish and discuss timelines that all members of a group can agree on. There is probably lack of cooperation and conflict within the work groups leading into a disorganized team which eventually will affect the results (Grawitch, & Munz, 2005). Another point is where every group member fails to present development report during every meeting showing what they have completed since the last meeting. All these aspects can be contributed to wholly by conflict among the team members (Campion, Medsker, & Higgs, 1993). Conflicts are likely to take place when group members’ fail to respect each other ideas, failure to comprehend that in a group work compromise and negotiations are paramount and finally failure to take a break to prolix the condition and reminisce thoughts. Acme manufacturing problem has a high possibility of being manifested within the working groups. Lack of enough information on how tasks are being completed in the work groups and ensuring that all members are productive and contribute energy and ideas to the group is paramount. Solution generation This report in the previous section on problem definition and background, work groups within Acme manufacturing have been identified to result from and manifested within the workgroups. The company has been organizing a meeting to detect the cause of failure in meeting deadlines. However, they have not dug deep into their workgroup functionalities. There are many decision-making process problems that encountered by work groups where some of the most serious ones involve inconsistency in goals and procedures, unequal group members involvement, group conflicts, improper communication, and poorly organized inter-group associations (Francis, & Young, 1979). Instead of assuming that workgroup members share common goals Acme manufacturing management should try to define whether this sis the case or not. They should also make sure that they encourage group members to discuss their goals at one of their meetings and show the company how they ensure that they meet the deadlines for the productions sections (Polzer, Milton, & Swarm, 2002). The workgroups members can be given a chance to briefly explain to the meeting what their general objectives and how they value and factor the issue of time deadline. It is important to note that workgroup members might have a similar goal and objective, but identifying that goal in a face to face situation group commitment increases and involvement ultimately, the group needs to perform specific tasks, but the initial goals can be clear without being too specific. A delay in the production deadline may result from failure to change goals within the work groups. It is important to reexamine the basic goals within groups where work groups goals in the production section may be reconsidered on a yearly basis. The number of objectives that group members pursue may be too many, and this raises the need to reexamine them and prioritize on the most important as clearly as possible. The move to transform the workgroups can encourage group members in ACME manufacturing to rank goals in order of importance. Therefore, it is notable that with clear procedures and objectives the issue of delay in meeting production deadlines will be avoided as this move will steer a work group around many obstacles although this does necessarily mean that a work group in the company will be protected from each decision-making issue (Polzer, Milton, & Swarm, 2002). As a result work groups will become effective and democratic and will be subjected to some difficulties, but will address and recognize and be able to solve problems within themselves and which may be interfering with the production process. Solution Evaluation The solution approach devised by this report is based on ACME venturing more on its workgroup and tries to get a solution from these sections. The management will have to the following approaches to these workgroups in order to detect whether this is the actual source of difficulties in meeting the production deadlines. The first approach is to; Determine workgroups and individual goals: The company management, in general, determines the company goals (Jehn, Northcraft, & Neale, 1999). These goals are subdivided into workgroup where team leaders assume the role of determining and setting goals. Therefore, team leaders must ensure that there clear communication within the work group on the group goals and the set deadline for achieving them. This will ensure that all members are fully informed about the process. Forming goals and timelines; workgroups that are effective identifies goals procedures and timelines. Once a clear objective within all the workgroups in the company are established a framework is necessary in order to assist the members to meet the goal on time. The framework must comprise of aspects such as individual tasks, procedures, milestone and timelines. The framework will assist in the following aspects (Zand, 1972). Through a well-devised framework in the workgroup allocation of the task and correctly will be achieved. Making sure that tasks are well aligned will be beneficial to the company in that effectiveness in the workgroup operation, and efficient allocation of resources will be possible. In this case, allocation of tasks should be based on recognized individual skills and within the workgroup, this role must be assumed by the team leader because he or she is fully conversant with the decisions made within the workgroup (Jehn, Northcraft, & Neale, 1999). Being aware of other responsibilities within a team is also paramount by having the task planning sheet within reach always. Determining processes; Workgroup members may be involved in diverse tasks. However, they need to be involved in completing specific major steps. Therefore, an establishment of the procedure that has common tasks streamlines their completion. This implies that procedures encourage and recognizes all workgroup members input. On the other hand feedback among workgroup members and the leaders should also be encouraged and once received acted on. The final step in this process is monitoring the progress closely. Monitoring tasks are crucial in that it helps workgroup members to determine the tasks and goals that are on track in order to meet the deadline or in case alternative strategies are needed (Dukerich, et al. 2000). These approaches may include holding regular group meetings where reports on the progress are presented, milestone setting in the course of a task where progress is presented to the team leader and the management. In other cases timeliness designated are not met, thus this requires alternative strategies such as allocating more people to work on the particular task, or even allocating different people to work on the task among others. Implementation and action plan As indicated in the sections above, a problem has already been identified which is based on failure to meet production deadlines. This problem has seen to be based among the functionally of the work groups. The solution evaluation has proposed some approaches that can be applied to make sure that workgroup as a whole and individuals is improved. In the call for ACME company management to get away or method in which they can be able to locate the area to make changes to meet the production, targets are monitoring the operation of the work group members or individually. This section aims to present the method or a way in which this can be done. The implementation process should begin by developing a collaborative organizational structure. This structure would enable them to take note of the expertise available and capacity within the work group. Goal: Each and every workgroup should present a broad statement concerning what they hope to achieve the company priorities and the tasks allocated to them. Performance measures: This will involve the presentation of a workgroup will device that it’s making progress. Through the work group leader, the group should explicitly state put in place to make determine that changes are taking place by selecting indicators of progress within the work group. They should also present the data source that they will use for those indicators. Objectives: Each workgroup will be expected to give a clear description of their specific and measurable products. The objectives presented must be SMART. Activity; this part will involve an outline of the steps that the workgroup as a whole will take to attain its set objectives. The important aspects presented will mainly comprise of the arrangement of workgroup tasks and activities in a chronological way from the start date and the end date. Lead Person; this involves selecting or identifying a workgroup leader. This choice will have to be made by the workgroup members themselves. This way they will be able to select a person of interest, one they can be able to follow and an individual with the ability to provide direction for the work, and monitor progress. Timeline; this will be the closing step in the action plan implementation whereby all workgroups will be expected to state and show the projected start and end date for each activity. This will enable the company management whether the issue of meeting production deadline will have been handled or not. References Campion, M. A., Medsker, G. J., & Higgs, A. C. (1993). Relations between work group characteristics and effectiveness: Implications for designing effective work groups. Personnel psychology, 46(4), 823-847. Dukerich, J. M., Waller, M. J., George, E., & Huber, G. P. (2000). Moral intensity and managerial problem solving. Journal of Business Ethics, 24(1), 29-38. Francis, D., & Young, D. (1979). Improving work groups, a practical manual for team building. University Associates. Grawitch, M. J., & Munz, D. C. (2005). Individual and group affect in problem-solving workgroups. Jehn, K. A., Northcraft, G. B., & Neale, M. A. (1999). Why differences make a difference: A field study of diversity, conflict and performance in workgroups.Administrative science quarterly, 44(4), 741-763. Polzer, J. T., Milton, L. P., & Swarm, W. B. (2002). Capitalizing on diversity: Interpersonal congruence in small work groups. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47(2), 296-324. Wood, R. E., Cogin, J., & Beckmann, J. (2009). Managerial problem solving: Frameworks, tools, techniques. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Zand, D. E. (1972). Trust and managerial problem solving. Administrative science quarterly, 229-239. Read More