Crosby Manufacturing Corporation - Essay Example

Crosby Manufacturing Corporation Presented Crosby Manufacturing Corporation Livingston, the president of the Crosby Manufacturing Corporation called for a meeting and wanted to change the company’s structure since the government had shown interest in the company. Previously, the company had their contracts cancelled for ignoring adherence to strict financial requirements as required. The company was a multi-million firm dealing in electronics manufacturing. The management had resolved to change their computer systems to increase business, attract more customers, and improve its effectiveness. The management discussed different issues and realized that the main problem was planning and productivity. This led to the appointment of another project leader, Tim, who was found capable of handling the raised issues and solving the problems (Harold Kerzner, 2009). The selection of Tim Emary was not a wrong decision. It is evident the company had been having limitations in achieving competitiveness constraints with the prevailing management cost control system in place. The company erred in sourcing their project managers from only one department, the EDL department. To inject new ideas in solving the crises, the company needed an outsider away from the EDL department. Over emphasising in sourcing a manager from this department led to having a non performing manager, on the basis that s/he is from the trusted EDL department. This may have been the reason why the performance of the company in the past had been below standards (Harold Kerzner, 2009). Getting Tim Emary from a different department largely brought about change as far as recruitment of the project manager was concerned. This approach offered members from other departments a chance to exercise their leadership abilities. It also increased the number of candidates yearning for the position, creating room for competitive vetting, which led to the appointment of the person with the highest qualifications and abilities. This approach contributed to improvement in competence of members in the respective departments (Landau, 1994). Secondly, even though Tim Emary was not knowledgeable as far as computers were concerned, he had the skills and knowledge of designing schedules and accomplishing the tasks assigned. This was an essential tool needed for effective management of management-cost-control system project (Harold Kerzner, 2009). Bearing in mind that reforms were being carried out in the department to put things back in order, a talented person was needed to lay foundations and offer new insights in the department. Thus, the right candidate was not required to have much detailed experience in computer software, but to have effective and reliable planning skills and experience to get the department in line again. Another reason as to why Livingston’s selection of Emary as a project manager was not a mistake is: being from a planning department, Tim Emary had enough knowledge in planning projects and events. Emary’s experience in the planning department was thus an outstanding qualification to be the management cost and control system project manager. This appeared to be against the protocol to some members in the company. Some members from the EDP department, a functional department from which project managers were appointed had much expectations of getting to this position. Livingstone’s decision to ignore such protocol and appoint Tim Emary as the project manager was viewed as a great blunder in management, and against the company’s culture. Tim Emary was appointment outside the EDP department could as well have resulted in a crisis in the company’s projects; Tim as an outsider could have required time to learn and lay strategies on handling projects, which could have been time consuming and cost ineffective, badly affecting the credibility of the president in bringing about any change in the company. To some functional employees the appointment of Tim Emary as the new project could have been demoralising and untenable. Some employees who were ripe for promotion felt they were mature enough to take the position of project management. The employees having worked for the company for long in the EDP department could have felt that, they understood the problems and concerns of the company than any outsider. Appointing such employees would have made building of relationships with the staff much easier and faster, thereby saving resources and time. Given that the EDP department members knew each other, if one had been chosen to spearhead the team, it would have been much easier to allocate duties and tasks to the employees according to their areas of specialization, translating to increased speeds in project completion (Pollack-Johnson, & Liberatore, 2005). Some employees observed that their president did not believe in their performance levels by outsourcing a new project manager from another department. This could demoralize them and reduce their productivity, which would lower performance and worsen the situation. Motivation is the key to high performance and output; however, as some employees who strongly believed they had the potential to be selected were denied the opportunity, this could contribute to demoralisation (Landau, 1994). Some of them would consider quitting than working in an environment they felt was not motivating and rewarding, which could have destabilized the company. Some workers also could have felt that the president acted against the company’s culture, which, might be taken as misuse of power and could lead to rebellion and procedure violation within the company. The president violating the company’s precedence and culture could have been seen as setting a trend to other leaders to violate the company’s rules while making critical decisions affecting the whole company. Johnson and Kleiner (1993) noted that management of time and costs are the critical determinants to successful completion of a project. Good time management ensures that time is managed and utilized well for maximum production, and scheduled tasks are completed in the set time-frame to avoid delays. The cost of undertaking any given project is determined and resources distributed over the entire project to finance all the necessary tasks. Lack of enough capital is the leading cause for many failed projects, implying cost management is the most critical factor in a project’s lifetime. In the course of the project, different factors are anticipated to change, which automatically affect performance of other factors. Ahuja and Thiruvengadam (2004) noted that almost all projects face time constraints. However, with a laid down plan for the project, any delay in the midst of the set timeline results to delay in completion of the project. The time frame of a project is calculated holding some factors constant; proper time allocation requires proper management. The impact of time constraints leads to allocation of tasks according to availability of resources. Landau (1994) argues that, the impact of limited time constraints in networking techniques can lead to dealing with a limited number of suppliers, unskilled labourers, and low quality materials. This is possible due to time limitation when searching for suppliers, labourers, and materials. This greatly affects the quality of the project and productivity. Time constraints on the project schedules may lead to low quality work due to the need of rushing to meet deadlines to avoid costly delays. This would lead to short life expectancy of the project. It could also lead to use of illegal and unethical shortcuts to shorten the long project process, which in most cases could be tedious and time consuming. Time constraint may also lead to over working the staff and hired labourers for many hours to meet deadlines. The cost constraint of a project is the determination of the cost of resources so that distribution can be made on informed decisions. Negative impacts of the cost constraint can be due to underestimation of the budget, which leads to shortage of resources, hence straining the productivity and output of the project. Overestimation of the budget can lead to misuse of the resources, leading to low profit margins when the project is completed, or else lead to losses. Good budgeting ensures a smooth flow throughout each phase of the project hence reasonable cost management is vital (Johnson & Kleiner, 1993). The quality of a project is usually determined by resources used in its completion. Limitation in time taken to complete a project will lead to overworking and shortcuts to ensure hastened completion. When workers and resources are overworked their accuracy reduces resulting to low quality work. When the finances allocated to a project are limited, it will lead to purchase of low quality resources to meet all costs within the budget constraints. This would lead to a low quality project, which might not meet the intended needs (Ahuja & Thiruvengadam, 2004). The scope of a project also determines the quality of a project. A project with limited resources cannot have a large scope, to avoid compromising the quality of the project. The scope of the project determines the goals and objectives of undertaking the project; poor goals and objectives would lead to poor quality of the output from the project. The scope also dictates the tools, machinery and labour invested in a project. If the tools and machinery used in a project are low quality, the productivity and output of the project would never deliver quality as expected. In addition, the skills of hired workers or employees will determine the quality of the project; high skilled labour leads to quality output, while semi-skilled and unskilled labour leads to poor quality output. When the cost, time, and scope constraints are not well planned, the quality of the project ends up being compromised (Landau, 1994). For any given company to succeed and have an impact in the market, it needs a skilled management team. The leaders of every department are supposed to be result oriented, understand current market needs, and ensure customer satisfaction. They should lay strategies that will enable the company achieve its goals and objectives. Restructuring of management occurs when productivity and output of a company are compromised, and there is an urgent need for actions to redeem the company from a negative performance. In such a situation, it might be much helpful to have an outsider from the affected department lead these changes, particularly when the specific department has shown no significant growth over time. References Ahuja, V. & Thiruvengadam, V. (2004). Project Scheduling and Monitoring: Current Research Status. Construction Innovation (4) 19-31. Harold Kerzner (2009) Project Management Case Studies. Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons, Johnson, R. D., & Kleiner, B. H. (1993). Does higher quality mean higher cost? The International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 10(4), 64-64. Landau, N. (1994). Tapping the global intelligence network. International Business, 7(1), 82-82. Pollack-Johnson, B. & Liberatore, M. (2005). Project Planning Under Uncertainty Using Scenario Analysis. Project Management Journal, 15-26. Read More