what are the findings/Discussion from this case study
Our Head of quality (that we will call Mr L
suggested that the company needed to improve
the planning and scheduling of the machining and
tooling department.
All companies that have machine production do
this, and we already had someone scheduling this
department (Mr M.), but we needed someone that
could do it much more in detail and ahead of time.
1. Eventually, the supervisor of the machining
department (Mr S.) was elected to be the best
person for this job, so the CEO of the company
decided that Mr M. had to train Mr S. and explain
the method he followed for the planning.
2. Mr M. is known to be someone that likes to
work the way he wants to work! In other words, he
is not known for being someone that listens to
other people's opinion, so Mr S. (much younger)
had some difficulty getting information out of Mr
M.
3. This problem had been planned. In fact, before
this project started there had been at least two
separate meetings, one together with Mr M. in
which the steps of the projects were planned and
agreed upon, and one meeting without Mr M
where the relationship issue was discussed with
the CEO.
STARTING THE PROJECT
Mr S. was not satisfied with the training received
by Mr M. and more than once explained that he
could not start scheduling the machines if he had
not received more information from Mr M.
After he explained this simple point to the CEO, he
almost lost his job and was told that "there are
other people out there that can do your job!"
Mr S. almost left the company, but eventually
decided to continue and asked help to other
members of the companv and understood that
there were important elements missing.
He had very poor tools that could not help him
understand what had to be scheduled, there was
no method and the MRP (Material Requirement
Planning) was missing most BOMs.
Without this basic information there was no way
that he could receive the correct data from the
MRP and start planning.