RichardWright, VP Manufacturing
The Problem We’ve lost our focus, you know, doing what we do best. We were the best damn military contractor out there. Still are. If we stuck to that, we’d be smaller, but we’d still be around in 10 years. The Union Rob Brown and I have had the odd ‘disagreement’ but we respect each other which goes a long way. Rob and Johnson? Totally different. There are lots of theories about why but they’re just theories. Truth is, Johnson has done a lot to improve working conditions and so has Rob, I’ll give him that. So why do the employees keep a union? The uncertainty around here. They believe the union will help keep their jobs. Commercial Market Marketing has a bunch of ideas how to make the com- mercial products more appealing: different colors, cases, displays, you name it. They don’t realize how all this varia- tion can affect production standards, no – quality – how it can affect quality. Manufacturing Process The process is linear. We run the product in batches with changeovers every two, three days. We do those change- overs at night to minimize production downtime. Qual- ity is our priority so we build it into the manufacturing process and of course we have inspection points along the way. The Solution We were doing just fine before we had this new com- mercial focus. Maybe we should, and this is just the way I’m thinking, be looking harder at other types of military contracts.
Departmental Relations Scott’s bright, nobody argues that, but a bit stubborn which maybe he has to be or maybe it’s what happens when you’re bright, I don’t know. He’s dedicated and wants the best for the company though. No dancing; you know where he stands. Catherine Lalonde, not so much. Corporate. Political. Turned a lot of people off when she came because she gave the impression she knew better. Manufacturing Department All the people on the floor are craftsmen. Yeah, all of them. They pay close attention to detail and they’re proud of their work which is how you get quality; which is why Manufacturing is a competitive advantage. Thoughts on Teams Formal teams? Like the ones Jennifer Smith is proposing? I’m wary. In Manufacturing, things are running smoothly so why fix something that isn’t broken?
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