Custom Chips
Essay by 24 • December 22, 2010 • 1,733 Words (7 Pages) • 1,595 Views
Custom Chips Inc. -
Overall Scenario; A birdÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s eye View:
Custom Chip Inc. has a business of making customized chips which are used in special applications related to radio frequency devices. Due to a rapid advancement in the field of semiconductors, custom chips requires not only innovative design which suit the needs of customer but also a demanding presence of engineers on manufacturing lines and testing facilities unless they have detailed written instructions for manufacturing different products.
In the case being analyzed, Custom Chips Inc. has no manufacturing documentation yet and product engineers are too busy in day-to-day Ð'ÐŽÐ'§fire-fightingÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ð and hence are unable to work on documentation or coordination with application engineers to make the designs easier to implement.
The application engineers and the manufacturing staff are also confined to their specialized line of work and have lost sight of overall goals of the organization. In a word, Custom Chips Inc. is a victim of bureaucratic system of management. The attitudes and behavior of employees is not proper, as will be pointed out in this WAC, and this is a case which clearly highlights the importance of role of Organizational Behavior in the success of an organization.
There are some constraints, assumptions, issues, causes for those issues, role of Product Engineering Manager, Frank Questin, followed by my recommendations and its implications in this WAC.
Realizing the Constraints:
Scenario: The technology advancement in the field of radio frequency and the applications of semiconductors is fast pace; hence the new products required for special applications are becoming more complex and old ones require modifications to include new features. The Foreign competition is also growing and there is a downward curve (trough) in the field of semiconductors. Because of this:
Ð'Ñ"Ð"¦ The growth of Custom Chips Inc. has come to a stall and cost control has become significant.
The cost control has also become important because the production runs are small as they are in the business of producing custom chips for special applications. On the other hand standard chips are general purpose and are usually required in bulk and that is why they have longer production runs decreasing the importance of cost control to some extent.
Assumptions:
Ð'Ñ"Ð"¦ The staff of Custom Chips Inc. is working till 5pm in the evening. I am making this assumption based on the statement of Jerry when he said Ð'ÐŽÐ'§This will mean I will have to stay a few hours past 5:00pm this eveningÐ'ÐŽK..Ð'ÐŽÐ'Ð
Identifying key Issues and explaining their Causes:
There are some problems which the organization in question is facing as pointed below. The causes for these problems are also pointed out.
1) The product engineers have a high responsibility of controlling the yield. But in their effort to do so they are not getting any cooperation from the application engineers or the manufacturing staff. Both are confined to their own specialized field of work and have lost sight of overall goal of the organization. In order to support this point I would like to point to two incidents mentioned in the case. First one when Bill Lazarus, the product engineer, wanted help from Jerry, the application engineer, jerry tried to avoid by telling Bill that he is on tight schedule and would attend to Ð'ÐŽÐ'§BillÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s ProblemÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ð later. He did not realize that it is the problem of organization and not Bill. Second when Frank asked Rod Cameron to help in documentation and training problem, he denied by saying it is the responsibility of product engineers. The main cause for this issue can be the lack of human relations training of the employees and rather implementation of bureaucratic system of management in which everyone has a Ð'ÐŽÐ'§red tape mentalityÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ð.
2) The main problem that manufacturing staff is facing is the absence of written set of instructions for manufacturing and lack of training from product engineers. The cause for this issue is that the product engineers are busy solving short term engineering problem on daily basis and have no time to document the manufacturing instructions, for at least those products which are repeat orders. They have no time to coordinate with application engineers so that the designs which are produced are easier to implement.
3) The behavior of manufacturing staff is somewhat Ð'ÐŽÐ'§rudeÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ð towards the product engineering staff and it causes further lack of cooperation and coordination. It makes the work place environment more hostile and causes dissatisfaction among employees. Here I would like to point to the incident that Sharon had with Brian. The cause for this Ð'ÐŽÐ'§rudenessÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ð is the conflict of objectives of two departments. While one is trying to increase the productivity, the other is trying to give higher yield which might involve slowing down the production as in the case of Sharon and Brian pointed above.
4) Ð'ÐŽÐ'§The V.P. Engineering, Sam Porter, avoids confrontation with V.P. OperationsÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ð, as it is mentioned that he is not well connected or doesnÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦t have the Ð'ÐŽÐ'§cloutÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ð or Ð'ÐŽÐ'§influenceÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ð. The effect is that engineering division suffers and gets a bad name if product is not delivered in time.
5) Understaffing in all departments is an issue and the major cause for this is mentioned in the constraints section. The higher management is trying to reduce the cost of production because the growth is stalled. For the same reason of cost control the company is not is a position to buy latest test equipment.
Role of Frank:
Certain actions of Frank Questin show that he is an effective manager. I would like to mention some of his actions with reference to Henry Mintzberg that prove he is more an effective manager i.e. I would give him 7 marks on a scale of 10, 10 being the most effective manager. Please refer to Exhibit-1 for HenryÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s managerial roles framework. The Ð'ÐŽÐ'§leadershipÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ð and Ð'ÐŽÐ'§liaisonÐ'ÐŽÐ'Ð
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