Oilwell Cable Case Study

Overview

Oilwell Cable Company, originally known as Chord Cable Company out of New Jersey, has been acquired by new management and relocated in Lawrence, Kansas. Original manager behind this move was Gino Strappoli, who came up with a corporate structure that determined company’s success. His vision of the company was for everyone to have some responsibility, all the way down to the workers in production. One of the reasons behind this approach was that this was a continuous manufacturing process that involved a lot of decision-making involving employees on the spot. In a few short years, the company broke even and actually has reached some significant milestones. In 1985, Gino has left for another position, and was replaced by the production manager Bill Russell, whose position in turn was replaced by Norm St. Laurent. Bill Russell continued to operate the company under Gino Strappoli’s principles, until the company has hit a down point due to the stagnant economy and in the oil industry in particular. Then certain alterations to the management process were made. After this the company’s management has been faced with the decision, should they continue to operate the same way, as they were before, or should they let management make more decisions, without the involvement of the teams and employees in general. The response from the employees was such that even though they do appreciate that the management consults with them on certain aspects of the business, they would not want to have certain responsibilities and would also like not to be involved in certain decisions that could be resolved without them. Because of this situation Norman St. Laurent a production manager was faced with a decision, whether he should go ahead with the conversion of the microprocessor which would save money and time and not displace any employee's inthe process. Norm realized that based on the Data it appeared that the microprocessors could cut the production time by 1 percent the reduction of scrap from the current rate of 1 percent .5 percent.

1. If norm chooses to go ahead with the microprocessor conversion on the machinery without passing it by the team what are potential conflicts that may arise? What are the advantages of such a move?

In project management we see the principle of participial management and how it can be a huge asset to and manager but at the same time it can be its downfall. In this particular case we can see that if norm does not ask the team for their input he can have several conflicts that can arise first is the fact that when workers who actually work on a project feel they are involved with the decision process they are more likely to do a better job due to the fact that they feel a sense of ownership and importance with the project. So if they do not get any choice they will feel they are not valued. Another thing it will bring is animosity to the administration of

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