Food for Thought Case: It is your first day in a new job as production supervisor in a sheet metal fabrication plant. You were warned by the plant manager: the line you will be working on has had increasing problems with waste and scrap, while quality levels have steadily decreased. The plant manager was right; on your first walk through the manufacturing facility, it was easy to see that there was a problem. Several large pallets filled with scrap-raw steel that had been miss-cut and miss-bent--had been thrown into the growing piles. Two groups of employees were clumped together; one group standing around the single computer terminal looking at an incorrectly written work order, and another group whispering about their time wasted on "yet another bad design." You have two choices: let these problems continue to fester, or deal with them right away. You may be tempted to jump in right away-but, in order to effectively manage change, you must think methodically and scientifically, which means stepping back and begin the process of planned change.
a. In order to get to the root causes of the problems that are being faced at the organization, what questions should you ask? To whom?
b. In the case, if the current state is fractured relationships within and outside of the group, low quality, and high scrap rates, what is the desired state?
c. Given the scenario described above, what techniques can you use to identify the leaders within the group?
d. How could issues such as lagging or inadequate technology affect people's ability to change? What will be the ultimate goals for this change intervention? And, what can you do to create short-term wins?