Assignment
Objective: You will writea formal letter, an email, and a memo to a variety of audiences that convey different aspects of a supply chain issue that directly affects manufacturing at your company.
Case Scenario: You are the manager of product development at Happy Trees, a company that produces art supplies. You have just received an email from a representative at Peapod Pigments that announces a shortage of the pigments your company uses to produce paint. From this email, you've learned that all pigments are backordered for six months. Unfortunately, Happy Trees only has enough pigment in stock to develop paint for the next three months, meaning that you will need to stop paint production for an entire quarter. This will cost the company approximately $2.5 million.
Task:
Unfortunately, the situation is out of your hands, and you will need to communicate this news to several audiences.
I. First, write an email to your supervisor, Bob Ross, explaining the situation and what you plan to communicate to your staff and customers.
II. Second, you've received support for your plan from Mr. Ross, and will need to develop a 1-2 pag memo to your production staff explaining the bad news. You will also need to include some type of ramification of this bad news that negatively affects production employees (e.g., layoffs, temporary elimination of quarterly bonuses, etc.). Be sure to follow guidelines about delivering negative news. Your memo should contain: i. buffer ii. delivery of the bad news iii. clear rationale/reasons for the news iv. discussion of immediate impacts on the staff e. focus on solutions and potential long-term benefits f. show goodwill and invite your staff to ask questions