General Management Essay

Case on Discomfort in a factory and Management Decision MakingMohan remembered the call from the head office as he puts down the telephone receiver. His boss fromhead office he said, â€Å"I just read your analysis and I want you to go down to our plant in Kollakal near Mysore right away. You know we cannot afford this plant any more – the costs are just too high. So godown there, check out what would be our operational costs would be if we move, and report back to mein a week. â€Å"Mohan knew the challenge quite well as the branch manager of the Good will Specialty Products. Hiscompany is into manufacturing of special apparel for injured and people with other medical conditions. He needs to deal with high-cost labor in a remote village not so sophisticated plant, unionized manufac-turing plant. Although he had done the analysis there were 480 people who made a living at this facilityand if it is closed most of them will find it very difficult to get another job in the small town consisting of about 10 000 people. Instead of the Rs. 20/- per hour paid to the Kollakal workers the wages paid to the migrant workers near Aurangabad will be much cheaper Rs. /- hour working in sub human conditions. This provides a savingof 15 lakhs to the company for a year, which, can now be used to meet the costs for training, transporta-tion and other matters. After two days of talking with Migrant workers association and representatives of other companies usingthe same services in the town, Mohan had enough information to formulate alternative plan for produc-tion and the c ost figures for production and transportation. What was bothering him was only the thoughtthat how is going to handover the termination of service notice to the Kollakal workers. The plant in Kollakal had been in operation since 1930s making special apparel for persons sufferingfrom injuries and other medical conditions. Mohan has often talked to the employees who would recountstories of their fathers and grant fathers working in the company plant-the last of the original manufactur-ing operations in the town. AN ISO 9001 : 2008 CERTIFIED INTERNATIONAL B-SCHOOL But friendship aside competitors had already edged past Good will in terms of price and were dangerous-ly close to overtaking it in product quality. Although Mohan and his Boss had tried to convince the unionto accept the lower wages, union leaders resisted it. In fact, in one occasion when Mohan tried to discussa cell manufacturing approach, which would cross train employees to perform up to three different jobs,local union leaders could barely restrain their anger. Yet probing beyond their anger Mohan sensed their vulnerability, but could not break through. Tomorrow he will discuss his report with the CEO. Mohan does not want to be responsible for disman-tling of the plant at Kollakal, an act, which Mohan believes is personally wrong, but he is helpless. Mo-han said to himself â€Å"The costs are too high, the union’s unwilling to cooperate, and the company needs tomake a better return on its investment if it has to continue at all. It sounds right, but it feels wrong. Whatshould I do? Questions : 1. Assume you want to lead the change to save the Kollkal plant. Describe how you would proceed? 2. What is the primary type of change needed – technology, product, structure or people/culture? 3. What techniques would you use to overcome union resistance and implement change? i need the answers for this case study plz provide me