Page 305 - Business Principles and Management

C HAPTER 11 A SSESSMENT

CASE 11-2: Meeting the Standard
A’yanna Lyons is the manager of the accounting department for the
Hemmerle Supply Company, an office supplies wholesaler. As the man-
ager, she is responsible for all of the work completed by the employees in
the accounting department, including its quality and quantity. A’yanna
was proud of the work her employees did. They had a high level of moti-
vation and always seemed to do their best to complete the work assigned
to them. The entire department seemed committed to being an asset for
the company. Therefore she was surprised by feedback she received on a
work issue that affected her department.
Hemmerle had recently established a new standard that invoices would
be prepared, printed, and mailed to customers within 24 hours of receiving
the order. Although the new standard presented a big challenge to the
accounting department, A’yanna had worked with her teams to do their
part to meet the standard. By reorganizing the way they did their work
and using a new computer tracking system for each order, the depart-
ment was able to complete the invoice process within half a day from
the time they received the information from the shipping department.
After the new procedures were in place, A’yanna had carefully checked
the work of her department. Although there had been a few times when
an employee absence or a problem with the new computer software had
slowed the work, the department was meeting its standard of processing
invoices in half a day 93 percent of the time. However, in the first produc-
tivity report she received that tracked the company’s progress in meeting
the 24-hour standard, A’yanna learned that 25 percent of the invoices
were being mailed three days after the order was received. Upon checking
further, she discovered that her department did not always receive the
necessary information from the shipping department on schedule and that
the mail room was having trouble meeting its deadline to ship out on the
same day all mail received before noon.

THINK CRITICALLY

1. What are some possible problems in this situation? Identify prob-
lems that could be occurring in the accounting department as well
as in other departments of the company.
2. List the symptoms of the problems. Explain why you believe the
things you listed are symptoms rather than problems.
3. What are some alternative solutions?
4. How would you suggest that A’yanna proceed in this situation?
5. How can a management information system contribute to resolving
this situation?

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