Running head: E-PORTFOLIO WIZZYWATS ASSEMBLY LINE SCENARIO

E-Portfolio WizzyWats Assembly Line Scenario

Athena Rittenberg
AET/550
March 9, 2015
Charles Crissey

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E-Portfolio WizzyWats Assembly Line Scenario

The workers that operate on the assembly line of the WizzyWats factory are
having issues that lead to a frustrated management team, loss of production, and increases in
defective products (University of Phoenix, 2013). The workers on the WizzyWats assembly line
were not identifying defective products properly as items passed their stations. A consultant,
was hired to monitor the workflow of the employees, but was unsuccessful in locating any
particular problems that would be the cause of this disruption; so therefore the only conclusion
that could be drawn was the levels of fatigue and alertness of the employees (University of
Phoenix, 2013). Therefore, a performance improvement plan should be implemented to examine
the core issues of the workers performance
Factors that were overlooked by the consultant
The company should appoint somebody to do the initial inspection of all materials and
components that are loaded into the machines. This will lessen the defective parts that will be
inspected or checked by the succeeding stations. If they found too many defective components,
they need to change the supplier of the particular components. Another factor to consider is to
ensure that each worker understands what a perfect component or assembly parts should
resemble. They should be given proper and formal training on how to identify a perfect
component. Each one of them should be monitored and tracked to help the management identify
which workers are checking components well and which ones are not.
The consultant simply monitored the workflow of the employees. The consultant should
have conducted interviews with the employees, to gain some insight as to how they feel or what
they understand maybe the cause of the increase in defective products. According to Pershing
(2006) interviews may be conducted to collect in-depth narrative information by encouraging

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respondents to talk about their feelings, attitudes, and opinions concerning their jobs and the
organization (pg. 781, as cited in Kubr and Prokopenko 1981). Pershing (2006) also states that
interview also provide a means for respondents to explore their own solutions to personal and
organizational problems, which may be beneficial when addressing emotionally charged issues
(pg. 781). If the consultant had conducted an interview with even some of the employees, if not
all, they would have been able to derive a more solid intervention that may actually be geared
more towards the needs of the employees.
Another factor that I feel was overlooked was the observational techniques that were used
during the monitoring of the employees. It appears that the consultant only engaged in
unstructured observations, which Pershing (2006) describes as the lack of predetermined tasks
and activities on which to focus during the observation; the observer simply takes in as much as
possible (pg. 798). With the structured observations, the observer focuses on specific tasks such
as tables pertaining to stimulus-response, frequency counts, time and motion, tasks listings,
artifact analysis, and algorithms (Pershing, 2006). This type of observation would give someone
from the outside looking in the opportunity to view each aspect of a particular operation in detail
and with fresh eyes.
Solution and most appropriate level of intervention
The most appropriate intervention to implement is to assign accountability of inspected
components among the inspectors. As well as a tracking system like a scorecard may be used to
monitor every inspectors inspection errors and good performance (Pershing, 2006). Moreover,
the management should make everyone aware that it is everyones responsibility to achieve the
best quality product possible.
One appropriate solution to the WizzyWats problem is to spend time trying to get to know
the employees and their point of views. Understanding what it is that they do and gain some

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insight as to what they for see the problem being or what they think is the cause of the increase in
defective equipment. After gaining insight and gaining some understanding of the gap
performance, then an appropriate intervention can be selected. For this particular situation, I
would intervene by taking the information gathered from the employee interviews and from the
structured observation and create new jobs. I would move workers around to different areas,
select a few qualified employees to monitor all of the other employees in each particular section.
Reasoning behind Selection and Appropriate Intervention
Conducting employee interviews and structured observations would be beneficial
and switching the roles of the employees would be beneficial in solving the problems of
WizzyWats, because often times factory work is repetitive. Switching up job roles and titles can
often times give the employees that extra boost of energy they need to become more effective
employees; especially if pay and responsibilities are involved. The management should always
demand high quality materials and be pro-active in looking for the best, but affordable suppliers
of quality materials and consider replacing suppliers of sub-standard components.
How to Evaluation the Intervention
Roles and title changes would be evaluated by the use of the intervention. According to
Pershing (2006) the very act of evaluation affects the performance-improvement initiatives
being evaluated (pg. 25). With the new roles and titles that have been changed, the intervention
will be concluded as a success or a failure based on the production of the products. After the
employees have been in their new roles or positions for a predetermined period of time, the
management team and I will take a look at the numbers of defective equipment. If the number of
defective equipment being shipped out has decreased then the intervention was successful and
monthly reports will be assessed to see the numbers. This will prevent the same problem from
happening again in the future, especially if employee demands are being met. Also, bonuses will

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be given out to those individuals that demonstrate excellence. Now, if the numbers do not
decrease or continue to increase, then the management team and myself will go back to the
drawing board and attack this issue from another angle.
Keeping a scorecard for each inspector and checker would be an effective tool to
determine which ones are doing well in checking and inspecting defective components. On the
other hand, assigning inspectors and checkers to inspectable components will be more cost
effective if the companys product consists of several inspectable materials or parts. Using
scorecards can keep the management informed of the performance records of all workers,
including checkers and inspectors. Scorecards can motivate workers to improve performance. It
is also an effective tool for managements decision making.
Conclusion
The consultant hired by the WizzyWats Assembly Line should look for the major cause of
the productivity problem, which are the sub-standard materials procured by the company. The
procurement department needs to re-evaluate the quality of materials that they procure from their
current suppliers and ensure that only high quality materials are being delivered and accepted.
The WizzyWats should aim to produce high quality finished products by getting everyone
(checkers, inspectors, ordinary workers, and management) involved in the production perform
his or her best. Moreover, the management can enhance its employees performance and
motivation to produce more by adopting and implementing the use of performance scorecards.
Scorecard is an effective tool to measure everyones productivity and efficiency.

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References:
Pershing, J. A. (2006). Handbook of Human Performance Technology (3rd ed.). San Francisco:
Pfieffer
University of Phoenix. (2013). The wizzywats assembly line. Retrieved from University of
Phoenix, AET 550 - Performance Improvement and Management website.