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Acme Manufacturing Company Case

1. What specific things did Steve do wrong and what should have been done in each instance?

• Steve reached to work late.

He should ensure that he is always on time to work or even early, since this would be more conducive to his
productivity throughout the day. Whether he needs an alarm clock or for someone to wake him each day, he
must find a way to ensure that he is wakes up on time and gets to work on time as well.

• Not reading the memo and the proposal for the meeting immediately.
Steve should have read the memo immediately when he received it. This would have ensured that he at least
knew what the agenda was which would have given his brain time to process the information even if he
wasn’t actively focused on it.

• Not preparing for the quality control meeting.

Since Steve holds such an important position he should ensure that he is prepared for all meetings. For this
one in particular, it would affect his department directly so that the proposal should have been reviewed and
he should have been prepared so as to get the desired outcome for his department.

• Delegating the rush order work to someone who would be out of the office when it was needed.
Lucy is out of office on training and therefore she should not have been given such an important assignment
that would be due during the time that she is not available. The task should have been given to one of the
other production supervisors who were available at the company.

• Not putting who he delegated the rush order work to in direct contact with Sue Bradley the Sales VP.
Despite the person to whom the work was delegated, that person should have been placed in direct contact
with the Sales VP, since this would allow for Sue to get the information that was needed without having to
wait to get it through Steve, who is extremely busy.

• Leaving the message for Lucy to call him back and not being available.
He disturbed Lucy during training and was not available when she returned his call twice. If he wanted to
get in contact with her urgently, he should have at least made arrangements to receive her call even when he
was not in the office (cell phone).
• Could have left message about the matter and ask her to call Sue directly and give her the information.
By informing Lucy about the matter through the message she could have called Sue directly and give her the
information or at least direct her as to where she could get the information sought since Steve did not know.
This would have given Sue the information that she needed and Lucy would not have had to try reaching
Steve as many times as she did. As well Steve would not have had to worry about the matter himself.

• Not getting back to Sue about the rush order.

Steve should have gotten back to Sue about the matter since it was important.

• Taking the time to rearrange the production schedules for the next few days.
Steve has capable supervisors for this task in Paul and Glenda, and therefore he should have allowed them to
figure out this task, without him, which would have allowed him the time to do other stuff.

• Not finding out what the appointment was about with Mr. Ferris.
By not knowing what the meeting with Mr. Ferris was supposed to be about, Steve was unprepared to deal
with him, which he figured out only during the lunch meeting. If he had known the specific purpose then he
could have put him in contact with the engineer sooner which, would have saved him time and money in
dealing with Mr. Ferris

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• Taking Mr. Ferris out to lunch with him.

Though this gesture was hospitable, Steve should not have taken Mr. Ferris out to lunch since it took up time
and money which could have been saved if they had the meeting in the office since he would have been able
to assist Mr. Ferris earlier (by handing him over to the engineer who could answer the questions, who was in
the office).

• Not doing the quality figures that was top priority

Since the task of assembling the quality figures was given top priority by his boss, Steve should have ensured
that he had completed this task on time.

• Doing the production schedule ahead of the quality figures.

The production schedule was of less importance to the quality figures so that it should not have been done
ahead of it. Also this is what contributed to Steve being late for work that morning and he should have
prioritized his work better so that the outcome is more effective.

• Underestimating the time it takes to do tasks.

Doing the task of the quality figures was not difficult according to Steve; however it took longer than he
thought. This is a clear example of underestimating tasks, so that Steve should in the future try as best he can
to ensure that he gives sufficient time for the completion of tasks even if he believes that they are simple.

• Attending the plant safety committee meeting.

The case says that each department sends a representative to these meetings; therefore it was not mandatory
that Steve attend, just ensure that someone from his department is in attendance. With Steve’s hectic
schedule, this meeting was not of much value and was more of a hindrance to his other duties than an
enhancement on that day.

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