Case Study - Worldwide Chemical Company Jack Smith wiped the perspiration from h

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Case Study - Worldwide Chemical Company
Jack Smith wiped the perspiration from his face. It was another scorching-hot summer day, and one of
the four process refrigeration units was down. The units were critical to the operation of Worldwide
Chemical Companyâs Fibers Plant, which produces synthetic fibers and polymer flake for a global
market. Before long, Al Henson, the day-shift production superintendent, was on the intercom,
shouting his familiar proclamation that âheads would rollâ if the unit was not back on-line within the
hour. However, Jack Smith, the maintenance superintendent, had heard it all beforeânothing ever
happened as a result of Hensonâs temper tantrums. âServes him right,â he thought. âHenson is
uncooperative when we want to perform scheduled maintenance, so it doesnât get done and
equipment goes down.â At that moment, however, Henson was genuinely furious over the impact that
the breakdown would have on his process yield figures.
Meeting with plant manager Beth Conner, he was charging that all the maintenance department did
was âsit aroundâ and play cards like firemen waiting for an alarm to send them to a three-alarm blaze
across town. The âfix-itâ approach to maintenance was costing the plant throughput that was vital to
meeting standard costs and avoiding serious variances. Foreign competitors were delivering highquality fibers in less time and at lower prices. Conner had already been called on the carpet at
corporate headquarters over output levels that were significantly below the budgeted numbers.
The business cycle contained predictable seasonal variations. That meant building inventories that
would be carried for months, tying up scarce capital, a characteristic of most continuous processes.
Monthly shipments would look bad. Year-to-date shipments would look even worse because of
machine breakdowns and lost output to date. Conner knew that something had to be done to develop
machine reliability. Capacity on demand was needed to respond to growing foreign competition.
Unreliable production equipment was jeopardizing the companyâs TQM effort by causing process
variations that affected both first-quality product yields and on-time deliveries, but no one seemed to
have the answer to the problem of machine breakdowns.
The maintenance department operated much like a fire department, rushing to a breakdown with a
swarm of mechanics, some who disassembled the machine while others pored over wiring schematics
and still others hunted for spare parts in the maintenance warehouse. Eventually, they would have the
machine back up, though sometimes only after working through the night to get the production line
going again. Maintenance had always been done this way. However, with new competitors, machine
reliability had suddenly become a major barrier to competing successfully. Rumors of a plant closing
were beginning to circulate and morale was suffering, making good performance that much more
difficult. Beth Conner knew she needed solutions if the plant had any chance of survival. Your answer
should include information from your course materials and/or research when required, but, again,
should be primarily in your own words. If you paraphrase or quote words or ideas from your course
textbook or other resources, you should cite your sources. Your responses should be complete.
Generally 200 to 300 words are required for a âcompleteâ answer to an essay question

1. is there any way to know when a machine breakdown is probable?

2. how could maintenance be better utilized?

3. is there an alternative to the current opertions approach of the maintenance department?

4. how could production make up for lost outpur resulting from scheduled maintenance?

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Case Study - Worldwide Chemical Company Jack Smith wiped the perspiration from h

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