Huntington Ingalls Industries (Ingalls) is a Fortune 500 company that specializes in ship building predominately for the United States Navy and United States Coast Guard. It is the largest company that builds military vessels. Although the company’s lineage is full of acquisitions, mergers, and restructure, it has a 76 year history in its Pascagoula, MS shipyard and a 129 year history at its New Port News, VA location. However, Ingalls did not become the leader in shipbuilding overnight. Ingalls, at Pascagoula, has a structured hierarchy of administration, focused on learning, which leads to mastery of Drucker’s eight objectives. Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, MS functions as a bureaucratic administration. After a phone interview …show more content…
Each major task is directed by a departmental Vice President. Underneath the Vice President are General Superintendents, General Foremen, skilled workers, and apprentices, to name a few. These departments are necessary due to the various tasks performed by skilled workers, such as welding, electrical work, and painting. One of these departments is the Industrial Engineering Department. In this department there are level one Industrial Engineers, level two Industrial Engineers, level three Industrial Engineers, manager ones, manager twos, and the director of the department. The hierarchy is clearly established throughout the company. Each employee works for their specific craft and/or contract. They might have a focus on a specific craft or they might have a focus on the contract, it just depends on their …show more content…
In our phone interview with Cecil Collins, a former IE for Ingalls Shipbuilding, he explained to us the importance of productivity measurement from his role as lead support for the LPD contract. The IE’s that support the various crafts track the performance of their specific areas of focus, pointing out anomalies in the performance of their specific craft. We have been told that there are instances where Ingalls has to assign Quality Engineers to certain areas in the shipyard to sign off on the quality of work before it can be moved to the following process. Minimal errors in the manufacturing processes can cause major issues in downstream production. Because of this, Ingalls has a high focus on manufacturing in the beginning of the processes. The construction of the ship is similar to building blocks. Ensuring the beginning steps are done correctly is vital. For example, if a bulkhead is in the fabrication shop and the welder creates the weld in the wrong place, according to the specifications of the design, it is easier to break the weld and re-weld the bulkhead according to the specifications of the design at that point than it is to navigate to that specific bulkhead after it has been welded in its specific location on the ship. If this issue is not found at the beginning stage of the process, it costs Ingalls hours of re-work that may not be accounted for in the
Company Overview – Caterpillar Tractor Co. was founded in 1925 and was the product of a merger between The Holt Manufacturing Company, owned by BBB HHH, and C.L Best Tractor Co., owned by DDD BBB. The company had a great demand in WWI and this lead to the first foreign operation of many to come in the future.
There are over 30 Sr. VPs and VPs holding various positions at the San Francisco
Based on the textbook and my understanding, whenever there are negotiations between a procurer and a supplier regarding a competitive bidding, the first thing that might be favored is the scope of the project, meaning both will sit down and discuss the entire project prior the work begins. Meanwhile, during the negotiations, evaluation criteria should be clear, and stated and defined. As the evaluation is based on the criteria stated and the procurer can request or ask the supplier’s opinions on certain specifications and where things can be improved.
Any time the company is looking into software project, there are areas associated with risk such as cost, time and relationship with suppliers. However, for Harley-Davidson, “collocation of suppliers with production facilities and their integration into company’s development process was the essential part of long-term relationship development”. Through a continued focus on collaboration and strong supplier relationships, the company could position itself to achieve strategic objectives and deliver cost and quality improvement over the long-term. Since, at that time company had no centralized system in place to handle relationship with suppliers and consequently, most of company’s time was spent on supplier management activities. For example, reviewing inventory, expediting and data entry. Furthermore, each supplier had different information systems for “Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO), Original Equipment (OE), Parts and Accessories (P&A), and General Merchandising (GM) purchasing activities”. The systems, already provided by supplier, had to be further modified to meet individual need at each location, such as “the OE system at Harley-Davidson’s York, Pennsylvania site was different from the OE system in Kansas City”. However, due to long-standing tradition of gradual change implementation and focus on quality, quick transitions were unwelcome and did not come easy for the company. The size of the project determined how much risk was involved in terms of cost, time, and supplier relationships. The idea of switching to global purchasing system was seen as a threat not only in supplies and production flow interruption, but also in damaged dealer/customer relationships and lost sales. Furthermore, failure of the sy...
For much of its century long history, Nucor Corporation and its predecessors displayed turbulent performance. Several attempts at strategic and leadership realignment proved unsuccessful, and in 1965, the company faced insolvency. Since that time, however, the company has rallied around its steel operations to become the largest steel producer in the United States, with $4.3 billion in net annual sales. This case examines Nucor's development from an unprofitable conglomerate to a highly efficient enterprise. Specific focus on the evolution of the activity system underlying the organization lays the groundwork for systematic analysis of why some companies succeed while others fail.
Maximize the interaction with in the group to facilitate unity of the three individual groups (management and workloads)
Celebrating their 100th anniversary next year, Harley-Davidson is a true American success story. From their modest beginnings in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to one of the most recognized company names worldwide, they have been passionate about motorcycles. Harley offers an experience like none other with the one of a kind look, feel, and sound only available on a Harley. Besides their main business of building and selling motorcycles, they have began to offer financing and insurance through Harley-Davidson Financial Services, and they also offer a full line of accessories and apparel to make the Harley experience complete.
Harnischfeger’s corporate recovery plan was a four pronged approach that involved (1) changes in top management, (2) cost reductions to lower the break-even point, (3) reorientation of the company’s business and (4) debt restructuring and recapitalization. These changes at first glance appear to have allowed Harnischfeger to improve its financial performance from a net loss of $3.49 per share in 1983 to a net gain of $1.28 per share in 1984. In addition, Harnischfeger has appeared to have achieved a majority of its desired outcomes from each of its four changes as shown below.
Continuous improvement (CI) refers to a philosophy consisting of improvement activities that increase successes and reduce failures in a production process (Bhuiyan & Baghel 2005, p. 761). It involves activities and processes that focus on continuous and incremental innovation (Bessant et al., 1994, p.17). CI is a new approach that enhances productivity, performance, and achieves competitive advantage needed in the highly competitive industries. It may also serve as a complementary approach to other quality improvement initiatives such as total quality management (TQM) (Pike, Barnes, & Barnes 1995, p. 23; Larson 2003; Lassen, Gertsen, & Riis 2006; Oakland 2007, p. 227). The purpose of this research is to explore the application of production systems engineering methods in the CI at manufacturing plants.
Our commitment to steady, long-term improvement in our products and processes is the cornerstone of our business strategy. To achieve this objective, we must work to continuously improve the overall quality of our design, manufacturing, administrative, and support organizations.
If there was a problem in a hierarchical structure it would move up through the structure again from one person to another until it gets to where it is supported to be. Strengths of a Hierarchical structure In a hierarchical structure there is a close control of workers. Workers in ASDA will know exactly what they have to do so they don’t wait around until they are told what they have to
(Potential $loss if reduce price = 94962.yr but losing market would be a bigger problem.)
Abrashoff begins the book by informing the reader of how his story begins; when he is given command of the USS Benfold. The Benfold was the Navy’s most advanced guided missile destroyer the Navy had in 1997 and its command was to be one of the Navy’s top innovators. Unfortunately, Abrashoff points out some flaws with the Navy’s personnel management that I found to be shocking. First, was that “nearly 35 percent of the people who joined the military annually, wouldn’t complete their enlistment contracts.” (p.2) Such turnover can be understood by many business managers in the service industry, but unlike the quick and cheap training process for them, the cost for the military (taxpayers) is astounding. Abrashoff estimates that it cost roughly “$35,000 to recruit a trainee and tens of thousands more in additional training costs to get new personnel to the basic level of proficiency.” (p.2) Curbing this trend on his own ship and eventually helping to achieve a decrease overall in the mil...
The bottom layer would follow the guideline so they can achieve the company objectives. The group structure is Chairman Board of Directors Group of Executives Board of Management Group of General Management The main departments within the group are: Administration Division Business Division Customer Support Division Network Development Division Production Services Division R&D Department Finance Department Human Resources Each division has managers for supervision. The staff in each division needs to follow the managersÂ’ decision. Every member of staff clearly understands their role and responsibility under the hierarchical structure. It is because each layer gets different responsibilities.
Organizational structure within an organization is a critical component of the day to day operations of a business. An organization benefits from organizational structure as a result of all it encompasses. It is used to define how tasks are divided, grouped and coordinated. Six elements should be addressed during the design of the organization’s structure: work specialization, departmentalization, chain of command, spans of control, centralization and decentralization. These components are a direct reflection of the organization’s culture, power and politics.