Allentown Materials Corporation

The analysis of the Allent sustain Materials association case study reveals a outlet of issues mostly related to the untimely death of a respected take uper, the attendant pitch in leadership, and also the management style of the lately institute upper-level managers. This paradigm shift in op agetional management dodging is one of the root abbreviate a craps of the conflict between departments, absence of teamwork, and low morale. Additionally, basal channels are need to bring Allentown Materials flock into a young era of manufacturing and ensure their continued success in the market quad.The instinctiveness to compound is critical in a manufacturing government activity where the means of maintaining a warring advantage diversify frequently. (ReVelle) The former General Manager of the Allentown Materials Corporation Joe Bennett was very authoritarian in nature, preferring to make all nearly all important decisions by himself, and no decisions at all were made wit hout Mr. Bennetts approval. Many of the managers reporting to Bennett were considered governmental and manipulative by their employees, and as a result few were ordaining to challenge his operational management style.When Don Rogers took over Joe Bennetts vista as oecumenic manager the aggravating factors of a major worst overturn in business were already present, but the effects were not necessarily being felt throughout the organization. A radical change should have been implemented under Bennett when the business shifted from primarily military machine applications to occult sector uses, however managers perspective may cause them to overlook important organizational changes or respond to these changes inappropriately. Both general managers are at fault for the current situation at Allentown Mr.Bennett for lose when change was required and Mr. Rogers for responding to the need for change inappropriately. The military market rotate around highly reliable and consistent grammatical constituents for crucial military equipment and the military was willing to pay a premium to acquire such components. In contrast the consumer and private sector market also demands high- forest products, but at the lowest cost possible. (ReVelle) The secondary consequence of this shift from military to consumer markets is an increase presence in the extremely competitive Japanese market.Japanese manufacturing firms had long since developed and implemented their own manufacturing mannerologies such as Just-in-Time (JIT) manufacturing and Total Quality Management. Allentown Materials Corporation is essentially attempting to compete in a market that has already seen revolutionary change at the hands of naked as a jaybird methodologies and techniques. Changes do need to be made to ensure a manufacturing organization has the competitive advantage, and selecting the appropriate change methodology is equally crucial.The Six Sigma quality management program was in the firs t place developed by Motorola in 1986 and as a business system focuses on improving the quality of outputs by removing the causes of defects, unacceptable variability in the manufacturing process, and discontinuing practices that do not add value to the final output. (CIT) zep method in which Six Sigma accomplishes this is though improving processes already in place or creating new processes when the existing ones fail to meet business objectives. CIT) Motorola inform over 17 billion in savings in 2006 since the activate of their Six Sigma initiative, and many other manufacturing companies have also achieved success with their own implementations of Six Sigma. (CIT) These tangible effects are the results of training in quality improvement methods, rearrangement of business processes to make them more efficient, initiation of projects that improve toil or save money, and improved communication between management and employees.For a company to achieve Six Sigma any single proces s essential not produce more than 3. 4 defects per million opportunities. (CIT) This in turn means increased profit for the company and potential bonuses or incentives for employees. We bay window also make comparisons between Six Sigma and the different Japanese methodologies and break a number of conclusions Six Sigma addresses half of the revolutionary change required for Allentown Materials Corporation to remain competitive in the ever-changing manufacturing marketplace.The second component of the change required involves giving the entire organization a divided up vision for the future which plays strongly on the core competencies of the Allentown Materials Corporation. The strength of Allentown Materials Corporation lies with its research and development, and manufacturing divisions. Part of this change will come about as Six Sigma is adapted and implemented at the Allentown Materials Corporation.Employees at all levels of the organization will recognize the potential benef its and rewards including increased job security, new opportunities with the company, and bump performance evaluations and pay increases. Additionally, employees will be aware that if the company is ancestry benefits from Six Sigma these benefits will eventually trickle down to them. (CIT) All of the new rewards and incentives will lend themselves to a shared vision within the company. One aspect of feature importance of the Six Sigma methodology will be the effect of training and teamwork on the various divisions.When a sense of teamwork is miss the employees have a tendency to focus on the productivity of their particular department or division and fail to realize the impact of their actions on the entire operation. (CIT) For these changes to take hold at Allentown Materials Corporation a live member of upper management must assume the role as the change champion. Don Rogers seems like the clear choice to take on this position due to his position with the company and the fact that he has an established history of involving people in issues with the company and consulting them on decisions.The change champion at Allentown will have a number of new responsibilities related to ensuring the success of Six Sigma and simultaneously being the driving chock up behind the entire business revolution. In order to show provable commitment to the program and the new shared vision the champion will need to be heavily involved in the change process, ensuring that it moves swiftly and that the change is real and positive. Encouragement, motivation, involvement with projects, removing the barriers to project success, celebrating successes when they occur, and recognizing achievements are all slipway the champion can demonstrate commitment.In the course of implementing change the change champion should consider naming a steering committee consisting of him or herself, account managers from all the functional areas including the newly separated sales and marketing fun ctions, and a new position training manager. The steering committee would serve to ordain the changes, but would also provide crucial feedback from lower managers and employees about the working implications of their changes.Among the responsibilities of the steering committee would be developing a new team handbook that clearly states the policies and goals of the company and a training program accentuate teamwork, team interaction skills, and The issues effecting Allentown Materials Corporation may very well lead to its ultimate demise. It is therefore essential for Allentown Materials Corporation to institute a refrain and positive change to ensure its long term viability and retain its competitive advantages in the marketplace. Six Sigma when implemented properly by a commit change champion can usher in a new era for Allentown Materials Corporation.