Question

Acme Manufacturing (AM) Scenario

Read the following scenario about Acme Manufacturing (AM), a small manufacturing company who manufactures Acme Lawnmowers. This scenario includes many issues where the company is proposing a change in their line of mowers. Next, imagine that you are the project manager or change manager who will be leading the change for the company.
As the change manager you will need to consider the entire change process and how you apply it to this scenario. Though you may not have manufacturing experience, base your paper responses on the change management assignments and lessons learned for each week.

Acme Manufacturing Company

Acme Manufacturing (AM) is a mid-sized, non-union company that has been in existence for 20 years. They manufacture a line of lawnmowers consumers use for mowing their lawn.

AM’s profits are falling due to increased competition. In order to be more competitive AM management are taking steps to diversify their product line. Management is moving toward a huge change for the company, adding another line of lawnmowers for commercial use. This will be a change for everyone in the company. Employees are used to building a line of mowers for home use, and have done so since the company was started.

AM is organized as other companies; the President, COO, CFO; the Operations Department who leads manufacturing; the Marketing Department to market the mowers; the Logistics Department who packs and ships the mowers; and the Customer Service Department who leads answering calls for orders, assists in troubleshooting and answers general questions.

They currently have 200 employees, the average age of their workforce is 40 years and many of the machine operators have below average computer literacy. Average job tenure is 7 years. They need to add a second shift to manufacture this product as their current hours of operation and staff cannot meet the demand of this change.

The company will have to make many changes in their operations and organization in order to effect this change to their line of mowe

1. As change manager for Acme, describe the team you will put together for changes.

2. Once you designed a team, describe what initial actions you will recommend to the President of Acme for change.

3. Describe what might happen if no change occurs in the company.

4. Draft a short letter to the President on your recommendations for change and why the changes are necessary.

Answer 1

Answer) As a change manager, I have to look at the changes of all the departments -be it manufacturing, logistics, marketing,customer service every department requires changes. There will be distinctly two teams in the middle and lower level ,one team which will look for the household needs and one which will look at the commercial needs. This two teams will be in every department and there will be respective heads of these departments which will report to Two distinct heads and these two heads will report to senior leadership. Now ,the household teams will have old people and tenured more than 7 years and the commercial team will have more young people taken from the previous team and hired newly. As young people will be able to easily grasp new functions and Technology .

Answer-2) The initial actions which will be recommended to the President of Acme are-

1-) Getting Trainers for each head , as they will be working with a different client base, Different machines etc. They have to be properly trained.

2-) Updation of machines and systems so that commercial mowers can be manufactured , and distributed. They will be different so, all new logistics is required, all new customer service equipments is required as the client will be top notch commercials.

3-) Hiring of Employees has to be done to meet the extra demand.

4-) Company would have to market from the starting that it is now developing a commercial lawnmower because everyone used to think that they only build household movers. So, they have to let top commercials know.

Answer-) 3) If no change happens in the company, then it will lead to a disaster. As the processes are designed to only manufacture and distribute the household movers , if no change is done and commercial movers are manufactured, first it will lead to breaking of machines as they wont be able to handle the power that is required in commercial sector. 2-) If they somehow manufacture, because of no marketing change , no one will know and no commercial client will order. 3-) If anybody orders also, then due to lack of training, customer service will fail to answer any questions.

Answer) 4-)

To,

The President,

Acme Manufacturing.

45/60, Brown street,

New York, USA.

Respected Sir,

This the newly appointed change manager. I had some valuable recommendations which I would like to share it with you. These are-

1-) Please employ young and energetic candidates who have the will and passion to work.

2-) Also hire some good experienced people , who already worked in this field before.

3-) Updation of the machines and some machines should also be bought which are of commercial standards.

4-) Logistics will require different branding, so different kinds of package will have to be bought.

5-) The manufacturing area will have to be enlarged so that some machines can be fitted.

Sir I think the changes are necessary because without these changes, the company wont be able to produce or sell commercial lawn movers. These changes are must for the company to go into a different direction.

THANKING YOU,

DAN BROWN.

It took some research to answer the questions If you can help me with a upvote I would really appreciate it .