Management and the Technology Professional – B302
Case study answer 2
As the supervising engineer in this esteemed company, I would see to it that the machine is stopped and the previous day's process is being restarted. I would make this decision based on careful considerations of the options I have using the CPM (critical path method) calculations despite the shame of accepting full responsibility for a flaw in a process I should have been supervising.
This is a crucial decision for me, especially one that has to do with increase in production cost in the form of money (Cost of running production for four days)and time wasted; in this case, four day’s work and not meeting the deadline as originally stipulated. The chances are that I would be faced with the temptation of carrying on with the process and ignoring the consequences, hoping that there will be no obvious defects on the semiconductor product.
After calculations using the critical analysis method were done, the steps 1,2,4,6,7 and 8 corresponding to the following production process were found to be under the critical analysis path: Fabricate transistors, Fabricate interconnects, Sort components, Perform final tests, Configure for market, Product marketing and localization and then ship products. The process which according to my calculations was to finish no longer than seventeen days before being shipped will now end on the twenty first day; incurring an additional cost of four days production. This doesn't look like an option I will be confortable taking.
However, it is worthy of note here that this process is on the critical analysis path which does not have any extra day or days at its disposal and of great importance to the entire production process. My 5 years experience in Intel has taught me that a single open circuit in a single transistor of a semiconductor can cause a disfunction in the entire product, (which should have been detected and corrected during the final tests). A flaw here will be detrimental not only to the product but also to the image of the company at large. The possible trend of things is that the company starts loosing money, investigation are done to find out the cause of the incident and then my job would be at stake. My job security is something I take seriously and will not jeopardize it for anything, considering the number of people who depend on me for their daily bread.
I will notify as many as are involved of this flaw and then take advantage of the emergency action in the automated system and do everything possible within my reach in order to make sure we are back in production as soon as possible,(if possible get more experienced hands on deck) hence limiting the extra time spent recovering. I will also ensure that whoever is responsible for the mistake the previous day is punished, take measures to ensure that such ugly incident doesn’t repeat itself and ensure that the event and measures taken are logged accordingly.
