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The Fitzgerald Machine Company: Topic: Characters

The document describes a scenario at The Fitzgerald Machine Company where they have been having issues meeting delivery deadlines. A new production scheduler, Don Bradish, was hired to address this issue. The summary describes an order that was supposed to be delivered but the customer requested a delay due to a labor dispute. Don and Jane agreed to the delay but bill on the original terms. However, the order is now delayed in production beyond the original delivery date.

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25 views2 pages

The Fitzgerald Machine Company: Topic: Characters

The document describes a scenario at The Fitzgerald Machine Company where they have been having issues meeting delivery deadlines. A new production scheduler, Don Bradish, was hired to address this issue. The summary describes an order that was supposed to be delivered but the customer requested a delay due to a labor dispute. Don and Jane agreed to the delay but bill on the original terms. However, the order is now delayed in production beyond the original delivery date.

Uploaded by

Fahadhos
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MINICASE: MGMT - 17 BUSINESS ETHICS PROGRAM

The Fitzgerald Machine Company

Topic: Production/Operations Management

Characters: Don Bradish, recently hired to remedy problems meeting scheduled


deliveries
Jane Fitzgerald, VP of Operations, daughter of the company president

The Fitzgerald Machine Company is a $25MM per year custom metal fabrication shop. It
has a work force of 30 machinists and 15 office personnel Don Bradish was hired from
Peptine Corporation three months ago as Fitzgerald’s production scheduler. His background
includes an undergraduate industrial engineering degree and three years of purchasing
experience with Peptine immediately after college. This made him a good fit for Fitzgerald’s
needs. He was hired by Jane Fitzgerald, Vice President of Operations and daughter of the
company president.

Recently the company has been having difficulty meeting delivery schedule deadlines. Don
was hired to improve the company’s performance in on-time deliveries. So far, he has been
learning the systems of the operations and studying possible solutions, but he has not yet
determined the best course of action to recommend.

On Friday, June 21, a $300,000 order, which had been in the shop for nearly two months,
was scheduled for shipment. On the Wednesday before scheduled delivery, the customer
called and asked that delivery be delayed due to a labor dispute and work stoppage at his
location. Although he expected the strike to be settled within one week or less, he was
concerned that delivery of the order from Fitzgerald during the strike might cause
unnecessary misunderstandings in the labor dispute. Don discussed this request with Jane,
and they agreed to accommodate the customer’s request on the condition that the customer
agree to being billed on the originally scheduled delivery date and to pay on the originally
contracted payment terms. The customer accepted those terms.

On Friday morning, June 21, the production manager reported to Don that the order would
not be completed as scheduled and would probably require at least one more week to finish.
Concerned about the impact of this delay on his job status, Don decided to investigate the
cause of the delay before informing Jane of the problem. Before he could complete his
inquiry, Jane called to inform him that she had just mailed the invoice for the order as agreed
She also suggested that Don negotiate with the customer a storage fee for the order, which
would be paid in addition to the billing arrangement. Don wondered what he should say to
Jane next.

Author: Dr. Eliot S. Miner, Associate Professor of Business, St. Norbert College Co-author:
Dr. William Roth, McCabe Chair of Business and Society, Allentown College St. Francis de
Sales
1992 Arthur Andersen & Co, SC. All rights reserved. Page 1 of 1

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