John Smithers at Sigtek

John Smithers at Sigtek

Background

8 months ago Smithers was selected to be one of two site instructors for a Total Quality program soon to be launched at Sigtek.

Sigtek

A small telecommunications company

• Founded 25 years ago

• Manufactures printed circuits boards for signal handling, selling them primarily to AT&T and other long-distance carriers

• With telecommunications industry in turmoil, both carriers and other suppliers stockpiled products – Sigtek’s sales shot up $60m

• Growth short lived due to earlier stockpiling following year artificially depressed

• First time Sigtek faced serious competition in the marketplace

• Customers base buying decisions more on price and delivery time than quality

• Attempt to incorporate software fell behind schedule

• Sale fell to $40m

Project

Bought by Telwork who planned to be more hands on

Formulate Total Quality program intended to bring to all its subsidiaries - goal:

• Improve product quality

• Encourage better management practices

• Gather all the scattered and diverse companies which Telwork acquired under a single corporate umbrella

Smithers reluctance and fears

About the Total Quality program

• Afraid that this sort of program might raise workers’ expectations too high – as evidenced by Sigtek’s culture resistance to change

• The company’s rift between engineering and manufacturing would get in the way of any change – which would require the entire organization to unite behind the single course

• Bad experience on project to upgrade the engineering design process with creating a cross-functional team – peers attended meetings reluctantly if at all

• Reluctance to work with Sam Murphy ‘fire fighter-type manager’

• Also opportunity as rift between engineering and operations was making efficient and effective operating of the company impossible

Conflict

Antipathy between engineering and organization increased due to their current heads Cross (engin.) and Partricof...