Over the last several years, Forstar Aircraft has renewed its overall commitment to quality, speed and cost-effectiveness in order to maintain its status as a financial and technological leader in the industry. As the industry has become more competitive and management has sought to improve quality, there have been signs that major changes may be on the way. Many American companies have started to move over to “parallel operations”, which means that the performance and design of an engine part is evaluated as it is developed, rather than after its production. For Forstar, this would mean that Design and Manufacturing would need to work more interactively. Such a change would be no small matter for Forstar, as relations between these departments have been strained.
The Vice President of Design Engineering and the Vice President of Manufacturing Production have convened a team of managers to develop a plan for how the two departments might work together to improve quality. They have sent a special interest consultant to the meeting and have asked the Design, Manufacturing, Sourcing, and Quality departments each to send one section manager to a negotiation regarding implementation of a cooperative “Common Measures” program.