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Fhe Case Study

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FHE, Inc. Synopsis and Purpose FHE manufactures pumps used by the automotive and appliance industries. They also manufacture fluid handling equipment used to transfer liquids from paint to food supplies. During 2005 their profits after tax were $5,470,000 after having sales of $105,200,000. Even though FHE’s sales and profits are improving, Lum Donaldson, product development engineering manager, believes there are problems in coordinating the technical program managers and product managers. He has concerns that the division of responsibilities is not clear and the fluctuating workload in the engineering services is off balance. Discussion Questions 1) What steps should Donaldson take to improve the new-product development …show more content…

The PERT method requires three estimates of time; optimistic, most likely and pessimistic. This method assumes that actual project times are distributed according to the beta probability distribution. Most time estimates often exceed the best estimate or the most likely estimate because managers like to be optimistic with their time estimates. Communication The product design department states ‘once a product is developed it is thrown over the wall to manufacturing. Lack of communication between departments can cause problems with product quality, increase costs and lower productivity. One way to resolve this is to create a quality and safety position. This position would be responsible for gathering suggestions from the manufacturing and product design managers regarding new product challenges and/or reservations. After analyzing this information it would be shared with the designers to improve the product prior to it going to market. Question 4 Evaluate the plans and the expected results from the new CAD-CAM system. Implementing the restructuring plan, network scheduling method, change in communications and quality control measures will improve the product process at FHE. These changes will also improve costs, employee moral and increase speed and delivery of new products. FHE will continue to see increases profits and maintain their competitiveness in the market. Introduction of the new CAD-CAM system proposed at FHE will increase the efficiency of the

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