Broad Band Internet

Absence of clear guidelines in the engineering department

One of the key coordination issues at OEG is that the engineering department (including Engineering services – ES- and Engineering research) does not have defined responsibilities neither internally in the division nor in the rest of the company.  

On the one hand, the Engineering Services (ES) employees are spread through different physical locations which prevents the department from building internal knowledge and expertise.

The manager’s responsibilities are ambiguous. For instance, Sue Reeves does not take full accountability of her seniority in the organization. Further, ES employees feel left out of the company because the other employees do not seem to be aware of what exactly they are responsible for. Also, there seems to be a gap in what engineering should oversee (aka link R&D to manufacturing).

The characteristics described above are an example of how the inefficient architecture that OEG has stops innovative products from being delivered on time.

Overbearing Managing Director responsibilities

Bill Hunt is mostly interested in the design part of engineering, and as result is perceived to be too busy and unapproachable, thus leaving Frank Forbus confused about his responsibilities. At times, Bill Hunt gets too involved with the engineering services team leaving Forbus further confused. This malfunctioning supports the problem analyzed in point 1 (no clear guidelines in the engineering department). 

Given the lack of trust in some departments (and in particular in ES), conversations between teams often took place in silos without keeping other relevant departments informed. This has resulted in inefficiencies as other departments had to hunt for clarity and engage in disputes slowing down the decision making process and by extention the delivery schedule.