Kemko Manufacturing

Introduction –

Kemko is a company that manufactures high-quality household application. In the previous years, each company branch was allowed to maintain it’s own culture and remain anonymous from corporate at Kemko. Each branch was able to have their own way to control inventory and raw material procurement. However; when there was a purchase request above a certain dollar amount, each branch had to send it to corporate to get approved. With all the different ways each branch dealt with this requests, there was confusion at corporate with the lack of consistency and standardization.

Problems/Issues –

The problems that Kemko Manufacturing is dealing with has to do with the lack of standardization and consistency between all branches. There is also a fear of scope creep, which is defined as “the growth of or enhancements to the project’s scope as the project is being developed”. There is also the issue based on the members of each teams expecting their roles to be different than what Janet is explaining it should be. The plant representatives were under the impression that the IT group was supposed to prepare the entire requirements while the IT group was relieved Janet put more responsibility on the plant representatives; this did not mean that the IT group would not have any work.

Solutions –

The main solution that Kemko tried to come up with in regards to the standardization process. The head of the company appointed one person, Janet head of IT, to complete a project for more standardization between all branches. By having a single person in charge of a project for every single branch, this would lead to an inevitable cooperation and need for standardization among all branches. Regarding the problem with scope creep, Janet completed many admirable actions as described in class. In class, we talked about how in the initiation of the project, it is very important to first define the roles of everyone in the project as well as define the scope.  By requiring members of both the IT group and the plant representatives to attend the meeting, Janet was able to make sure that everyone’s roles were defined. This also created transparency between everyone; if each member from each branch knew the roles of the different groups, it is more likely that scope creep will not occur. By creating one singular project and avoiding scope creep, Janet is avoiding the inefficient use of staff. In class we discussed the inefficiencies of multiple projects; the project leaders would be fighting over which people they want to complete which task, wanting the harder and smarter workers. By creating two distinct groups, Janet avoided this altogether, requiring everyone within the IT department as well as the plant representatives to cooperate and come up with a single solution for the branches. The other problem of each group expecting a different role could create a defiant attitude, however this was not the case. Because each member of the IT group as well as all the plant representatives were distinctly told what roles they would need to complete, this creates a sense of importance each person has to the project.