Treetop Forest Products

Treetop Forest Products

Treetop Forest Products Ltd is a sawmill operation, based in Oregon, that is owned by a major forest products company, though it operates independently. Treetop processes raw logs into lumber for international distribution. The organization is divided into six departments that work varying shifts. Each department, except for packaging, has a supervisor on shift and motivated employees. The packaging department does not have a dedicated supervisor and its employees are known for not adhering to work standards. The decrease in productivity levels within the packaging department is due to several factors that will be discussed in depth in this paper.

Treetop Forest Products

Introduction

Treetop Forest Products Ltd. is a sawmill operation based in Oregon. Treetop receives raw logs from the area for cutting and planning into building-grade lumber, higher grade finished products, and lower-grade logs. Treetop has one general manager, 16 supervisors and support staff, and 180 unionized employees that make up six operating departments. Ninety percent of Treetop’s product is sold on the international market through Westboard Co., a large marketing agency (McShane & Von Glinow, 2012). Due to the amount of clients in the region, pricing is competitive and packing is essential. The packing department’s productivity has declined in recent months due to poor management and lackadaisical employees.

Case Synopsis

The Treetop mill is divided into six operating departments: boom, sawmill, planer, packaging, shipping, and maintenance. The sawmill, boom and packaging departments operate a morning shift and an afternoon shift. Employees in these departments rotate shifts every two weeks. The planer and shipping departments operate only morning shifts, while maintenance employees work the night shift (McShane & Von Glinow, 2012, p. 475).

Each department, except for packaging, has a supervisor on every work shift. The packaging department is covered by the planer and sawmill supervisors (McShane & Von Glinow, 2012, p. 475); however, the supervisors do not spend as much time in the packaging department as they should. This is mainly due to the location of packaging department in relation to other departments.

Productivity levels in boom, shipping, and maintenance departments have remained consistent. The packaging department has recorded decreasing productivity over the past couple of years, resulting in a backlog of finished products (McShane & Von Glinow, 2012, p. 475). The backlog adds to Treetop’s inventory costs and increases the risk of damaged goods.

Analysis

Treetop has added overtime for packaging department employees. In one month, the packaging department employed