Introduction to

Management
Case Study 1:
Naughty Rules
Amish Mehta
Roll no. 23
Batch 18

Summary of the Case Study

Dr. Reddy instruments- A medium sized company on outskirts of Hyderabad.

Manufactures surgical instruments and supplies for medical professionals and

hospitals.

A year ago, founder of the firm Dr. Raja Reddy hired his niece Madhuri in
place of retired quality control inspector Ranga Rao.

Madhuri, 23 years old recently graduated from Delhi collage of engineering

with industrial engineering as major subject.

Balraj Gupta, aged 52, production manager of the prosthesis department

having work experience of 20 years has previously been working as production
line supervisor and worker on the production line.

Gupta has completed his education mostly through correspondence courses.

Madhuri and Gupta could not get along with each other, there was an
underlying animosity between them

Plant manager of Dr. reddy instruments- venkat Kumar,44 observed their

disagreements and decided to call a meeting of all supervisory personnel in
the production department and 12 quality control departments.

Due to their disagreements absenteeism had increased in guptas department.

The circular for the meeting was as under:

The following conversation took place between

production and quality control personnel.

Gupta:

That Delhi girl is a fault finding machine

She stops the production even if one defective part comes down the line

Before she was hired we hardly stopped the production

And when we did it was only because of a mechanical defect

Our quality has not undergone any changes, its still the same but all she wants to
do is to trouble us.

Madhuri:

Mr. Gupta has never relished my presence in the company and used to talk behind
my back said to clarify her position

Suresh (another quality control supervisor):

Agreeing with Madhuri Suresh said the rule of the company permits quality control
to stop production if rejection exceed 3 an hour. This is all madhuri has been
doing.

Gupta:

Madhuri starts counting the hour from the moment she gets the first deject.

Ranga rao never really worried about rejects rule when he was here

Ahmed (another production supervisor);

Every time Madhuri stops production she is virtually putting the company on fire.

There would be increase in production loss and would affect our bonuses as well.

30 minutes later madhuri and gupta were still lashing.

Venkat decided to end the meeting and promised to clarify the issue
sometime next week.

Questions and Answers

Question 1: Should Venkat have called a meeting to sort out this problem? Why
or Why not?

Yes, it was necessary to call this meeting as the number of defects were high and the
production stopped frequently which had effect on cost of production, even the
absenteeism in production department had increased due to the conflicts between Mr.
gupta and Ms. Madhuri.

Question 2: what do you say about the rule calling for production to halt if there
are more than 3 rejects in an hour? Should it have been enforced? Explain.

The rule that Halt the production if there are more than 3 defects in one hour
should be enforced. As this company Manufactures surgical instruments and supplies
for medical professionals and hospitals and artificial devices to replace missing parts
of human body are manufactured it is important to keep a regular check on the quality
of product been produced as making these parts cost in lacks of rupees.

Question 3: What do you feel is the major problem in this case? The solution?

The major problem in this case is the difference in the perception between the
managers and also the ego problem. Madhuri is a newly recruited employee, is
young and thinks about the quality of production while Mr. Gupta has 20-25 years of
experience in this company and only focuses on the quantity of the product. Mr.
Gupta has ego problem because a newly recruited employee frequently comes and
corrects him, he thinks the previous supervisor Mr. Rangarao didn't interfere much
then why is she interfering.

I think the solution to this could be to upgrade the rule as stopping the production
if 3 defects are found in an hour could be tiresome, instead they can stop the
production only twice or thrice in a day. In this way Mr. Gupta wont think she
frequently stops the production and madhuri van also keep a check on the quality
of production.

THANK
YOU!!!