BM1708

TASK PERFORMANCE
Sollano, Pauline Nori Anne M
BH501P
Case Study: Solar Cell Manufacturer
Solar Cell is a manufacturing company based in southern part of Korea that manufactures different types
of solar-powered products. They have customers based in the local parts of the country and abroad. The
company is growing fast due to the increased demand for non-conventional energy. The CEO of the
company associates their success in the use of control charts for their manufacturing procedures which
lets them control the quality of their final outputs.

Although the company has been quite successful in the use of control charts for their manufacturing
operations, it has extended the applications of control charts in their non-manufacturing sectors such as
HR and Finance. The reason for this implementation is because of the major increase in employee
attrition and significantly large budget allotted to several departments of the company. Based on the
result of the exit interviews, most of the employees who left the company claimed that they
experienced work-life imbalance particularly for the operators since they were required to work in
extended hours in circumstances when their substitute partners would not be able to arrive to work on
time or would not be able to report to work at all. The minority of the resigned employees thought that
they were misaligned and not trained for their job, they felt undervalued and afraid that growth
opportunities were not present in the company. Another problem area that the top management has
observed involves the finance team of the company. The management have found out that allotted
budgets in some departments or work units of the firm are unrealistic, inaccurate, and unreasonable.

After reviewing all the problem areas of the organization, the company’s quality assurance team
suggested the use of control charts in the two (2) departments where the problems are prevalent.
However, another difficult situation arises due to the resistance of the employees toward the use of
control charts which gains several complaints from the employees pertaining to exhausting additional
workload since they would have to monitor and notate the different outflows and inflows in their major
and minor day-to-day operations. There was a clear lack of understanding of the benefits of control
charts and the need for change using control charts as a catalyst for change. The senior management
team decided to provide a one-day awareness program for the HR and Finance people so that they can
understand the expectations and the need for the control chart initiative within the company.
Moreover, an executive awareness was also introduced to all senior management team so that they
would understand the importance and benefits of control charts in the business.

Follow the suggested outline below in answering the case study:

I. Background
a. It must include a brief summary of the organizational issue.
- A solar cell is manufacturing company headquarters in southern Korea that specializes in
the manufactures different types of solar-powered products. They have customers in both
country and abroad. The company is growing fast due to the increased demand for their
manufacturing procedures which let them control the quality of their final outputs.
Although the company has been quite successful in the use of control chart for their
manufacturing operation. The company is rapidly expanding as demand for non-
conventional energy increases also the CEO attribute its success to the use of control chart
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for manufacturing procedures. The control chart is also implemented to their HR and
Finance sector because of increase of employees also most of the employee felt
undervalued and not trained that is whythey left the company. The management decided
through provide one-dayawareness program for the HR and Finance people so they can
understand the expectation in the needs for the control charts initiative
II. Statement of the Problem
a. How can Solar Cell Manufacturer control or eliminate attrition and overspending in their
organization through the use of control charts?
- To control the attrition and overspending in their organization through the use of
control chart they must stop rehiring employees because the company has a lot of
employees.
b. What steps should the top management employ in order to overcome the resistance of
the employees in the change initiative?
- 1. Communication and education Common issues that cause resistance to change
include fear of the unknown and a misunderstanding of why change is needed.
People will only accept change if they believe the risk of doing nothing is higher than
the risk of changing direction. Similarly, if people don't understand why change is
needed, they will question why you are changing something that they believe works
well. Communication and education about the change should begin before it is
initiated. This will help your people to rationalize the change, and ensure that
individuals and teams receive adequate information to make positive judgements.2.
Participation A lack of belief that the organization can make effective change leads to
resistance to change. Likewise, when people aren't consulted and change is forced
upon them, there is likely to be more resistance. This is especially the case if people
believe their jobs will be at risk. It is critical that the stakeholders and those
implementing change are involved in its design. Collaborative effort will
engage people in the change, and in the identification of potential issues and
solutions.
c. What steps in implementing Statistical Process Control (SPC) should Solar Cell
Manufacturer apply in order to succeed in the initiative?
- 1) Plan Planning is a really important part in order to implement SPC. This involves
identifying the problems and creating solutions. In this case, the problem is the major
increase of employee attrition and significantly large budget of different departments. If
there's an immediate action in order to solve the problem, this can be implemented. But
if not, experiment/research will help. 2) Experiment/Research - In this part, data must be
gathered from the employees with different factors. These factors can be the hypothesis
that causes the problem. Since exit interviews are conducted in the company, this can be
used as data and as a factor why does employee leaves. Also, surveys and monthly
reports of their expenses can be used in order to find out why there's a significant large
budget allocated in the certain department. When these data are already gathered,
statistical tests can be done in order to know what really causes the problems by using
correlation or t-test or other useful tests

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- 3) Analyze - After experimenting, analyzing of the results must happen. This is also
important because those data gathered will be useless unless it is analyzed. Using data
analysis and some charts/graphs for the presentation, conclusion can be made and with
these, appropriate and effective solution/s can now be created based on the data
gathered. 4) Act - Of course; the main goal is to implement these solutions and act based
this solution. Here, we can really see if the solutions are really effective for the company.
Everything we've done from the first steps are nothing without applying It to the
company

III. Areas of Consideration

a. It must include details and facts from the case that contribute to the organizational
problem of the company.
- The details and facts from the case that contribute to the organizational
problem of the company is the over employment, Lack of training, Allocation of
budget through each department.
IV. Alternative Courses of Action
a. It must contain at least (2) two courses of action for every point stated in the statement
of the problem. It must also present the advantages and disadvantages of each course of
action in resolving the organizational problem.
- The management of Solar Cell Manufacturers can overcome resistance by focusing to
create awareness among their staff on the importance of switching to use control
charts. Awareness can be done by organizing seminars-taking the employees to
benchmark the idea in other organizations that have coped with the change.
Through bench marking, the employees will understand the need to accepting
the new changes at the same time get a grasp of the whole Idea about how the new
system will favor them
V. Recommendation
a. It must present the best course of action among the presented alternatives in resolving
each organizational problem.
- he best suggestion I can make is to follow the installation and deployment of SPC
because it is certified and proven to be effective, and I believe that following the
stages is critical to the company’s continued growth and having a process in place
VI. Management Lessons Learned
a. It must discuss the takeaways from the case and the relevant things that the company
should do or not do in order to avoid the given organizational problems.
When a business is starting to grow, management has learnt that it is more important to focus on controlling
each department within the organization

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Rubric for grading:

CRITERIA PERFORMANCE INDICATORS POINTS SCORE

Wrote a concise summary of the case, the areas of
Executive Summary consideration presented, and the alternatives proposed 20
for the case.
Organization of Adhered to the correct outline and content was
20
Ideas organized in a clear and logical manner.
All necessary research and analysis were provided in
Analysis 30
support of the statement of the problem.
Proposed a well-thought and well-researched solution
Recommendation 30
to the case study.
TOTAL 100

Reference:
Gijo, E. & Jiju, A. (n.d.). A multiple case study analysis of six sigma practices in Indian manufacturing
companies. Retrieved on July 2, 2018 from
https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/10.1108/IJQRM-10-2014-0157

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