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Development and Technical Management were both in the administration block.
The current Drawing Department employed 15 personnel occupying 250 square metres
which cost the company approximately € 25,000 a year in fixed costs (wages and other
overheads). The Technical Department had the responsibility of producing new products
and developing new materials for Burke Engineering clients. Their record in 4 years since
the department had been established had been poor, and they had been drafted in to act
as progress chasers for many production problems.
Research. The Research Department was limited in the way they searched for new ideas
and, in the equipment that they had available to test new materials and develop new
products. The result was that though they were relatively highly skilled, as shown in Table
11 in Appendix A, they had not been effectively utilised.
Production. The designs would be transferred to the tool room, which reported to the
Production Director, where the moulds would be manufactured using traditional, manually
controlled cutting equipment. The Production Department, in common with others in Burke
Engineering, operated a standard 8 hour day with any additional work being covered by
overtime. The average overtime worked over the past 3 years was 40 minutes per day, but
there were substantial fluctuations to this figure. There was no weekend working, and the
factory closed for 2 weeks in August for the summer holidays.
The company was operating significantly under capacity. The minimum time that it took
Burke Engineering to complete a mould using basic cutting equipment which had been
installed over 15 years ago, was 15 working days, but the average length of mould
production was around 25 days and was considerably longer for complex designs. You are
aware that other companies have either installed computer aided cutting devices
themselves or are increasingly turning to outside specialists to complete such work at
lower cost, to higher specification, and within shorter time periods.
At the end of the mould cutting process, there was a detailed inspection to identify those
moulds that were sub standard. Failure rates had increased over the last 3 years until the
most recent figures indicated a 20 percent failure rate. The finished moulds would be
transferred to the foundry which cast them in the relevant material. The foundry had been
installed around 5 years ago and was one of the most up to date items of equipment that
the production plant had, enabling a whole range of materials to be used. It was, however,
slightly limited in the size of item that could be produced. The cooled chunk of metal would
then be moved to the machining area where the necessary work would be completed
before the addition of other components in the final assembly phase.
There was a considerable amount of sub-assembly work to complete components, a
tradition which the original founder of Burke had insisted upon to ensure high quality work.
Much of this had now become repetitive and was all very time consuming.
Both machining and final assembly areas still relied heavily on 10 year old equipment, and
you are aware that other companies have installed more and more sophisticated flexible
manufacturing systems that have substantially increased productivity and improved
quality. The completed unit would move to final inspection where they would be tested
prior to despatch.
Most of the assembly work was carried out manually and required a high level of skilled
staff. Because of the great variety of work in which Burke had historically been involved,
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