Running Head: CASE STUDY-CONIFER CORP.

Conifer Corp. Case Study

BUS 540 – Organizational Behavior

Westcliff University
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Introduction

Conifer Corp. is a 30 year old sawmill in Oregon that is owned by a major forest products

company but operates independently. This sawmill receives their logs from the area for cutting

and planning into high quality, building-grade lumber. Confer corp. has six operating

departments: boom, sawmill, planer, packaging, shipping, and maintenance. While the sawmill,

boom, and packaging departments operate the morning and afternoon shifts starting at 6 am and

2 pm respectively, the planer and shipping departments work only the morning shift and the

maintenance departments works the night shift starting at 10 pm. Employees in the sawmill,

boom and packaging departments rotate shifts every two weeks.

All departments except the packing department has its own supervisor on every shift.

While the planer supervisor is in charge of the packaging department for the morning shift, the

sawmill supervisor is responsible for the afternoon shift. However, either of them seldom visit

the packaging department, especially the sawmill supervisor, as it is housed in a separate

building and the sawmill department is located the furthest away from them. The packaging

department plays an important role in Conifer’s business model in the fact that it is a very price-

competitive industry and its clients make their decision of purchasing lumber based on how well

the product is packaged. Hence Westboard Inc., Conifer’s marketing agency, sponsors a monthly

package quality award and Confiner has won it several times. However, the company’s

packaging quality has been on the decline recently which is directly linked to the bottleneck

issue in the packaging department (McShane & Von Glinow, 2017, p. 241).

In this case study, we will analyze the problem plaguing Conifer corp. with respect to its

piling backlog in packaging finished product as a result of the department’s decreasing

productivity. We will be identifying the symptoms causing this backlog, possible causes of the
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decreasing productivity and potential solutions or actions to be taken by the management team to

address the issue.

1. What symptom(s) in this case suggest(s) that something has gone wrong?

The first symptom suggesting that something has gone wrong is the decline in

Conifer’s ratings in the monthly packaging quality award competition and also losing a

few large customers to their competitors because of their products’ substandard

packaging appearance. Other symptoms that point to the problem are the decreasing

productivity level in the packaging department while it increased or remained constant

in other departments. This decreased productivity resulted in a piling backlog of

finished product outside the packaging department as they could not keep up with the

increased combined productivity of the planning and sawmill departments.

As the company issued overtime and extra hours after regular shifts to cope up

with the backlog, it still wasn’t resolving the issue. In fact, the packaging department

which employed 10% of the workforce accounted for 85% of the overtime thus

affecting the company’s cost competitiveness and increased inventory costs. A time and

motion study confirmed that the packaging department is capable of processing all of

the combined output of the planning and sawmill departments without any overtime.

Also, many of the packaging department employees are not punctual and productive

and may also be convincing the normally productive temporary workers assigned to

their department to follow suit.

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2. What are the main causes of the symptom(s)?

The biggest cause of decreasing productivity in the packaging department is the

lack of an independent supervisor for the department combined with the fact that the

packaging department is separated and far away from all other departments. It is

human nature to get complacent at work when there is no higher authority around

which is exactly what may be happening at Conifer corp.’s packaging department. The

lack of authority has emboldened the employees to participate in work abuse like

extending their lunch by 10 minutes and coffee breaks by 5 minutes, and leaving work

a few minutes before the end of their shift. This abuse seems to be more common in

the afternoon shift when the sawmill supervisor seldom visits the packaging

department as it is far away from his or her department. This lack of a sense of

responsibility and careless on the sawmill supervisor’s part is not only affecting the

packaging department’s productivity but also send a message to them that it is okay to

be irresponsible.

The lack of authority as the main reason for declining productivity in the

packaging department is also reflected in the fact that typically productive employees

from other departments who are temporarily assigned to the packaging department

tend to slack off and adopt the behavior of the packaging department employees.

Another reason for declining productivity is the incentives being offered by the

Westboard Inc. marketing agency in its reward program for packaging quality. A

certificate of excellence may hold value to the employees only for a period of time and

eventually its value wanes off and will not be effective enough to encourage the

employees to work harder.

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3. What actions should executives take to correct the problem(s)?

A potential solution to resolve the issue at the packaging department is to assign them a

supervisor responsible for that specific department. The presence of a supervisor will

deter the employees from participating in any unproductive practices including time

loss abuse. A supervisor can also help them stay focused on the task at hand thus

increasing the overall productivity. The company can continue to offer overtime to cope

up with the backlog and with a supervisor present on site, there is lesser chance of the

employees abusing the overtime offered. The company executives and/or Westboard

Inc. can offer better incentives in the form of cash rewards, additional paid time off etc.

as part of the monthly package quality award to encourage the packaging department

employees to better perform on the job. Finally, the company can also look towards the

employees for feedback on how things can be improved in their respective departments.

This helps them feel important and connected with the company’s purpose, thus

automatically instilling a sense of responsibility in them as well.

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Conclusion

In this case study we have Conifer Corp., a sawmill operation based out of Oregon

which produces high quality, building-grade lumber. For many years, Conifer Corp. has

received the highest quality rating for its products but lately their ratings have been on

the decline. This is due to the decreasing productivity in their packaging department

and increasing backlog of finished products ready to be packaged. The lack of a direct

supervisor to supervise the department employees combined with motivating incentives

have caused this decline in productivity. By assigning a supervisor to manage the

packing department activities and introducing better incentives for the employees

would resolve the productivity issue and also help address the backlog of finished

products.
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References

McShane, S., & Von Glinow, M. A. (2017). Organizational Behavior (8th ed.). McGraw-Hill.