ANALYSIS OF THE TANGLIN POLYMERS CASE STUDY Assignment No: 01

2014

Ms. D B K Erandika Baduge BSc in MIS(UCD) Batch17

7/13/2014

Assessment Submission Form

Student Name D B K Erandika Baduge Student Number Assessment Title Tanglin Polymers Case Study Module Code BMGT3002L Module Title Management of Organizations Module Co-ordinator Dr. Colm Foster Tutor (if applicable) N/A Date Submitted 13th July 2014 Date Received Grade/Mark A SIGNED COPY OF THIS FORM MUST ACCOMPANY ALL SUBMISSIONS FOR ASSESSMENT. STUDENTS SHOULD KEEP A COPY OF ALL WORK SUBMITTED. Procedures for Submission and Late Submission Ensure that you have checked the School’s procedures for the submission of assessments. Note: There are penalties for the late submission of assessments. For further information please

see the University’s Policy on Late Submission of Coursework, (http://www.ucd.ie/registrar/) Plagiarism: the unacknowledged inclusion of another person’s writings or ideas or works, in any

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presentations). The penalties associated with plagiarism designed to impose sanctions that reflect the

seriousness of University’s commitment to academic integrity. Ensure that you have read the

University’s Briefing for Students on Academic Integrity and Plagiarism and the UCD Plagiarism

Statement, Plagiarism Policy and Procedures, (http://www.ucd.ie/registrar/) Declaration of Authorship I declare that all material in this assessment is my own work except where there is

clear acknowledgement and appropriate reference to the work of others.

Signed………………………………………………. Date ……13/07/2014…………………

Assessment submission form_modular

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Contents

1. Executive Summary

2. Case Identification

3. Case Evaluation

4. Case Analysis

5. Appraisal of Chan Kee Tong

6. Recommendations

7. Final Discussion – Advices to MGR- RP

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1. Executive Summery

he Tanglin Polymers is a huge apprehension manufacturing a variety of petroleum-based products and their consumers broaden into a wide range with different industries. The CEO of ‘Tanglin’ has hired Mr. Chan Kee Tong to handle purchasing

procedures to control the increasing lined complexity in protecting raw materials of the company. The case study looks into the reasons that have been leading the new adopted plans to be failed from its initialization. The problem has arisen through increasing difficulty in securing raw materials, declining local economy, inflated plan-budget requirement, scarce schedule and the contract being bargained without apposite conformity by all its units. The case study is divided in to four fragments. The preliminary fragment discovers the way of initial decisions made and subsequent actions predestined on this estimations lead to the met tribulations all over the plan. The main cause for a plan confliction may be the appalling decisions taken by the CEO otherwise the Manager of Resource Procurement appointed. The second fragment analyzes the essential skills required to be a superior resource procurement manager of a company akin to Taglin and appraisal of Mr. Chan Kee Tong by evaluating his managerial decisions and track whether he has made any mistakes over his decisions. In next fragment the author recommend different decisions that can be access by the manager of resource procurement by assuming the author assigned to the above position. Here the author uses her real life examples with her own experiences to evaluate the given suggestions and pick an individual choice which would offer the most complimentary conclusion from the author’s point of view with steady substantiation. The Final fragment attached with the bundle of advices to Chan Kee Tong by explaining how to proceed with the project with new proposed- arrangements.

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2. Case Identification

This case study involves on the project of centralizing the purchasing procedures of the company ‘Tanglin Polymers’. This is the initial decision taken by the newly recruited experienced Resource Procurement Manger, Mr. Chan Kee Tong. He came to this decision after evaluating the company’s existing system and to reach the main responsibility of his role which is handling purchasing effectively.

At the present case in point, the Tanglin Polymers project is in hazard of exceeding the budget and at the rear of its schedule. The annual peak buying season is only one month away at the time this new plan adopted. If the project not success during this short period available, the consumers in worldwide may disenchanted and buyers may begin to condemn the products. The author has instigated this report by consider the project’s initial stage and evaluated how the options equipped then has impacted the plan.

The author has given a nearer look up into the Manager- Resource procurement and reviewed his skills as well. An avoidable judgment has given to Chan Kee Tong in the analysis part of the project. Advices made to the MGR-RP and illustrated his mistakes too. The case study ends with a most suitable option concluded to be executed as a most favorable method by assessing given recommendations by the author herself.

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3. Case Evaluation The company Tanglin may maintain a fine reputation associated with its influence on their service and a large variety of petroleum-based products to industrial consumers worldwide. The head office of the company is located in Hong Kong and concerning over 30 manufacturing plants and processing plants, located in globally. But the constant purchasing procedures involving by individual plants have never been fully co-ordinated and it imitated a trust on the part of top management in the intrinsic worth of delegation and decentralization. Managers of each operation were mal-practiced to operate as individual business units in most issues. While the business run, in early 2006, the management noticed that the company would face increasing complexity in protecting raw materials. Hence the company CEO, Mr. Patrick Ang, hired Mr. Chan Kee Tong to handle purchasing procedures as Manager of Resource Procurement, who he is MSc qualified with several years experience in accounting control systems and optimization techniques. The CEO of Tanglin, Mr. Patrick Ang was steady with Chan Kee Tong’s administrative approach and this leaded to wide latitude in organizing the job by Chan Kee Tong. The usual formal channels used to announce the appointment of Mr. Chan Kee Tong. Ms. Clara Ng assigned as the assistant of Mr. Chan Kee Tong who she had served the company for a number of years in a mixture of competencies and knew most of the plant executives personally. As elucidate in the case identification, the project consists of developments of an effective purchasing management to control the rapid difficulty in securing raw materials by centralizing the company’s purchasing procedures.

According to the new plan of Chan Kee Tong each and every individual plant managers were requisite to organize contracts two weeks in advance and obtain approval from head office prior to making any purchases for over $HK 800,000. Board of Directors approved the above proposals which he presented through the CEO. However the available time to implement the plan is limited as the peak-buying season was forthcoming at the time this fresh plan was approved. MGR-RP faded out the idea given by Clara Ng which suggests better clearing of managers responsible for purchasing and proposed to visit plants and take up the matter personally. He came to a strict decision to implement a computerized material control system as the first step of the centralizing and pointed that it was a critical that the new computer system to support the effort be brought on-line as soon as possible. Therefore the project definition phase executed within a short period. All 30 managers who are managing manufacturing plants located in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Australia, and New Zealand were informed about procurement responsibility by Chan Kee Tong formally. Clara Ng was assigned to handle enquires about the memo while he worked with Accounting and IT involved duties.

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However the head office received replies from all but a few locations after the certain weeks with the typical response that they received and implemented the change of purchasing procedure. But Chan Kee Tong further concerned in completing arrangements for the new control system with planning high volume for a IS contract worth $HK 5,000,000. Subsequently in next couple of months, they did not receive any notice from any unit and the contracts were being settled. Executives in other departments informed that the operations are in order at plantations. Clara signifies that she had no applicable information to advocate that anything was negligent. Finally the MGR-RP, Chan Kee Tong was extremely perplexed why so few authorization requests were being sent to his office. Over this implementation Mr. Chan Kee Tong expected to co-ordinate the increasing difficulty in procuring essential supplies and to ensure each business unit receives essential supply of raw materials. In advance planned to get permit to order in larger units and minimize price variation by gathering accurate details continuously in nine months. But all his plans were faded with the few replies they received.

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4. Case Analysis

There are many bad management practices can highlight in the case which may be mainly directed to get the few approval requests to the head office. Not only by the Chan Kee Tong but also by the top management of the Tanglin, the CEO- Patrick Ang made some mistakes. The author analyses those points under this section clearly. 01. Adopted to the Existing Procedure

In this case study its data explained that the purchasing procedures have never been fully co-ordinated in the individual units in Taglin. The purchasing managers have been practicing with their existing system and will not tend to adjust with a new procedure immediately. Otherwise they have been encouraged to operate their own manufacturing plants as a separate business in units. This leads to a competition between the units in the same company itself. Management in each plant may act as custodian of his plant. Therefore he never pop-up to illustrate the actual problems he have in his plant and will not pay attention to support other units as well. In briefly people not adopt to a big transform immediately. Real World Experience: It was only 4years to me when I started going to the kindergarten. I loved my grand-pa a lot and he only brought me to there. Every day I asked him to stay with me at the nursery until it over. One day I found that he is going without telling me and I cried a lot. I throw my bag to the main road and ran to him. That much I loved to stay with my grand-pa (Adopted to a certain practice) however time made changes and now then I loved to stay with my boy friend and cried a lot when he started sailing at a container ship. Lesson: People refuse changes and enough time is needed to adjust a big change. 02. Recruitment of the Resource Procurement Manger

Mr. Patric Ang created a role as Resource Procurement Manager (Mgr-RP) and hired Mr. Chan Kee Tang to handle purchasing procedures effectively. Chan Kee Tong is a UCD MSc graduate with several years experience in accounting control systems and optimization techniques but not in the similar area which is procurement. Thus the specialization of the MGR-RP is in a low level according to his experience. His appointment was announced through the usual formal channels, including a notice in the company newsletter. No one will personally recognize him and other employees (Specially mangers- according to the case) may not aware about his experience and expertise. If they know about his suitability to the position it will provide a sound support to do his job at the company. The relationship is more important with internal clients and it has been missing from his first appointment at the Tanglin. Existing employees may not lean to accept a new employee’s decision without accepting his skills and appropriateness to the role. The leadership should be a commonly accepted. Understanding and acceptance of the participants is low in this case. Real World Example: My father is the Hospital secretary at the general hospital, Kandy. I

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recently went to the skin clinic at the hospital without my father. I did not boast about my father and was waiting as a regular patient until my number cried. Suddenly a matron recognized me and introduced myself to all at the clinic and led me to get my prescriptions hurriedly. Lesson: People treat differently when they get know more about a certain person. 03. Clara Ng Handle Enquiries about the Memo

The CEO- Patrick Ang assigned Clara Ng as Chan Kee Tong’s assistant who had never attended college, but had served Tanglin for a number of years in a variety of capabilities and knew most of the plant executives personally. Chan Kee Tong asked her to handle enquiries regarding the Memo which sent to the all 30 purchasing mangers worldwide. When the mangers make enquiries regarding the memo, they will not like to get the particular details from a lower level employee directly as some mangers maintain certain status for their own. It’s a problem allied with professionalism. Although the team work and the excellent relationship ship is highly valued in management theories commonly, we can simply identified that this company doesn’t maintain that practice at all. Other thing is new mangers may not content to get instructed by an existing lower level employee in order to maintain their position in certain plants and in the company. So, the frequent enquiries may subsequently get lower and it will badly effect to the plan. The same point will appear in a different way as well; some important enquiries may handle inadequately by the Clara. Real World Example: When a Monk tells about ‘Karma’ (Reality of the Life & Soul), people ready to accept them with respect. But when a typical person explains it broadly without practicing it, people don’t tend to listen even. Lesson: People expect the specialization 04. Hierarchy of Authority

Patrick Ang, consistent with the managerial style of Chan Kee Tong and gave him wide

latitude in organizing the job. This resulted over confident of MGR- RP and he start making

decisions without sense of others. His decisions subject to incomplete information,

Psychological and sociological processes, Limited cognitive abilities and affected the

decision making in this case. He has found the optimal solution not the satisfactory. He had

to adopt to the group decision making by accessing others ideas too. If he tried the method

he will find the real world difficulties that can be occurred when implementing the plan.

The existing experienced managers many provide good points to clear these out with their

expertise with the company in many years. Chan Kee Tong get the approval to his plan over

CEO and the BOD (Board of Directors) had approved the plan with no comments as they

have accomplished to obey with his superior. The plan approved over an authority

hierarchy and the remote level may not fully aware about the project accurately. Hence

purchasing managers would not much responsive on the value of the plan proposed and

will not find it as a tool of finding cost of procurement across the units.

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Real World Experience: When I was at a bank, during my training period I had so many

training sessions and on those days certain covering person assign to cover my duties at our

branch. Whenever I went to a training session she calling me many more times by making

various inquiries regarding my day-to-day duties as she wasn’t aware about the work I did on

previous day and about the appointments made to the customers. Finally I used to write all in

a little note book and then I experienced that the number of calls rapidly get reduced.

Lesson: Participants need to aware about the thing that he is about to do. 05. Scarce Schedule

The case indicates that the company made purchases throughout the year and also it has a certain peak-buying season and the certain period was forthcoming and it was only one month away at the time this new plan was espoused. The manufacturing plants may be busy with their duties and may not pay attention to an extra activity. They will only concentrate on their individual units as they did early. Real World Example: Preparation to an exam within in short period (3 months) after wasting totally a one year. Lesson: You will ripe what you sow

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5. Appraisal of Chan Kee Tong

In generally, to output a best project, the project manager should have well premeditated

professional skills.

Chan Kee Tong is the Resource Procurement Manager for Tanglin Polymers. Purpose of

crating His role was handling purchasing of the company. Chan Kee Tong’s first decisions

were to begin centralizing the company’s purchasing procedures. His decision was optimal

according to the case, but when implementing the plan there are many more problems

arisen over mistakes he made during his decision-making and important managerial skills

have been neglected in his managerial style.

Here the author listed the blunders he made. (Note: These points have been discussed in

the previous topics.) The neglected skills have indicated against the points.

Dismissed the idea of Clara : Listen to subordinates/Team members, Motivation

Explained his plan only to the CEO and get the approval through him : Face-to Face

Communication

Completing arrangements for new control system without enough concur to the

plan by participants : Build team spirit , Keep relation with project team and stake

holders

Assign Clara to handle enquiries about memos : Continuous service, Proper human

resource management

Enter into an entirely a new preparation while the peak- buying season is upcoming

: Balance risk, Cost-time management, Strategic Management

Agreed with a contract of IS which is worth $HK 5,000,000 : Cost-time management,

Have clear picture about project

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6. Recommendations

The author makes recommendations to this case study which she would have done differently. The reasons directed to get the few approval requests to the head office and the mistakes made by the different managerial level also have been addressed to propose these recommendations in addition to the authors’ point of view on her real life experiences. 01. Collect data to track the density of purchase materials separately in individual units.

Management can easily keep in his track on the variations of the densities.

02. Video conferencing can be used to conduct urgent meetings over the remote locations. Before centralized the system, they can communicate over this method which is better than traditional written methods, such as memos

03. Calling stock is essential before involve into the plan. Stock should call by clearing

verifying the finished goods, Product in working progress, Raw materials available. 04. Gather the details of plant’s orders including the details of current orders, production

items. All details can be collected manually before implementing the system. 05. Assign project personnel executives for each and every plantation to handle the process

and to maintain the continuous communication. 06. Improve the team spirit. Make rewording procedure to motivate teams. 07. Co-ordinate the work well with continues inspection of the remote manufacturing

plants by visit (Can assign certain role to conduct this duty as it is not practical to do by a same person.)

08. Do a risk assessment to the certain project in its initial stage.

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7. Final Discussion – Advices to MGR- RP

The author provides some advices here to Chan Kee Tong about how to now proceed with the project. DO’s

Exhibit the highest standards of integrity in all dealings with fellow employees, consumers, suppliers and the community at large.

Maintain a good relationship with internal clients and be a good team player. Develop employees’ commitment and ability to make sound judgments and conduct

management without neglecting familiar skills. Listen to the others. Gather Suggestions of them. Touch the wide range of

knowledge and experience. Give constructive suggestions on how to reduce cost and improve efficiency and the

quality of the products of the company. Postpone the plan to be implemented after the peak-buying season. Practice to run over a risk assessment before implement a plan. Concentrate on schedule too. Assign right people for the right task at the right time. Be creative in making decisions rather than just traditional or technical.

DONT’s

Don’t continue the implemented plan as the peak-buying season is forthcoming. No compromise on trust should be encouraged on others duties. Avoid planning over-estimated constructions.

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Student Name : D B K Erandika Baduge

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Date : 05th Nov 2013

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