【正文】
Firm: . Kearney Case Number: Case setup (facts offered by interviewer): ? Your client is a . based oil refinery ? The refinery has a single location and is a small to mediumsized refinery ? Your client, although profitable, believes it is lagging behind the petition and could improve ? You are brought in as part of a joint consultantclient team that will review overall operations and make remendations on ways to improve the bottom line ? You have been assigned to work with the maintenance division ? The maintenance department’s primary objective is to prevent equipment failure and to repair equipment when it does fail ? Understanding of its anization is important. It consists of three primary areas: nine assets areas, one central maintenance area and one group of contractors. The first two areas are employees of the client, the third an external source of labor. ? An asset is a physical area of the plant that contains various pieces of equipment (pumps, heat exchangers, etc.). There are nine assets. Each asset has a Maintenance Supervisor who is responsible for all maintenance to be performed in his/her asset. Working for the Maintenance Supervisor in each asset is, on average, eleven “craftsmen”. The craftsmen are the actual workers that perform the maintenance. The craftsmen are unionized and divide into twelve different craft designations (. electricians, pipefitters, welders, etc.). Each craft designation has a defined set of skills they are qualified to perform. They are not allowed to perform skills outside of their defined craft, or help in the performance of activities involving skills beyond their craft. Collectively the twelve different crafts can perform any maintenance job that might arise at the refinery. The maintenance supervisor and his/her assigned craftsmen are “hardwired” to their asset. That is, they work only on equipment in their given asset. ? Central maintenance is a centralized pool of Maintenance Supervisors and Craftsmen, who are dispatched to support the different assets during times of high workload. They are employees of your client and fit the description contained in the above Asset explanation