Response to authors on the subject (adding to concepts discussed not remarks on their writing)

provide responses to both the authors in 150 words each in APA format

the file of case study and the answers of two authors are attached.

Answer questions listed in the end based on case study. 150 words per answer. Total 300

Follow APA format. Use APA template to start with.

MCROY AEROSPACE2

McRoy Aerospace was a highly profitable company building cargo planes and refueling tankers for the armed forces. It had been doing this for more than fifty years and was highly successful. But because of a downturn in the government’s spending on these types of planes, McRoy decided to enter the commercial aviation aircraft business, specifically wide-body planes that would seat up to 400 passengers, and compete head on with Boeing and Airbus Industries.

During the design phase, McRoy found that the majority of the commercial airlines would consider purchasing its plane provided that the costs were lower than the other aircraft manufacturers. While the actual purchase price of the plane was a consideration for the buyers, the greater interest was in the life-cycle cost of maintaining the operational readiness of the aircraft, specifically the maintenance costs.

Operations and support costs were a considerable expense and maintenance requirements were regulated by the government for safety reasons. The airlines make money when the planes are in the air rather than sitting in a maintenance hangar. Each maintenance depot maintained an inventory of spare parts so that, if a part did not function properly, the part could be removed and replaced with a new part. The damaged part would be sent to the manufacturer for repairs or replacement. Inventory costs could be significant but were considered a necessary expense to keep the planes flying.

One of the issues facing McRoy was the mechanisms for the eight doors on the aircraft. Each pair of doors had their own mechanisms which appeared to be restricted by their location in the plane. If McRoy could come up with a single design mechanism for all four pairs of doors, it would significantly lower the inventory costs for the airlines as well as the necessity to train mechanics on one set of mechanisms rather than four. On the cargo planes and refueling tankers, each pair of doors had a unique mechanism. For commercial aircrafts, finding one design for all doors would be challenging.

Mark Wilson, one of the department managers at McRoy’s design center, assigned Jack, the best person he could think of to work on this extremely challenging project. If anyone could accomplish it, it was Jack. If Jack could not do it, Mark sincerely believed it could not be done. The successful completion of this project would be seen as a value-added opportunity for McRoy’s customers and could make a tremendous difference from a cost and efficiency standpoint. McRoy would be seen as an industry leader in life-cycle costing, and this could make the difference in getting buyers to purchase commercial planes from McRoy Aerospace.

The project was to design an opening/closing mechanism that was the same for all of the doors. Until now, each door could have a different set of open/close mechanisms, which made the design, manufacturing, maintenance, and installation processes more complex, cumbersome, and costly.

Without a doubt, Jack was the best—and probably the only—person to make this happen even though the equipment engineers and designers all agreed that it could not be done. Mark put all of his cards on the table when he presented the challenge to Jack. He told him wholeheartedly that his only hope was for Jack to take on this project and explore it from every possible, out-ofthe-box angle he could think of. But Jack said right off the bat that this may not be possible. Mark was not happy hearing Jack say this right away, but he knew Jack would do his best.

Jack spent two months looking at the problem and simply could not come up with the solution needed. Jack decided to inform Mark that a solution was not possible. Both Jack and Mark were disappointed that a solution could not be found.

“I know you’re the best, Jack,” stated Mark. “I can’t imagine anyone else even coming close to solving this critical problem. I know you put forth your best effort and the problem was just too

much of a challenge. Thanks for trying. But if I had to choose one of your co-workers to take another look at this project, who might have even half a chance of making it happen? Who would you suggest? I just want to make sure that we have left no stone unturned,” he said rather glumly.

Mark’s words caught Jack by surprise. Jack thought for a moment and you could practically see the wheels turning in his mind. Was Jack thinking about who could take this project on and waste more time trying to find a solution? No, Jack’s wheels were turning on the subject of the challenging problem itself. A glimmer of an idea whisked through his brain and he said, “Can you give me a few days to think about some things, Mark?” he asked pensively.

Mark had to keep the little glimmer of a smile from erupting full force on his face. “Sure, Jack,” he said. “Like I said before, if anyone can do it, it’s you. Take all the time you need.”

A few weeks later, the problem was solved and Jack’s reputation rose to even higher heights than before.

Questions

4. What should Mark have done if Jack still was not able to resolve the problem?

5. Would it make sense for Mark to assign this problem to someone else now, after Jack
could not solve the problem the second time around?

What should Mark have done if Jack still was not able to resolve the problem?

If Jack was not able to resolve the problem Mark should have considered assigning it to another member of his team, or potentially even conduct a brainstorming session with his team to figure how to best solve the problem. Sometimes an outsider’s perspective can enable experts to think more creatively and approach the problem from a different viewpoint. Another thing that Mark could do would be to hire an external consulting firm to help with the problem. A cost-benefit analysis could be conducted for hiring external consultants considering the competitive advantage and long-term strategic and financial benefits of coming up with the design mechanism. (Conti, 2019)

 

Would it make sense for Mark to assign this problem to someone else now, after Jack could not solve the problem the second time around?

I think certain factors need to be considered before making this decision. First is the timeline of the project. Jack had already spent 2 months working on the problem initially and then spent another few weeks trying to solve it the second time. If the company could afford to spend a few more months doing more research on the problem then Mark should definitely assign this problem to someone else. It might make more sense to form a working group instead of assigning it to just one person since a group of experts might be able to provide a different set of perspectives that could help solve the problem. Jack should be part of that group as well. Considering the significance of the outcome of this project and the competitive advantage it would provide the company it would make sense for them to invest more time and resources in trying to solve this problem. They could even consider niche design firms that they could partner with to solve the problem because they lack expertise internally. This technique is called open innovation. (Kerzner, 2013)

 

What should Mark have done if Jack still was not able to resolve the problem? 

If Jack is not the who will be able to solve the problem, so that Mark would have given a chance to others in the team and would have taken their solutions instead of depending on single person for completion of work or solving a problem though he believe in Jack because of his association, skill sets, working capabilities and knowledge but at this point he was not helpful to Mark and was not able was not able to solve problem. Yes he would give chance to Jack even for second time and also would have included other team members to give a solution for the problem so that they would have come up with their solutions and would have helped in times like this when persons like Jack was not able to solve problems or at least he would have asked Jack to guide others and accompany them in solving the issue or he would have asked Jack to select a person basing on his capabilities that Jack will believe that he will be able to solve the problem.

Would it make sense for Mark to assign this problem to someone else now, after Jack could not solve the problem the second time around? 

Yes, I believe that he would, If Jack was not able to solve the problem even after second basing on company reputation it is a very much huge time for wasting on a problem which even not solved after second time. It would have been a good idea if he would have chosen others and asked them to solve the problem. I never believe that if a person cannot solve a problem it is not right that no other will be able to solve. We need to consider everyone’s ability and capability for solving a problem. Though Mark perspective towards Jack may be right but that doesn’t mean no others have the capability in solving issues. Here in case study, Jack PHD also hasn’t helped to solve the problem.