Diecraft Australia Pty. Ltd.

Abstract

On the morning of May 15, 2002 Mark Jackson, General Manager of Diecraft, arrived at the premises of his firm in Reservoir, a northern suburb of Melbourne, at 6.30 am. There were several pressing matters that had brought him in quite early on that chilly morning. He poured himself a cup of hot coffee and mulled over the discussions he had had with Jim Winthorpe, Vice President, Mould Engineering, Tupperware earlier that week. In their meeting, Mr. Winthorpe not only demanded better delivery schedule adherence from Diecraft but was also pressing Jackson to accelerate the design and delivery efforts for new moulds by more than a week. Jackson realized that Diecraft had not done particularly well with respect to meeting the targeted due dates in 2001. More than 70% of the jobs in that year were delayed, and Jackson knew that he needed to find ways to remedy the situation immediately. He called Geoff Little, his Human Resources Manager, and requested he schedule an emergency meeting with key division personnel to discuss this issue later that afternoon.