MBA7061 Cardiff Met - Service Adhesive Business Operations Case Study

This case study examines Service Adhesive Ltd., a specialist adhesive manufacturer, focusing on its business operations and recent slowdown in revenue growth. The analysis identifies rising production costs and declining product quality as key issues. The case study explores the company's attempts to implement Total Quality Management (TQM) and the challenges faced with employee motivation and reliance on contractual labor. Inspired by a visit to Happy Products, Service Adhesive aims to introduce a team-based work environment, improve employee retention, and implement operational managers at each production stage. The proposed improvements include fostering teamwork, enhancing employee empowerment, adopting new technologies, and establishing a dedicated R&D wing. The goal is to improve product quality, reduce production time, and enhance the company's competitive position in the market. The document contributed by a student on Desklib, details the improvement initiative roadmap, including teamwork motivation, employee empowerment approaches, and a work breakdown structure for the project schedule.

Running head: CASE STUDY
Case study
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction:
The entire report is aimed at discussing the different kind of processes as well as the
function of the Service Adhesive Ltd. the report is mainly associated with highlighting the
existing business approaches of Service Adhesive Ltd. from the analysis of the organization it
has been noticed that there exists an essential need of enhancing the business process. The
entire process of enhancement has been discussed in this report. Besides this, the organization
has been associated with the adaptation of the improvement initiative roadmap which has also
been critically descried in this report. Besides this, a critical description of the entire
teamwork motivation has also been provided along with the employee empowerment
approach which has been adopted by the organization. Lastly, a work breakdown structure
has been provided which is associated with putting forward of the entire schedule of the
project. The risks have also been identified along with which the description of each risk is
also presented so as to ensure the maximum success for the improvement project.
Case study description
Service Adhesive Ltd. specializes in producing specialist adhesive mainly for FMCG
industry (fast-moving consumer goods). The adhesives needs to be non-irritating and most
importantly non-toxic. The reason behind Service Adhesive’s constant increase in revenue is
that the company’s superlative record in constantly developing an inventing new adhesive
products.
However, the company sees continued rise in revenues, the previous years has seen a
slowdown. The management drew out two major reasons for the slowdown. The first reason
is that the cost of production was steeply rising more than the sales revenue generated.
Quality of the product is the second reason. The product produced by the company is falling

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behind the products released by their competitors. The quality of the product is compromised.
The management however tried to implement several methods to reverse the effect and yet
the methods could not generate positive results. The company implemented operation
methods like Total quality management (TQM), to approach customer satisfaction through
long term management methods. Still the methods failed to bring about positive changes in
the business. The employee of the company lacked motivation and their performance was
below average. The employees showed no intention to change themselves. To control
fluctuating orders, the company started hiring contractual based labour. Since the staffs were
mostly from EU they started facing issues of following direction in English and they deferred
to adhere to the procedures. There was rising tension between the temporary and permanent
members. In spite of the negative effects, the company could save costs.
There was yet no permanent solution to the rising problem in Adhesive Solutions.
James Broadstone, the operations director of the company made several site visits to other
competitor companies and few of the company’s own customers. The Operations director
visited Happy Products. Happy Products were a global company and their working was
completely different from Adhesive Services. The plant was cleaner, the flow of work was
smooth and most importantly the staffs were efficient and motivated. There was team spirit
that resulted in high productivity. Each plant of Happy Products had a different approach
with excellent HR management. The plant implemented three shifts in a day’s operation
cycle. This resulted in efficiency and productivity of the employees. Each product was under
different and individual operation line, which uses highly complex techniques. Each line of
production had staff operators supervising productivity. The officers were sternly trained in a
particular field. An officer was responsible for the first line of management. Another one
specialized on health and safety factors. The third officer was a quality officer and the fourth
one was a maintenance engineer. There was also a fifth non-specialist staff known as the

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floating operator. The team has the support of the logistics department, quality department
and production process engineering. Any issue in the line of production could be immediately
addressed and resolved. This lead to exceptional production and quality. Knowledge
management and contribution among employees made them a part of the company’s success.
The teams maintained trackers to achieve and exceed target. All these factors lead to the
influence of the future of the business.
The operations director, James Broadstone was highly impressed with the operation
system of Happy Products. He could identify the missing pieces in Service Adhesive. Service
adhesive lacked cohesiveness. They also decided to implement a team based work
environment. The company is working towards introducing radical changes in the operation
system. The visit has highly influenced the Operations Director. The company wants to
recognize itself as forward thinkers to its customers and prove its worth in the industry. The
management decided to build a culture of operation excellence. Such a culture will integrate
knowledge management among employees and help them to be a team player.
Improvement Initiative Roadmap adopted by Service Adhesive
Service Adhesive lacks cohesiveness in its organisation. The company faced problems
in product quality, employee motivation and retention. The company was hiring employees
on short term basis. This resulted in feud between the temporary members and the permanent
members. The company lacked proper line of control in operations. Though, the company
boasts about their traditional organization’s hierarchical structure, they need to bring in

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change in the hierarchy. The changes implemented by the management of Service Adhesive
is highly influenced by the operation management program of Happy Products. Happy
Products has in line production process, which is very well monitored by the operations
manager at each level of production. The company proposes to implement radical changes in
its management procedures and operation lines.
Service Adhesive Ltd. has been associated with adaptation of the improvement
initiative roadmap which includes the teamwork based organization structure which is
entirely aimed at helping the organization in working at a complete synchronized manner.
The basic feature of the team based organizational structure is associated with including the
activities of a group of individuals who are entirely responsible for working in a cooperative
way so as to achieve the shared goals by usage of the roles played by different individual.
Besides this it is also associated with the utilization of the elaborate systems for
communication as well.
The existing enthusiasm for the team work of the organization is associated with
providing of the evidences in a deeper way. The recognition in an unconscious way of the
idea might be considered to be the appropriate method of working which is associated with
providing of assurance related to the immense progress than the one which could have been
achieved by the usage of the other methods. The other method generally refers to the usage of
the individual endeavor or the usage of the mechanism approaches related to working. From
the case study it is evident that the organization lacks teamwork amongst the different
individuals working for the organization which is initially responsible for the ineffective
company growth and this has initially been leading to the need of requirement of
implementing the changes in the organization.

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Due to all this reasons, the organization needs to have an efficient team along with
suppliers so as to boost the quality and for decreasing the organizational cost. This in turn
would be associated with ensuring a continuous enhancement. Beside this the organization is
associated with forming an effective alliance with the different suppliers from the other
countries as well so as to make sure that the best raw materials ate being gained by the
organization. Any issue in the line of production could be immediately addressed and
resolved. This lead to exceptional production and quality. Knowledge management and
contribution among employees made them a part of the company’s success. The teams
maintained trackers to achieve and exceed target. All these factors lead to the influence of the
future of the business. The company has been associated with recognizing itself as one of the
forward thinkers for the customers which is seen to be proving itself as a worthy organization
in the industry. The management has been associated with taking a decision for building up
of a culture so as to achieve operation excellence. This type of culture would be associated
with the integration of the knowledge management amongst employees so as to help them in
acting as a team player.
To improve the operational effectiveness of the organisation, the company decided to
work on employee retention and satisfaction scheme. The employees were grouped and teams
were made. The teams were given certain part of the job. To enhance team spirit and bound
team members together, the company started incorporating events which tests group activity
and group involvement. Changes in appraisals is inducted. Awards and recognition for
performance boosts employee motivation. Induction of three shifts in day like Happy
Products, helped increase the productivity of the employees, as the employees were not
exhausted and could perform well. Changes in the office, like clean floors, proper hygiene
factor, clean and well stocked kitchen made the place appealing to the staffs. Employees, who
were hired on a contractual basis, received former training before they were inducted in

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teams. These helped the temporary members to cordially work with permanent members.
Knowledge management programs and knowledge transfer programs improved interactions
among co-workers. This improved and sharpened the skills of the employee. New hired
employees went through rigorous selection process to get the best employee for the company.
These reduced company costs. The company invested in skilled employees and reduced
hiring from other regions. Employees hired from other regions, who were not proficient in
English, the company started conducting English classes for such employees. The classes
helped them to understand the language and hence they could easily mingle with their co-
workers. This reduced induced pressure on these workers and also the tiffs with the other
workers.
Happy products has operators at each line of operation, similarly Service Adhesive
plans to do the same. The Service Adhesive ltd. identified the gaps in its operational level
management. The company introduced several operational manager at each stage of
production to ensure smooth flow in the production. This ensured immediate solution to any
issues, which occurred during the process. This helped in reducing considerable amount of
time and speedy production. Product quality improved considerably. When there would arise
a problem in any line of production, the problem could be immediately addressed by the
managers and stopped the problem from escalating. Engineers induced at certain level of
production, at each shifts reduced the risk of machine failure. Health and safety
representative is also hired. The health and representative officer ensured safety of the
products. These methods improved the quality and quantity of production. Considering there
is a quality issue in products produced, the firm should source their raw materials from
authentic sources to prevent doping.

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New and complex technology is introduced in the firm. Implementation of such
technologies increasing quantity of production and also affected the quality of production.
The quality of products improved noticeably. Time consumption from processing to
production got reduced drastically. This lead to more production in less amount of time.
Introduction of new technologies lessened employee pressure. The company could reduce the
number of the employees thus saving costs. New technologies made the company a potent
competitor in the market. The products produced could easily compete with other products in
the market. The company started producing high quality products. Introduction of R&D wing
in the company lead to research and manufacturing of breakthrough products. The works
related to providing of motivations for the teamwork is seen to be done in the organization by
taking help from the major praising of the work that are done by the people of the
organization. Some of the most important methods related to the motivation of the team
members is associated with including the providing of empowerment to the employees for
providing an atmosphere, which along with being optimum would also be including the
providing of rewards for the productivity. The quality of the products could easily beat the
competitor products in the market, which was one of the major concerns of the higher
management. The formulas developed by the research and development wing became
important contributors of cost effective products for demanding customers. The increase
demand in the market could easily be met with the technology used in the production by
Service Adhesive. The market gap was easily addressed. The company was also engaged in
producing new products, which generated high sales revenue and gave the company a strong
place in the market. All these changes and improvement introduced the company to multiple
opportunities and open several arenas for future investments and global expansion.

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Teamwork and empowerment of the Employees:
The requirements along with the perception of any of the employee is associated with
the initiation of the employee motivations and involvement of the employees in the different
process is also very important. In order to make sure that the employees are being satisfied it
is essentially to be made sure that the employees are being guided in an efficient way by the
desire related to the higher remuneration as well as respect and the relaxation related to the
allowing of the capabilities for following a specific course of action. From this the reward
which is to be obtained is associated including the accomplishment at the end of the predicted
actions. This in turn is associated with serving as a mechanism of feedbacks and this would
be initially responsible for the providing of the help which are required by the employees
while evaluating and assessing the consequences of the behavior whenever there is a
requirement of completing the actions in future. At the initial phase of the employee
motivation, the approach, which is to be adopted by the organization, is associated with
involving the identification by making use of the sense of satisfaction of certain needs. From
this, it can be stated that the desires, which are seen to be unsatisfied, would be leading to the
formation of the various kind of tensions and would therefore be responsible for the serving
in the increased hindrance more than the motivations. This are responsible for compelling the
employees in getting aspired for the various other objectives that they are having and if this
objectives are accomplished then it would be assisting in the reduction of the tension in an
significant manner. This would then be leading to the controlling of several alternatives by
the employees, which would then be responsible for the satisfaction of the needs.
The consecutive steps, which are seen to be occurring during the selection of the
different goals, are generally performed for the purpose of gaining the ability of determining
the various shortfalls which are seen to be included in the process of the preceding phase.

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Besides all this the hindrance along with the shortfalls which are not seen by the employees
would be leading to the production of significant amount of changes in the processes related
to performance and this in turn would be responsible for the prevention of gaining access to
the results which are expected. The last stage is generally utilized for the purpose of making
sure that reassessments of the requirements are being conducted. These requirements are
mainly seen to be consisting of the employee requirements and the reassessment is aimed at
the determination of any kind of deficiencies which are seen to be existing in the complete
performance related processes in the later stages which are to be repeated again by the
completed processes.
The employees who are seen to be motivated are tending towards having a huge
impact upon the necessary role played by an organization, which in turn is responsible for
making the motivations much more beneficial along with essential. In addition to this, it is
predicted that the employees are motivated significantly towards the diverse methods and this
is done by means of considering the various ranks as well as the positions of the organization.
For instance, it might be seen that the employees are motivated in particular situations when
they are entrusted by means of the several responsibilities along with being permitted with
the freedom related to the taking of the contingency decisions where the monetary rewards
might be preferred by anyone.
In modern business, the term empowerment has been introduced so as to allow the
employees in providing the organization with an increased value. Empowerment generally
refers to the power of providing the people with the required power and this process of
providing empowerment would be associated with assisting the employees in the process of
providing assistance in the enhancement of the various kind of feelings related to self-
reliance. This is to be followed by prevailing on the ability as well as the distress upon any

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individual. The employees who are empowered with certain extent are seen to have gained
the freedom of actions, which are directed towards the responsibilities, which are delegated.
From current studies it has been seen that there exists a drastic change in the
composition as well as in the nature of the economy and it has been seen that a
transformation has taken place from a simple economy to a system which is much more
complex. The productivity of the employees is increased and this in turn has been responsible
for the capitalization of the labors and few of the circumstances as well. Along with this the
additional forces are utilized for the purpose of concerning all the gains that an increased
productive is having. In certain situations, the labor laws and the human rights might also
arise. The components, which are responsible for an improved teamwork along with
providing of motivation for the entire team, should always be executed over time by the
organization. One of the major component related to making improvements in the teamwork
is providing of rewards and recognition to the team members so as to make them more
motivated and increase their intensions related to working as a team. The implementation
conducted successfully helps in motivating the employees as well as the entire team. In case
of certain situations where the employee is seen to be working as at their full potential and
they are not being provided with any kind of recognition then the employees might get
demotivated or might lead to a situation of unrest amongst the employees. The next
component, which is followed by this approach for the teamwork motivation, is the
establishment of certain goals, which are small and are easily achievable. This in turn is
associated with helping the team in achieving the targets in quick intervals which in turn is
responsible for increased confidence amongst the employees. The primary goal of motivation
is aimed at supporting the employees so as to have high level of personal confidence related
to the belief of the ability which an individual is having related to achievement of goals of the
performance. So it is significantly important to have a sole focus upon the building of the

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self-confidence amongst the employees which would be helping in working in an efficient
way by the teams. Service adhesive has been associated with fueling up of the employees
belief and this is followed by the increased confidence related to specific task amongst the
employees. The company has been associated with helping peoples in building up of the self-
confidence by means of checking on a regular basis so as to learn about the concerns of the
people along with the aspects which would be helping the organizational senior management
in increasing of the confidence. However, the major challenge which is faced by the
organization is the inability of the employees in reacting towards the challenges in a similar
fashion which are faced by the organization. The company has been associated with fueling
up of these beliefs amongst the employees along with helping the peoples in building up of
the self-confidence by means of checking the people on a regular basis so as to learn the
concerns that they are having. This aspects in turn would be helping in increasing the
confidence of the senior management of the organization. In addition to this another major
danger which is faced by Service Adhesive is the inability of the employees of the
organization in reacting similarly to the various kind of changes taking place in the
organization. Monitoring methods were implement for the measuring the improvements and
this is done by means of having an effective understanding and respect for each other. In
addition to this working on projects, which seemed to be never ending was another major
challenge. Service adhesive has also been associated with the initiation of certain plans
related to implementation of clear as well as achievable goals, which are associated with
offering a boost of motivations each and every time whenever a specific goal is achieved. The
works related to providing of motivations for the teamwork is seen to be done in the
organization by taking help from the major praising of the work that are done by the people
of the organization. Some of the most important methods related to the motivation of the
team members is associated with including the providing of empowerment to the employees