Problem:
Al Carpenter, Materials manager at Captiva Conglomerate, has called a meeting with his Inventor and Spares manager, Sam Sliderule, and his Supply manager, Aaron Blumencranz, Jason Patel , vice president of Operations, Monica Stein, vice president of finance, and Jana Perry, director of Information Technology, are also in attendance. The topic: the contract with S.O. Software (SOS), the developer/supplier of a custom inventory management and spare parts management system.
Al begins: "Here's our agenda: I. Status of the SOS contract; II. Development of a corrective action plan: III. Lessons learned. Any questions?"
How did we get in such a mess?" Monica asks.
Al interrupts: "Let's save this for agenda item III. Let's start with a status report. Sam, you're the user. Begin."
Sam answers, "We just completed a test of the spares management module. It's a disaster! It might be an Okay system, but its four months behind schedule, and my people can't use it."
"Well I certainly can use it. I think it's great!" Jim comments.
"Yes but you have an M.S. in information Technology. My guys want to access the relevant data without all the hassle the system requires," Sam continues.
"How about the regional and centralized inventory management system?" asks Al.
"It's 10 months late," Sam says.
"Aaron sounds like we should use them." Al adds angrily.
Aaron replies, "Under the contract Gerry [Captiva's president] signed, we don't have a leg to stand on. The contract calls for the 'best efforts,' 'whenever possible,' etc. Oh, and one additional small item: The project manager as SOS says they've used up the $1 million called for in the contract. In fairness to the supplier, there have been 17 unpriced changed orders."
Jason Patel (VP Operations) joins the discussion: "This system was supposed to provide me with better support. 'More time' were your words, Jana. And you said, 'We should be able to cut our inventory while providing the improved support. 'Who wrote the specs for the software?"
"When we received the contract form Gerry, the specs looked like they were drafted by S.O.S. But Jana [IT manager] had initialed each page," Aaron answers.
Captiva Conglomerate case. Perform an analysis and assessment of the case that addresses the following:
o A summary of the major facts surrounding the case
o A narrative discussion pointing out the major problem
o List a minimum of 3 possible alternatives that Captiva can employ to resolve the problem and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Jana is the IT Director. What are you going to do with her? What are you as CEO of Captiva going to fix this mess and costs?