Uhuru Candles

a) What is the problem? The problem here is that the current operational expenses would not cover company costs such as Josephs salary, insurance, rent, electricity, telephone etc. Also, after analysis the data of first weeks operational expenses, Joseph is facing losses. Also he is faced with the issue of poor distribution across the country. Hence he needs to find a way to assure even distribution of candles throughout the land. b) What should be done? First, Joseph should analyse each issue at hand. He should consolidate a list of problems and devise a strategy to address each issue. The list of issues Joseph is facing and the ways to tackle those issues is given below. a) What are the issues staring at Joseph Ziggundu? He started the project with virtually no information about operations and the market situation. All the information he obtained was on-site. Joseph had to rely on Marys judgement to make decisions in the intial stages. Therefore he couldnt plan for the future, in advance. He did not have any money to start with. If there were to be any breakage (especially the Frames which costed 300 Shillings 20 years back) then there would be issues in continuing with production. Mary was the only worker with expertise in operating the gas burners. So if she were to be absent, then it would stall production for the day. The candles were not available in other parts of the country. The available candles in other locations were smuggled from neighboring countries. So Joseph faced an issue of lack of presence in other markets. Previously, wicks used to be imported. It was noted that making wicks within the factory led to cost reduction. However, it was a time consuming process. The finite quantity of cardboards, currently in stock, was imported. So once the stocks get over it would be difficult to replenish them, as it would be difficult to get foreign exchange entitlements for their supplies. On an average 300 candles were rejected due to inefficiency in the process. Now these candles are remelted. As a result some parafin is lost due to evaporation over and above the normal loss. Condition of boxes and cartons at the bottom may have water damage. And there is a leakage in Room A which is adjacent to the Store Room. The workers are delivering only 50% of the expected capacity. As per past figures, they should be producing around 80 cartons per day. However the actual production is only approximately 40 which is comparatively low.

There are 14 and 10 frame samples that are being kept in waiting. This shows that there are many frames not being utilized. The analysis of the operations in the first five days shows a loss of sh. 2579 which leads to a projected annual loss of sh. 1,85,701 even though the expenses relating to insurance, rent, electricity, telephone etc are yet to be considered As per the records, 34 spools of cotton thread were used. However the physical inventory report shows that 36 spools have been used up. The remaining 2 spools are unaccounted for. Joseph also needs to find out a way for his operations to serve the people of Kengolia which was an underlying requirement.

b) What should he do? How does he go about doing it? Information can be obtained Mary should delegate her expertise to other workers of the factory. In her absence someone else should be able to fill her shoes and continue daily operations. As the process of wick making was time consuming, Joseph should identify the women who complete this task in minimum time and allocate the work to those women. A way to deal with the depletion of finite stocks of cardboards is to search for a local dealer who would meet their supply of cardboards. There is a water leakage and seepage issue across the factory. Losses due to water leakage should be fixed immediately as it is having an adverse effect on operations in terms of loses in boxes. To address the issue regarding the efficiency and productivity of the women, Joseph should keep a check on the minimum and maximum time taken for each women to execute the process and he should identify who does the work in the least amount of time efficiently, and allocate work to that individual. Joseph should decrease the number of frames kept on waiting by optimising operation process. To address the loss of 2 spools of threads, Joseph would have to appoint an individual to monitor the inventory. To achieve the companies social target, Joseph should increase production of candles and distribute it across the country.