ure. The second reason is that the company needs to document problems with employees in the event that additional disciplinary action becomes necessary. This reason, while regrettable in many circumstances, is a result of the increasingly litigious society in which companies operate today.
There are a number of significant issues which conspired to create this situation. To begin with, there is the issue of the urgency of the order for full squares. This urgency was understood by the supervisor, who conveyed it to Bert Schmidt, but the foreman did not adequately convey the importance or urgency of the order to others involved in the process. Specifically, the foreman did not convey either the special order or its urgency to the set-up man, who was scheduled to be off site during the afternoon hours. Better communication on the part of the foreman could have improved the day's events.
There is also the issue of scheduling individuals and having the right people available for the right jobs. In the case of the special order, the foreman was aware that the order needed to be completed in the shortest time possible, but did not make arrangements to have all of the involved parties on-site. The foreman effectively passed this responsibility to the worker, who has neither the official responsibility nor accountability necessary to perform this task. There are two set-up men who could have modified the machine as necessary in order to perform the full square job; however, one of these was absent from work with an injury. Given the special nature of the order, it would have been entirely appropriate to ensure that the set-up man who was on-site during the morning would be available to make the requisite changes in the early afternoon.
Another issue is the adequate training of employees and the scope of their responsibility. Although Bert works with the machine on daily basis, he has not been given official training on the pr...