HARSH SHAH- 7903156

DHRUV GOSWAMI- 7956493

NISARG BHAVSAR- 7844178
TREETOP FOREST PRODU
BACKGROUND INFORMATION

• Treetop Forest Products Ltd. is a sawmill operation located along the Fraser River near
the British Columbia coast. The company works on receiving raw logs for cutting and
planning into standard length building-grade lumber.
• There are mainly six inter-connected departments in the company: boom, sawmill, planer,
packaging, shipping, and maintenance.
• Packaging department does not have a full time supervisor. Thus, the supervisors from
planning and sawmill department need to supervise packaging department in their
respective shifts.
DEFINITION OF ISSUE

• The bottleneck at packaging team at Treetop Forest is the

primary issue at Treetop’s and it is an issue which is at
the centre of operations of the company.
• Their productivity is decreasing and affecting the rest of
the departments negatively. The Inventory costs and the
risk of damaged stocks are increasing due to it and
company is losing market share.
ROOT CAUSES

• The lack of supervision is one of the main causes of most of the

problems. Packaging department does not have a full time supervisor.
Thus, the supervisors from planning and sawmill department need to
supervise packaging department in their respective shifts.
• They do not have the influence of a supervisor or a leader which can
guide them and provide a proper vision with solving the small
problems to keep them constantly motivated. The lack of
management is creating a sense of isolation and exclusion to the
packaging department as they feel as the outcasts.
EFFECTS

• The company is losing market share as customers are choosing other companies
over Treetop Forest Products ltd and suffering financial losses due to this root
cause.
• The employees in Treetop are slacking off word due to a supervisor’s absence.
They are taking longer breaks and leaving the premises earlier than expected.
• The Inventory costs and the risk of damaged stocks are also increasing.
• Employees at other departments also feel demotivated as the work they
complete could not turn into final products due to the bottleneck at packaging
department.
CONSTRAINTS AND OPPORTUNITY

• The constraints of the organization in solving this issue is to

change the culture already developed in the roots of the
packaging department. The workers have already developed a
habit of slacking off and taking longer breaks, which makes it
hard to change the behaviour of the employees constantly.
• The opportunity for solving this issue is the increase in
productivity, performance and profitability of the whole
company as the issue is at the centre of the organizations
operations.
ALTERNATIVES

Alternatives
• Treetop should hire and train a new supervisor only for the packaging
department.
• The company can use a strategy of training, performance feedback and
employee recognition. The employees can be clearly given feedback on their
work about how they did well or where they made mistakes. The employees
who did well should be recognized properly and given importance.
• Provide extra shifts to existing supervisors to work in packaging department.
• Treetop can outsource the packaging department.
Quantitative Decision Criteria Qualitative Decision Criteria

Productivity Employee Morale

Cost Customer Satisfaction

Market Share
Alternatives/ Productivity Cost Market Share Employee Morale Customer
Decision Criteria Satisfaction
Hire and train a Employee Track the inventory Packaging quality recognize the Standard
new supervisor Engagement and backlog and the rating will resume employee’s effort, Packaging(I)
only for packaging Discipline (I) inventory cost will to high ratings(I) give respect to
industry reduce. (D) them(I)

Strategy of Improvement in High Training cost Employee Motivated (I) Quality (I)
training, employees to self (I) productivity (I)
performance manage(I)
feedback and
employee
recognition.
Provide extra Some Extra shifts (I) Better packaging (I) Too much work for Little knowledge(D)
shifts to existing Improvement (I) supervisors (D)
supervisors to
work in packaging
department.

Outsource the Productivity in Save more (I) Expertise(I) Outrage (D) Expertise(I)
packaging other
department. departments(I)
RECOMMENDATION

The perfect solution or recommendation for the problem is alternative 1 i.e. Treetop
should hire and train a new supervisor only for the packaging department. After
understanding, the root cause of the problem is facing and discussing the other
alternatives, we believe this solution will answer to lot of business problems. The
major problem of control over the employees will be solved from this alternative.
The discipline of the department will be back on track and employees will be held
responsible for their act. It will also be cost-effective for the business as overtime
and inventory cost will reduce. The employee morale and customer satisfaction are
estimated to increase manifold times with this alternative.
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN:

1- Hiring Process
• Designing job description and responsibilities
• Internal and external job posting
• Screening of the resume
• Personal Interview with the potential candidate
• The best candidate will be selected for the job.
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN:

2 Training Process
• Short term: The candidate will be trained for a period of 3 days before going to the job
looking at the urgency of the job. The 3-day training program will carry orientation from
the senior packaging manager, video-assessment training, and on-the job training.
• Medium Term: As the new recruit finishes short-term training, he/she will be mentored by
the senior manager and the supervisors of planer and sawmill department.
• Long Term: Design plans to develop the supervisor with new skills and competencies to
improve his/her performance
PLAN B- IF ALTERNATIVE 1 FAILS

• Existing supervisors will get 6 day working week in which each has to
give 3 days to packaging department. The senior manager of packaging
department will give 2-3 hours in a day working with the employees.
This is a short-term solution for 3 weeks. In these three-week, HR and
management will try to make hire other potential candidates for the job,
this time HR will decide to hire 2 candidates, one internally and
another externally to give long term solution to the problem.
THANK YOU