Fatima is a technical manager at an industrial-quality tool manufacturing company. The products that she and her engineers develop are manufactured internally.
Fatima knows the manufacturing department is overburdened and frequently delivers its products late, resulting in delayed shipments to customers.
She's noticed that her competition is developing products faster by outsourcing the manufacturing process. In light of this, she's afraid that her company will lose new business.
Fatima's boss has asked her to investigate outsourcing options and decide how they should proceed.
She thinks the answer is clear—manufacturing the products externally would significantly save time and money. Fatima senses that her boss is in favor of this option as well.
She is inclined to personally gather the information that supports outsourcing and submit a proposal to her boss immediately.
What would you do?
What may seem like a clear answer to Fatima may not be the best approach to arriving at the best business decision.
In order for Fatima to make the best decision, she needs to assemble a group that will first concentrate on understanding why their current process is costly and inefficient and then will explore possible alternatives for improving the process.
The group should consist of engineers as well as people outside her department; for example, someone from manufacturing and possibly sales. Including people with diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise will help her make a more informed decision.
Once the team identifies the underlying reasons for the issue they are facing, they should then generate and evaluate a number of alternatives for resolving the issue.
Although Leslie's inclination is to solve the problem a certain way, she should look for information and evaluate options that support alternative solutions. By involving others and evaluating a wide range of options,
Fatima will increase her chances of making a successful decisions
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