North East Research Laboratory
(A case study)
By: Girik Dave
09503
Company Background
• Multidisciplinary research and development organization
• Aprox. 1000 professionals
• Variety of technical talents
Main sectors
Economics and Business
administration
Physical and natural
sciences
President
Vice president
Characters involved Person Designation
Gray Kenny Vice president of Exco
Tod Denby Assistant to Kenny (liason officer)
Mac Davidson Associate head of physical science division
Dr. Alan North Associate director of chemical laboratory Project Leader
Person Designation
Robert Kirk Director of materials laboratory New Project leader
Charles Fenton Employee in Electromagnetic laboratory
Ronald Benton Director, Process Economic Program
Inception
Study had two main parts
An experiment program to examine the effect of microwaves on 50 ores and minerals to select those processes appearing to have most promise
A basic study to obtain an understanding of how and why microwaves interact with certain minerals
Task A Task B
• Denby emphasized on early start
• Appointment of project leader
• North drafted a five page letter substitute for a formal proposal
Many labs involved
• It did not restrict to just one lab
It required 3 labs to work in team:
1. Chemistry laboratory
2. Materials laboratory
3. Electronics laboratory
Intuition of Director
• Ross, director of chemistry laboratory (sceptical)
• Dr. Perkins, director Electromagnetic Science laboratory
(characteristics of power supply---inadequate)
Conduct of the project
• North was unclear of his work
• Denby began to pressurize for speedy work
• Denby emphasized more on experimental work than theoretical work
Contd….
• At 6th milestone, Denby expressed his increasing dissatisfaction
• Risks of changing results without proper foundation was brought to notice
• Relationship between Denby and North strained
Major breakthrough
• North’s discovery: Vertile could be obtained from iron ore
• NRL felt it could be handled commercially in rotary kiln
• Exco’s team declared it infeasible
• North warned against the process suggested by Exco
• Kenny said he did not get timely information
Personnel challenges
• Denby asked north for removing Fenton from project
3 weeks later:
Denby met Davidson and Lacy
Asked them to replace North from the project
New project leader
• Reluctantly Davidson appointed Robert Kirk
• Record became more difficult
• Denby became more skeptical about project value
Lacy’s problem
• Kenny wrote a letter to terminate the project
• Why Denby’s changes to proposal were not documented?
Denby’s proposal
• 3 other breakthroughs were not documented
• Difiiculty with Denby
• Decisions on project not well documented
Contd…
• Client top management not well informed
• Inadequate coordination between North and Electromagnetic science laboratory
Lacy’s conclusion
• It was high risk project
• Should have been treated accordingly from beginning
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