Gonzales Mentioned Some Difficulties With Some Of The New Machines

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As Van West was contemplating what to do, Vincente Garcia, who was in charge of human resources, came in to inform him the workers were getting agitated and had started to meet in small groups to discuss their opposition to the implementation of new computer programs to monitor quality of output, evaluate production costs, and track efficiency indicators.

Although the updating of production equipment over the last few years had improved the quantity of output, cost overruns had remained a problem. Furthermore , efficiency levels and the quality of output had not improved as much with the new equipment as headquarters had hoped. As a result, headquarters had been pushing for the installation of state-of-the-art computer systems to monitor all phases of operations.

Van West's predecessor had not been very familiar with computer programs. In fact, he had been very apprehensive about all the software and programs headquarters had been pushing. Finally, a year ago, headquarters had sent an expert to supervise the installation and implementation of the latest technology. Hodges had announced that Jones would be at the ...
... plant for a while and would work on installing technology to track performance. Frank Jones, the technician, was in his thirties. He certainly knew his stuff and was happiest when he could talk about computer technology. He had little direct contact with the workers. Whenever he had to talk to employees, he would go through the vice president for manufacturing. If Hernandez was not available, he would talk to Gonzalez.

Hodges had not paid any attention to Jones. When Van West arrived, he was briefed about the technology update, but with everything else going on, he did not take the time to familiarize himself with any of the details. Things seemed to run just fine. Jones indicated that the system soon would be ready for testing and would be fully operational in a few more weeks. However, as the employees learned more about what Jones was doing, they grew concerned and uneasy. Some of the senior workers talked to Raoul Cortez, who worked with Jones, about their concerns and the new system. Cortez hinted that the new system certainly could be programmed to identify specific production problems and track individual work performance.

Health Snacks had never had a major presence in Japan; however, top executives believed that Japanese consumers were increasingly interested in convenience foods and health foods. Many Japanese people still went shopping for food daily, but the number of shoppers making weekly food purchases was increasing. Toka Foods, a traditional food processor, had attempted to move into that market but ultimately had decided that it lacked the processing and packaging technology and quality control to establish a major presence. As a result, Toka Foods started looking for a potential partner. In the beginning Health Snacks and Toka Foods had explored licensing agreements. Toka Foods in particular was interested in getting a license for using Health Snacks's processing and packaging technology. Health Snacks, however, felt that a joint venture would provide better opportunities for establishing a presence in the Japanese market. Upper management knew that the Japanese market was difficult to enter and hoped that it would not have to develop an entire distribution system.

Jones was not aware of the workers' concerns and their talks with Cortez. When an article in a local newspaper discussed layoffs after the introduction of new technology at another plant, the employees at Appliances Unlimited became very alarmed. They were not going to sit there and wait to lose their jobs. Several of the leaders were talking about forming a union and perhaps even calling a strike. Van West was not familiar with the Mexican union process and union legislation, but any disruption sounded terrible.