Corning Z

Corning -Z- Glass Corning Glass Works was a leader corporation in the development of glass and ceramic products. After so many years of success Z-Glass was facing decline in the yields at the Harrisburg Plant. Trying to find the problem and a solution for it, a group of engineers from the (M&E) was assigned to the plant in December 1977 under the leadership of Eric Davidson. Davidson’s Team were faced with a lot of challenges and a tens relationship accord in some department between team and line personnel, due to the fear that the team will cause the line personnel to lose their jobs.

There were so many reasons that could cause the yield to decline . T. V Tube casing was corning’s most successful product and RCA ( a major Corning customer) opened it own plant to make glass funnels and front plates , and some of Cornering experienced employees went to work to RCA taking all the important information with them . Thomas MacAvov President of the company noticed that a poor job had been done in transferring the products from the lab into production . Most of the responsibility of this transfer fell on Untried M&E Division .

David Leibson VP of M&E chose Eric Davidson to lead the Harrisburg project. Davidson started selecting members of the M&E team in the first weeks. he started with choosing four . Davidson used the receivership approach , every solution has to be accepted by the plant, they have to rally own the changes. If I was in the position of David leibson I think this approach is a really good one, as these are the people who are going to work on the project and communication between the managers and the plant.

Andrew MacTavish was the Harrisburg plant manager ,he was a man known as a champion of the little people . MacTavish came to conflict with Eric Davidson , for the conflict of interest. Davidson should try to convince the plant of his way in more flexible approach . he should let the know that they will not lose their jobs . documenting the presses is something that should be done in order to pass the knowledge to all the coming technicians and engineers. All way communication should be influenced .