Meticulous Drill & Reamer (MD&R) specializes in drilling and boring precise holes in hard metals (e.g., steel alloys, tungsten carbide, and titanium). The company recently contracted to drill holes with 3-centimeter diameters in large carbon-steel alloy disks, and it will have to purchase a special drill to complete this job. MD&R has eliminated all but two of the drills it has been considering: Davis Drills’ T2005 and Worth Industrial Tools’ AZ100. These producers have each agreed to allow MD&R to use a T2005 and an AZ100 for one week to determine which drill it will purchase. During the one-week trial, MD&R uses each of these drills to drill 31 holes with a target diameter of 3 centimeters in one large carbon-steel alloy disk, then measures the diameter of each hole and records the results. MD&R’s results are provided in the table that follows and are available in the file MeticulousDrills.
MD&R wants to consider both the accuracy (closeness of the diameter to 3 centimeters) and the precision (the variance of the diameter) of the holes drilled by the T2005 and the AZ100 when deciding which model to purchase.
Managerial Report
In making this assessment for MD&R, consider the following four questions:
Are the holes drilled by the T2005 or the AZ100 more accurate? That is, which model of drill produces holes with a mean diameter closer to 3 centimeters?
Are the holes drilled by the T2005 or the AZ100 more precise? That is, which model of drill produces holes with a smaller variance?
Conduct a test of the hypothesis that the T2005 and the AZ100 are equally precise (that is, have equal variances) at a=0.05. Discuss your findings.
Which drill do you recommend to MD&R? Why?
Initial post prompt: Your Managerial Report serves as your initial post to the discussion forum. After responding to the requirements posed by the Managerial Report, also provide an example in your career in which you believe one of the lessons learned from the Case has been/could be applicable. Alternatively, if you don’t have/foresee direct experience relevant to your current position, what type of scenario can you anticipate occurring where you can utilize one of the lessons learned from examining this case?
ignificant constraints, particularly a short time frame and a large group size, for this situation Chelladurai recommends an autocratic leadership style would be most favourable (Chelladurai and Madella, 2006). The leaders attempted an autocratic leadership style, setting individual tasks for the group, however due to the poor leader member relations and lack of positional power the leadership structure quickly became a democracy. The product was an extremely unproductive workforce initially because of the time spent discussing how was best to approach the task. Because of how the leaders were perceived by the group there was little mutual trust, respect or confidence that the leaders were making the correct decisions, and as a result any management style they tried to implement would have been unsuccessful (Pettinger, 2007). Ultimately, if the leaders had analysed their position and the group they would have realised this and chosen a more democratic approach initially the group would have gained trust for the leaders, making future policy implementation easier.
Teamwork Teamwork plays an essential role within both Fiedler’s Contingency Theory and Chelladurai’s Multi-dimensional model particularly regarding leader-member relations, if the group are familiar and trusting of the leader policy implementation becomes much simpler. Similarly to leadership, understanding and adapting to the situation is key to a leader being able to implement policies that ensure a group work as a team. Teamwork is a product of good leadership, and is again the responsibility of the leader to ensure the group are working successfully together. Highly functioning teams are essential within organisations to increase productivity and member satisfaction, by utilising the talents of all group members effectively within the constraints of the task, personal relationships and the group goals (Pettinger, 2007). Figure 2: Tuckman’s Model of Group Development (Agile Scrum Guide, 2019) Tuckman in his Model of Group Development provides easily identifiable stages that a groups performance can be measured against, making it useful for monitoring performance, Figure 2 shows Tuckman’s model. Ranking group performance against this scale can provide leaders with a clear understanding of how the group are functioning, allowing them to implement policies to change this if performance is unsatisfactory (Pettinger, 2007). Within organisations, the theory can be loosely applied to creating teams by grouping familiar individuals with the aim that they will reach the norming and performing stage of the model quicker. For short and simple tasks this is an extremely effective way of organising groups, d