Alliston Instruments-Case Study
Executive Summary
In 2011 two Asian firms entered the Canadian market in 2011. An Asian competitor made a major sales push by slashing prices in late 2011, cutting dramatically into Alliston’s sales in 2012. This move caused Alliston to lay-off 50 employees their largest layoff in company history. Alliston introduces new products to its line to counter the Asian firm but employees had no interest in working on the new products and preferred the old products to work on. Alliston in late 2012 in an effort to increase efficiency persuaded the union to accept an incentive program in exchange for job security. An individual performance pay plan was implemented with no detailed records to set standards. Standards
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Alliston then introduced an incentive plan in an agreement with the union management for exchange in job security. The individual performance pay bonus system was implemented in addition to normal pay employees received a fixed sum for each piece produced over the 2012 levels. Pay at the firm was already above average, and the benefit package, which increases with seniority, is very good, with a compensation package of 25 percent of total compensation. Comparable alternative employment opportunities in the area are quite scarce. Employees did not receive bonuses for unsatisfactory quality pieces, however there are no set standards for quality, and each supervisory seems to set different standards. This causes the union production workers to make more money than supervisors. Alliston also used a long-linked technology that divides the total tasks into many small sequential steps, with each step performed by different employees, such as on an automobile assembly line.
Managerial Strategy:
Alliston was using the classical strategy as the environment was stable and using the Thompson’s typology of technology a long-linked technology that divides the total task into many sequential steps, with each step performed by a different employee, such as on an automobile assembly line. Since the Asian firms especially the firm that made a major sales push in late 2011, created an unstable and complex environment for Alliston.
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