Sinking of the Vasa: A Case Study
Individual Component
Name: Mzee Mash
Case Title: Launching the Vasa
Short Cycle Process
Name: Fleming
Position: King’s Admiral
1. What are the issues in this case? * Prepare to answer difficult questions about the sinking the of most expensive ship (and primary weapon) in Swedish history by royal board of inquiry * The time to prepare for these questions is unspecified because the King is out of communication, but it is assumed that he will come back quickly upon hearing the news
2. Why have the issues arisen? * Ship and its weapons sink * Missed launch date of 25 July 1628 * 50 people dead
3. When did the issues arise? * 10 August 1628
4. Case Difficulty cube? * Analytically : 1 * Conceptually : 1 * Presentation : 1
Long Cycle Analysis
Case Analysis
Immediate issues * An investigations into the following issues needs to be done before the King comes back from Prussia in Poland to avoid suffering severe personal and professional consequences: * The Vasa was launched 16 days after the day it was commanded to launch by the King * The Vasa sank after sailing about a 1000 yards
Basic issues * The most expensive ship in the history of Sweden has sunk and cannot be recovered * 50 people were killed * The king and Sweden have been disgraced
* Organization
Figure 1 below is a simplified estimate of how the organisational structure could have possibly looked. The estimate was constructed from reading various literatures.
Figure 1: Simplified estimated organisational structure
Some problems associated with this structure are summarized below: * The king has no technical knowledge or background, but has power to change design requirement during any stage of the project without understanding the limits and consequences (technically) * There is a lack of communication between the King’s court and the ship building team; some of the design changes are not
Name: Mzee Mash
Case Title: Launching the Vasa
Short Cycle Process
Name: Fleming
Position: King’s Admiral
1. What are the issues in this case? * Prepare to answer difficult questions about the sinking the of most expensive ship (and primary weapon) in Swedish history by royal board of inquiry * The time to prepare for these questions is unspecified because the King is out of communication, but it is assumed that he will come back quickly upon hearing the news
2. Why have the issues arisen? * Ship and its weapons sink * Missed launch date of 25 July 1628 * 50 people dead
3. When did the issues arise? * 10 August 1628
4. Case Difficulty cube? * Analytically : 1 * Conceptually : 1 * Presentation : 1
Long Cycle Analysis
Case Analysis
Immediate issues * An investigations into the following issues needs to be done before the King comes back from Prussia in Poland to avoid suffering severe personal and professional consequences: * The Vasa was launched 16 days after the day it was commanded to launch by the King * The Vasa sank after sailing about a 1000 yards
Basic issues * The most expensive ship in the history of Sweden has sunk and cannot be recovered * 50 people were killed * The king and Sweden have been disgraced
* Organization
Figure 1 below is a simplified estimate of how the organisational structure could have possibly looked. The estimate was constructed from reading various literatures.
Figure 1: Simplified estimated organisational structure
Some problems associated with this structure are summarized below: * The king has no technical knowledge or background, but has power to change design requirement during any stage of the project without understanding the limits and consequences (technically) * There is a lack of communication between the King’s court and the ship building team; some of the design changes are not
References: [7] Abha Pandey, What is CATWOE Analysis?, (23 August , 2011) http://bpmgeek.com/blog/what-catwoe-analysis?page=2