Treetop Forest

Treetop Forest Products Ltd is a sawmill operation in British Columbia, Canada, that is owned by a major forest products company but operates independently of headquarters. It was built thirty years ago and was completely updated with new machinery five years ago. Treetop receives raw logs from the area for cutting and planing into building-grade timber, mostly 2-by-4 and 2-by-6 pieces of standard lengths. Higher grade logs leave Treetop’s sawmill department in finished form and are sent directly to the packaging department. The remaining 40 per cent of sawmill output is made up of cuts from lower grade logs, requiring further work by the planing department. Treetop has one general manager, 16 supervisors and support staff, and 180 unionised employees. The unionised employees are paid an hourly rate specified in the collective agreement, whereas management and support staff are paid a monthly salary. The mill is divided into six operating departments: boom, sawmill, planer, packaging, shipping and maintenance. The sawmill, boom and packaging departments operate a morning shift starting at 6 am and an afternoon shift starting at 2 pm. Employees in these departments rotate shifts every two weeks. The planer and shipping departments operate only morning shifts. Maintenance employees work the night shift (starting at 10 pm). Each department, except for packaging, has a supervisor on every work shift. The planer supervisor is responsible for the packaging department on the morning shift and the sawmill supervisor is responsible for the packaging department on the afternoon shift. However, the packaging operation is housed in a separate building from the other departments, so supervisors seldom visit the packaging department. This is particularly true for the afternoon shift, because the sawmill supervisor is the furthest distance from the packaging building.
Packaging Quality
Ninety per cent of Treetop’s product is sold on the international market through

References: https://sites.google.com/site/psy130organisationalbehaviour/home/assessments/assessment-2/case-study-option-3 http://asyfali.blogspot.com/2008/02/case-study-treetop-forest-products.html