Fauquier Gas Company Essay

Fauquier Gas Company, is one of the nation’s 440 gas companies, served an area where land use was changing from agricultural to residential and commercial. The company is beginning a new project that consist of having 3  ½ miles of lines ready to be hooked up by September. This is another one of the demands that Fauquier have on their hands not including the additional 10 lines that they plan on starting for next project. It takes great deal of engineers and contractors and constructions workers to meet this deadline, not to include precise planning. Mr. Clive Byers is the construction project manager, Mr. Charlie Buck is the design superintendent, Pat Wilson is design engineer, Sam Law is project engineer, and Mr. Bill Murphy is the manager of supply management. All of these individuals are under management of the vice president of operations for the company. These individuals play a huge role in meeting all requirements and specifications for this project. In order to meet all the deadlines into building this project all parties involved have to communicate effectively. Mr. Murphy is responsible for ensuring all the supplies that goes into ordering is placed and delivered in a timely manner. Mr. Murphy has ran into a road block, he is unable to retrieve the purchase request for the pipeline. Pat Wilson, the design engineer who is in charge of going through all the specifications has change the diameter of the pipe to 24 inches. Mr. Murphy asked why they change in the wall thickness and length. Wilson informed him that the operation of the line would be governed by less stringent specifications, making the wall thickness  ¾ inches and the length would be 57 feet. Pat was considering cost as a role in the project based on her design and that lead to the change in the specifications. As the specifications is getting sorted out by Pat Wilson, Mr. Murphy was getting concerned about the economic consequences and the schedule impact of the proposed changes in wall thickness and length of the pipe. Mr. Murphy is being faced with many logistical and supply problems due to not having the purchase request. Mr. Murphy has done projects before and understands the lead time that he needs to place orders in order to get supplies delivered. There is already a time line to break ground and start construction in June. Mr. Murphy last communication with Pat Wilson was on April 14 and without the specifications being worked out accordingly Mr. Murphy is unsuccessful with meeting his deadline with the companies who supply the pipeline and  wrappers. Mr. Murphy should just contact Mr. Buck the superintendent for the design department and try to figure out how the process can be expedited. If customers are expecting their gas pipelines to be hookup by a certain deadline then I feel that since Fauquier is trying to branch off and do commercial property then they need to meet all deadlines in order to have a good review. It seems although the team of people are not communicating and instead of keeping each other informed of the process that leaves Mr. Murphy reaching out to figure out what is the hold up with the design specifications. To fix this issue I feel like the superintendent should have put deadlines on all the departments so that everyone would have adequate enough time to prepare and plan. Mr. Murphy has been asking for purchase request since over hearing a conversation at lunch that took place in January. There is no reason why he should still not have what he needs after speaking with Pat Wilson in April about the specifications. If deadlines are in place and meetings are being made every two weeks with updates then I feel like they would be able to break ground in June and the supplies would have already been on order and delivered in a timely manner. 1.What are the key facts? Mr. Murphy is responsible for the purchase of materials used in the gas distribution process such as fittings, pipes and meters. Mr. Murphy is also responsible for the procurement of furniture, stores management, materials forecasting and control, systems and forms. Fauquier Gas company has a deadline to have 3  ½ miles of lines ready for hookup by September. Mr. Murphy is concerned about being able to find a supplier who could deliver 3  ½ miles of large diameter pipe. 2.What is the problem? Mr. Murphy is unable to process the order for the project to receive the supplies in a timely manner for the construction to begin in June due to the design team and the superintendent Mr. Buck. 3.List and discuss three alternative solutions. Mr. Buck needs to have meetings in relation to the status of the project and  the specifications. He needs to set deadlines, due to a large number of workers that are involved in this project to ensure that everyone is meeting the requirements for the project to begin in June and be finish by September. 4.What is your recommended solution? To fix this issue I feel like the superintendent should have put deadlines on all the departments so that everyone would have adequate enough time to prepare and plan. Mr. Murphy has been asking for purchase request since over hearing a conversation at lunch that took place in January. There is no reason why he should still not have what he needs after speaking with Pat Wilson in April about the specifications. If deadlines are in place and meetings are being made every two weeks with updates then I feel like they would be able to break ground in June and the supplies would have already been on order and delivered in a timely manner.