Grainger Case

Grainger-Our challenge for you is this: How can we best approach and solve the problem that we need to increase coordination between the Purchasing teams in the U.S. and China?

To solve the coordination problem occurring at Grainger between the team in China and the team in America I would form a 7 man team (3 members from the American Purchasing group and 3 members from the Chinese Purchasing group and a group leader from a neutral area like the India office) to manage the asymmetries by identifying common goals across the two groups. This team will analyze any overlaps between goals and help balance the attainment of individual goals (goals specific to either the American or Chinese group). The roles of the group members' is as follows: The group leader is in charge of facilitating discussions, clarifying relationships among ideas and suggestions, pulling ideas together, and coordinating activities of members. The group leader also has final say in the decision making process and is in charge of follow through and implementation. The remaining 6 members will be divided according to specific purchasing group areas. The American and Chinese purchasing groups will each be subdivided into 3 distinct areas. The business units in each subdivided areas for the American group will be the same as the business units in each subdivided area for the Chinese group. The 3 team members from the American purchasing group will be assigned to a distinct area in the Chinese purchasing group to analyze. The analysis will consist of understanding all the goals from the distinct area he or she is responsible for; similarly each member from the Chinese purchasing group is responsible for analyzing all the goals from the distinct area he or she is responsible for in the American Purchasing group. The 7 members will then meet and share all goals found in their analysis; the subdivision will allow for easier understanding of goal overlaps by allowing comparison of parallel functions across the American and Chinese group.

This team will have two goals in mind. The goals are to reduce cost and increase coordination across the American and Chinese purchasing groups. The division of labor will create higher demands on coordination among the group members. They will need to work together to better understand the informal organizational structure of the groups they are working to analyze. To help foster the effectiveness of this group there will be mandatory