Reference no: EM131716719

Located in New York and with a small starting branch in Johannesburg, Falls Engineering is a US$250 million chemical and materials operation employing 900 people. The plant has two distinct manufacturing product lines: industrial chemicals and computer materials. Both divisions are controlled by one plant manager, but direction, strategic planning, and priorities are established by corporate vice presidents in Chicago. Each division has its own corporate vice president, list of projects, list of priorities, and manpower control. The chemical division has been at this location for the past twenty years. The materials division, you might say, the tenant in the landlord-tenant relationship, with the materials division manager reporting dotted to the plant manager and solid to the corporate vice president (see Exhibit I). The chemical division employed 3,000 people in 1983. By 1998, there were only 600 employees. In 2000, the materials division was formed and located on the chemical division site with a land lord-tenant relationship. The materials division has grown from US$50 million in 2001 to US$120 million in 2005. Today, the materials division employs 350 people. All projects originate in construction or engineering but usually are designed to support production. The engineering and construction departments have projects that span the entire organization directed by a project coordinator. The project coordinator is a line employee who is temporarily assigned to coordinate project in his line organization in addition to performing his line responsibilities.