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TURNAROUND TIMETABLES Unit 29 Contents A Corporate Business □ Introduction Planning timetables. □ Fresh Frozen Foods Plc: Turnaround Timetables Planning the timetables for major turnarounds involving radical restructuring. □ Dialogue: A Contingency Plan A special timetable for action to be taken if any part of the main timetable fails. Business Executives □ An Executive Writes Companies reply to agents who are interested in representing them. □ An Executive Travels Travel Dialogue - Some of the problems faced when taken ill on a business trip. Business Matters □ Some Questions and Answers about Banking (14) Corporate bonds and investment management. □ Executive Search (4) Vacancy for a credit manager in a leading City law firm. Business News □ Dresdner Bank and Banesto (2) Continuation of the report on the Dresdner Bank taking a stake in Banesto Industrial Holding. The Use of English in Business □ The Infinitive (2) The infinitive with and without 'to', and used to express purpose. □ Glossary of the Key Business Words and Phrases Used □ Answers 673 A CORPORATE BUSINESS Introduction Subject: Planning timetables. Planning does not only consist of taking decisions on what is going to be done in the future, but also of deciding when it is going to be done. For this a timetable, or schedule, is prepared. It is then possible to monitor the progress of the plan and take appropriate action if it is behind schedule or too far ahead of it. If a plan is prepared for the launching of a new product on a certain date, there are other dates – or deadlines – in the plan by which time, for example, packaging must be designed, raw material purchased or the advertising campaign be ready. As these deadlines approach1, work in one department may have to be stepped up in order to coincide with the deadlines of other departments. Timetables are particularly important when dealing with outside contractors and suppliers, since it is possible to tell them when they are behind schedule and warn them that the agreed deadline must be met. We shall now see the comprehensive timetable prepared at the head office of Fresh Frozen Foods Plc. before work is simultaneously begun on the building of two factories, with their respective offices and installations, for subsidiaries in England and Scotland. In this case the timetable is doubly important, since it is a means of2 coordinating and monitoring two major projects. approach aproximam-se means of um meio de 674 Fresh Frozen Foods Plc. Turnaround Timetables Subject: Planning the timetables for major turnarounds involving radical restructuring. Two major turnarounds When troubleshooter Matthew Collins visited Grimsby Fish Canners, one of the two ailing UK subsidiaries, he recommended that the company should cease to exist in its present form. His solution was that the offices, factory and transport depot, all on prime land in the town of Grimsby, should be sold up and that a new factory and offices should be built a few miles away on cheaper land near the motorway. He also said that as there was no future in fish canning, the company should go over to3 frozen foods. His plan was accepted. A few weeks later Leslie Carrington, following Collins’ example, made similar recommendations for the ailing Scottish company Perth Tinned Meat. Here again offices, factory and transport depot occupying a prime site in the town would be sold up and the company would be moved to Craigenad, a few miles outside. There being no future in meat canning, the company would go over to frozen foods. His plan was accepted. The similarity of the solutions to the problems of the two companies together with the fact that their radical restructuring would take place simultaneously meant that a carefully worked-out4 timetable would have to be prepared at head office in order to allow the maximum amount of supervision and avoidance5 of mistakes. Wherever possible the same contractors would be employed. In this way costs would be kept down. A coordination team was set up at head office to help in the planning and to monitor the progress of these major turnarounds. Designing the factories and offices The Group’s most modern factory is the one built at Cambridge and opened in 1987. The factory and offices were designed by Harley, Rawthorne & Partners, a Cambridge firm of architects specializing in industrial designs. It was decided that they should design the new installations for Grimsby and Perth. As there would be little need for variation, the same design would serve for both projects. This would mean a substantial saving in cost. The same electrical contractor, for example, would do the work on both sites. As the work would be identical, it would be correspondingly easier to carry it out. Estimates were requested from contractors in Scotland and England with the result that Scottish contractors would be doing some of the work on the two sites and English companies would be contracted to do different work. On-site administration Within one month of the work being started there were temporary offices installed on the sites. A staff of two was transferred from Grimsby to the site on the Elsham Industrial Estate next to junction 5 of the M180 motorway (18 go over to passar a worked-out calculado avoidance evitação 675 A CORPORATE BUSINESS miles outside Grimsby) and another two were sent from Perth to the site at Craigend. Constant telephone and fax contact was maintained between the sites, their company offices and head office. 'It's almost like a military operation', said Archie Kennedy with satisfaction. It had been Kennedy's idea to install fax and telephones immediately. He maintained that if they were going to have them when the companies transferred to their new locations, then why not now. This proved to be a most practical idea and it was not long before minor modifications to the original plans were being faxed direct from the architects' office to the temporary site offices of the companies. On receipt they would then be taken across to the site office of the building contractor, where appropriate action would be taken. The timetable for 'Operation Turnaround' This timetable had been very carefully worked out at head office in consultation with the two companies and the many contractors and suppliers involved. The timetable consisted of many sheets and diagrams and these were photocopied and put up on the walls of the site offices so that progress could be constantly monitored. There was a date by which the site had to be ready for work to begin, a date by which the foundations had to be ready for work to start on the walls, and dates for the termination of every stage of the work until its final completion. 'There's only one thing they've forgotten to include', commented one of the staff, 'and that's the date the Queen will come to declare them open'. Marketing timetable The marketing timetable was a series of deadlines that could not be passed. As regards what the products of Newgrim and Newperth (the provisional names of the companies that would eventually replace Grimsby Fish Canners MAP SHOWING POSITION AND PROXIMITY TO LARGE INDUSTRIAL TOWNS OF THE PROJECTED FRESH FROZEN FOODS (GRIMSBY CANNERS) FACTORY AT ELSHAM ELSHAM INDUSTRIAL ESTATE 676 and Perth Tinned Meat) were going to be, options were being kept open for as long as possible. When building started, however, the marketing timetable had its decision deadlines. The first deadline was for when the decision must be reached on whether the new companies would be concerned with frozen fruit and vegetables and/or convenience foods; the next deadline was concerned with the final decision on the initial range of products; and the third deadline was the decision on packaging and pricing etc, which would depend on the results of the market research that would have to be done. Provisional plans had been made as regards advertising, but the definitive plans could not be made until results were available on market research. Production timetable Provisional plans had been made regarding the machinery that would be necessary, complete with all the details concerning models, price, delivery times and installation costs etc. These were continually being modified so that at any given moment Production could say 'We can have the factory working on such and such a date' using this or that machinery'. David Humphries explained that this timetable system was based on the purchase, delivery and installation of whatever machinery was currently required. The moment there was a change of emphasis, his estimates and timetable would be altered and updated accordingly. Fortunately, Production know that whatever the new factories will initially be producing, it will be what is already being produced in other factories and on machines similar to those already in use. Personnel timetable Charles Garrick had prepared a plan for the transfer to other factories in the Group of as many workers as possible from Presgrim and Presperth (the identification titles for the companies as they exist at present), as they gradually wind down' production in readiness for the final closedown. In this way they will get the maximum amount of training in new production techniques. In addition, as many of their top executives as possible will come to work either at head office and help plan for the future or go to work in the offices of other subsidiaries. The timetable shows the approximate dates for these transfers. Contingency timetable This timetable was the idea of Archie Kennedy and it includes, and will include, anything not on the main timetable. If a new idea is adopted, then that idea will have to have its own timetable. Archie calls this the contingency timetable. 'One of the secrets of running a successful business', he says, 'is being ready for the unexpected'. 6 maintained sustainava, era de opinião que 7 proved resultou, provou ser such and such a date tal data 9 readiness prontidão, preparação 677 A CORPORATE BUSINESS Text Comprehension Answer the following questions: 1. Did Matthew Collins recommend that Grimsby Fish Canners should cease or continue to exist in its present form? 2. Did he want to build a new factory in Grimsby or a few miles outside the town? 3. Did he say the company should go over to meat canning or to frozen foods? 4. Did Carrington make similar recommendations for Perth Tinned Meat or for Lester Foods? 5. Was Carrington's plan accepted or rejected? 6. Where would carefully worked-out timetables be prepared? 7. What would the head office coordination team do? 8. Would work on the two sites be shared between French and German con- tractors? 9. What would happen to design modifications faxed to company site offices? 10. Who were consulted when the timetable was worked out? 11. What did someone jokingly say was the only thing not included on the timetable? 12. What did the marketing timetable basically consist of? 13. What did David Humphries say his timetable was based on? 14. Where will as many of the Presgrim and Presperth top executives work while the new installations are being built? 15. What is Archie Kennedy's plan called? Notes on the Introduction Key business timetables cronogramas, programas words deadlines datas finais, vencimiento, prazo Comments on key structures • Note the phrase too far ahead of schedule. Compare the following: to be on schedule, ahead of schedule, a little ahead, a long way ahead, too far ahead, and much too far ahead. • Note the use of the verb to meet in the phrase deadline must be met - deve-se cumprir o prazo. Used in this context to meet means to coincide with. • Note that doubly (duplamente) is the same as twice as. Compare: It is important to be paid, but doubly important to be paid on time. Small orders are important to us, but bigger orders are twice as import- ant, of course. 678 Notes on the Text foundations wind down production alicerces baixar a produção Key business words Comments on key structures • Note the phrase there was no future in fish canning – não havia futuro em enlatamento pescado. • Note that when a proper noun ends in an s we may use s' or s's in the possessive. Compare: Collins' example, Collins's report, Jones' report, Jones's letter. • Note that moved is very often used instead of transferred because it is shorter. From this we also have moves for transfers. • Note the verb to keep down in costs would be kept down – os custos ficariam sob controlo. To keep costs down is the same as to prevent costs from going up. • Note the use of partners (sócios) in the name of the architects Harley, Rawsthorne and Partners. It is common for lawyers to work as partners as well, so that a firm of solicitors might be Welham, Bingley, Folley & Partners. • Note that on receipt means on receiving – contra recibo, contra entrega. • Note the very common US expression to keep your options open. In business it is sometimes more convenient to leave making a decision until the last possible moment; this is leaving your options open until the last possible moment. • Note that when capital letters are used in Production, Personnel or Marketing etc. it indicates the department. Compare: I telephoned the production department - I telephoned Production. He works in the personnel department - He works in Personnel. • Note that contingency refers to the unexpected. A contingency plan is a plan prepared in case the unexpected happens. In the case of the contingency timetable of Archie Kennedy, this is a mixture of ideas that have come late and plans made in case anything goes wrong with the main timetable. Choosing a Site for a New Factory As may be seen from a quick glance at the map on page 676 there are many advantages to having a food processing factory on the industrial estate at Elsham. First there is the cost: it is much cheaper than in the centre or even the outskirts of a large town like Grimsby, the site of the present factory. Then comes access to the motorway network. Elsham is by the side of the entrance to the M180. Then comes source of raw material. Elsham is perfectly situated on the topmost edge of the rich Lincolnshire farmlands. Finally, the market: the whole of the industrial north is within easy reach along the motorway network. Large towns like Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester and Liverpool are all conveniently placed for deliveries of the products that will come out of the Elsham factory. 679