• You will hear a discussion. • For each question 23- 30 mark one letter (A, B or C) for the correct answer. • After you have li

M1: I’d like to discuss with you a proposed structure for the production engineering department in our company--not our entire company but only one department--our production engineers. These proposals are based on the type of organisational structure in several successful companies both at home and abroad. Nevertheless, I’ m aware that some of these proposals are controversial and may come as a shock to some of you.
   As you know, there are now 600 workers in our production engineering department. This work- force ranges from skilled machinists to production technologists. Their services are highly centralised in our production engineering department at our headquarters. I appreciate that this results in a slightly smaller workforce as well as greater ordination and a concentration of specialist know- how. But we’re now finding that this very concentration of expertise here at headquarters encourages us to overlook some of the problems which many of our colleagues have in our twelve factories throughout the region. In a sense, the production engineering department is not aware of all that is happening in the factories and can’t understand some of the day-to-day problems.
M2: If you mean that we are getting out of touch with our factories, I think I agree. We don’t appreciate many of their difficulties. Shouldn’t our factories have more power to make decisions for themselves?
M1: Well, both yes and no. The whole issue is very complex.
F1: But after all, if our factories have more power to act as they like with regard to production engineering, we run the risk of ’them losing sight of the company’s overall objectives.
M1: That’s true. And so what I’d like to aim for is making our factories more independent from the view of production engineering while, at the same time, encouraging a greater degree of integration in the company.
F2: What about your position as the company production director? Surely, this is an, essential position, and it’s essential for the company production director to have direct control of the factories.
M1: Yes, and, as the company production director, I’ll continue to have direct responsibility for each factory as well as for our headquarters.
M2: What about the managers of the factories?
M1: They’ll now have much more responsibility for their own factories.
F2: Will they be able to make decisions regarding production engineering?
M1: Yes, they will. But under each factory manager there’ll be a production engineering manager, responsible to the factory manager. He’ll be working at the factory itself and not at our headquarters. He’ll also have authority in his own field.
M2: What about all the production engineers at headquarters? Will they no longer be required here?
F1: A few will, but others will be transferred to our various factories to work there.. Our chief production engineer here at headquarters will be responsible for coordinating policy. And he’ll be assisted by a small team of production engineers. This team will be given direct access to each factory but it own’t be in a position to give instructions to the production engineering manager there un- less the general manager of the factory has first given permission.