Question

CASE: The unaccepted current regulator proposal

The Acme Electric Company worked day and night to develop a new current regulator designed to cut the electric power consumption in aluminum plants by 35%. They knew that, although the competition was fierce, their regulator could be produced more cheaply, was more reliable, and worked more efficiently than the competitors’ products.

The owner, eager to capture the market, personally but somewhat hastily put together a 120-page proposal to the three major aluminum manufacturers, recommending that their regulators be installed at all company plants.

She devoted the first 87 pages of the proposal to the mathematical theory and engineering design behind his new regulator, and the next 32 to descriptions of the new assembly line she planned to set up to produce regulators quickly. Buried in an appendix were the test results that compared her regulator’s performance with present models, and a poorly drawn graph showed how much the dollar savings would be.

Acme Electric didn’t get the contracts, despite having the best product. Six months later, the company filed for bankruptcy.

2. Identify the communication error (poor task or audience analysis? Use of inappropriate language or style? Poor organization or formatting of information? Other?)

3. Explain what costs/losses were incurred by this problem.

4. Identify possible solutions or strategies that would have prevented the problem, and what benefits would be derived from implementing solutions or preventing the problem.

Answer 1

answer-

2- The communication errors start from the beginning when report was made in haste without doing the audience analysis of three aluminium manufacturers. the 120 page report was not able to show the analysis of reader that how the report will communicate the knowledge of the subject which was regulator to those manufacturer.

second, the report was completely out of balance in case of formatting there was no introduction, body and conclusion as the report contained 87 page of mathematical calculation and 32 pages to description with poorly draw graphs and diagrams.

The poorly design graphs were unable to show the performance and cost saving data of regulators in dollars amount to manufacturer which may confuse them how much would be the investment to manufacture regulators.

3-The losses which were incurred by this poor report is that Acme electric company lost the contract and all of their investment went failed which increase the burden of debt on the company. this results company to file for bankruptcy means they are unable to pay the debt to their creditors.

4-The prevention can be done if the company could have done proper market analysis of the competitor and audience analysis of the three manufacturer then assign the task of making report to professional technical writer who can format the report in correct manner . the structure of the report would be improved and show the manufacturer the opportunity to invest in ACME's project.

The benefit of having proper formatted technical report would help ACME to get the contract from aluminium manufacturer and Company would able to Save huge amount of cost of electricity upto 35%. This would increase the profit of ACME and company would not have to file for bankruptcy.

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