We have recently taken on a new Manufacturing and Planning Manager as we are moving the company more towards Lean principles and he has been brought in to help this transistion.

The purchasing department have not taken too kindly as they were in charge of planning and seemed to cover mistakes and blame production when things were not ready. Since this Manager has come in it seems the majority of the reasons are due to parts not being ordered or have not come in, hence they are not that keen on him and the senior buyer (not the Manager) has taken a dislike to him it seems just because he is questioning her job and she doesn’t like it (nobody has really stood up to her until now). To be honest the Manager of the department is not much better and bypasses him and goes to higher manager who then has to tell this manager, its all very petty. Anyway I digress, last night after most staff had gone, the Planning Manager was chatting to Sales Manager and co-ordinator about a work issue and he said he looked over and both manager and senior buyer were staring and turned away quickly. Then as he was walking back to his desk, the senior buyer was putting her coat on and was making noises (and like a child putting her tongue in the bottom of her mouth) saying God Special needs or what, now the Planning Manager made contact with the Manager whose face apparently said it all and he carried on through to his desk. He said he is convinced it was about him but even if it wasn’t she shouldn’t be saying things like that about someone let alone a Manager to another Manager. He is going to chat to his boss today but he is concerned as he is still fairly new and doesn’t want to make a fuss but this woman is not the nicest and has been pulled up on her attitude before now and it seems she is doing it because she doesn’t like what he is doing work wise and takes everytime he questions something like its a personal attack on her.

Any advice would be helpful

Thanks
Rachel