November 1996 € Volume 6 € Number 11

Preventive Medicine For Healthy Companies

By John P. Collins, CPIM
General Manager
Kawneer Co.

Cultural change is easy. Or at least you might believe that if you listen to all the pundits. Sometimes it seems that one of the toughest challenges facing managers these days is sorting through all the acronyms of programs that offer the latest and greatest solution to today's problems. TQM, TOC, SPC, ISO, the list goes on. One day, in perhaps the ultimate use of a brainstorming session, a group of employees came up with 65 acronyms we use regularly here in Bloomsburg, Pa., the eastern area headquarters of the Kawneer Co.

Kawneer, a subsidiary of Alumax, is a 90-year-old manufacturer of architectural aluminum headquartered in Norcross, Ga. The Bloomsburg plant, which opened in 1965, has a history of profitable growth, a highly skilled union work force, and virtually no turnover (average tenure is more than 13 years). Total quality management was initiated throughout the company six years ago but didn't make much impact here one way or another. While the nearly 500 employees are conscientious and dedicated, they are also skeptical and suspicious of anything remotely resembling a "flavor of the month" program. There has been some inherent distrust of management as well.

As the new general manager, I was amazed at the almost universal resistance to change that greeted me in early 1993. In fairness to the resisters, this plant had never lost money and had never been seriously affected by economic downturns, nor had it ever suffered a devastating setback (a flood in 1972 from the nearby Susquehanna River did necessitate about two weeks of cleanup.) In short, there had never been a compelling reason to change, at least as far as they were concerned. In addition, the employees had been here so long they knew their jobs, kept costs down and wanted to be left alone to keep doing what they'd been doing.

My experience confirmed, however, that the marketplace was changing rapidly, bringing with it new demands on service, cost and quality. My efforts to help people see the need for change were initially unsuccessful. Our problem was that these demands had not translated into a sense of urgency that most people could feel.

There is a saying that you either change the people or you change people. Our goal was to find ways to change the people and hold on to the valuable experience and skills developed more than 30 years. We focused on creating a shared vision of the future as a way to start.

Developing a shared vision meant talking to people, asking them what they wanted to accomplish from their jobs and building a consensus for a vision of the business's future that also satisfied personal goals for themselves and their families. When we talked about the effects of the changes, a lot of fear and concern surfaced. One of the biggest concerns was that employees' skills wouldn't be needed in the workplace of the future. It was obvious that no substantive changes were going to occur until these concerns were addressed.

We turned to APICS for help. We started in-house training based on Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) certification in early 1994. Since then, almost 80 people have been trained in at least one of the six modules. More than 20 have taken at least two of the nationally sponsored tests, and three have earned the CPIM designation. We've held training sessions with almost all the factory work force, teaching production and inventory control concepts in conjunction with a variety of actual implementations. We are starting an in-house Certified in Integrated Resource Management (CIRM) training program to further broaden the skills of both office and factory employees.

We chose APICS for several reasons. First, it provided us with a training tool that helped people learn about common terms, methods and techniques. Many of our people had years of on-the-job training. They had developed ways of doing things that made sense to them but not to others. CPIM training helped people understand and communicate with each other.

Second, it allowed us the opportunity to talk with others dealing with similar issues. By attending APICS meetings and conferences, we've learned a lot by seeing how others in different industries handled problems we thought were unique to us.

Third, we've used APICS to help change our culture. The training and development of our people led to a new attitude. Armed with better ways to do our jobs, we gained confidence in our ability to change. As our exposure to new ways increased, we made a greater commitment to continuous improvement.

Now, more than 40 hours of training is provided annually to every employee in the eastern area. We've created an in-house training facility with a full-time coordinator and a host of part-time trainers. As part of our training and development efforts, a copy of The Employee Handbook of New Work Habits For A Radically Changing World, by Price Pritchett, was mailed to the home of every eastern area employee.

Discussion groups were formed to talk about Pritchett's theories and their application to each of us as well as the ideas espoused in Creating a New Civilization, by Alvin and Heidi Toffler. The purpose was to demonstrate to the participants that ongoing change -- past, present and future -- is a natural occurrence in business and life.

In the last three years, we have developed into a team-based workplace, implemented gainsharing, changed our manufacturing system, achieved ISO 9001 certification, increased delivery performance nearly 40 percent, and lowered inventory by nearly 30 percent. We worked almost two million hours without a lost-time accident. We developed a broad communication system to inform employees of the financial and market performance of the company. Everyone knows the significant gains we've made in productivity, profitability and cost reductions. Total quality management has become the way of life here.

We still have fears that get the best of us at times. Change is never easy, no matter how much effort goes into preparing for it. There's still some skepticism and distrust. There's still occasional resistance to upsetting the status quo. Because of our continued involvement with APICS, our continued commitment to training and development, and our continued commitment to sharing a common vision, we look forward to the time when change is enthusiastically welcomed.