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The Treadway Tire Company

Autor:   •  October 25, 2018  •  1,876 Words (8 Pages)  •  454 Views

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shift - all while scrambling to find replacements for the hourly staff. It was known that the hourly workers were frequently absent due to the strenuous work and long shifts.

Alternatives

The criteria for determining the preferred alternative will be the following; cost, turnover, plant performance, foremen satisfaction, and ease of implementation.

In order to reverse the trend of turnover among the lima foreman, the Lima Plamt of the Treadway Tire Company has 4 options which are detailed in the following page.

1. Maintain the status quo

2. Train the foremen

3. Create an advisory committee.

4. Move some administrative tasks and work to the supervising managers

1. By maintaining the status quo, the foremen turnover would continue. The men would still be leaving on account of their own dissatisfaction with the job or by being dismissed due to poor management abilities/ lack of hitting targeted performances.

2. It is apparent that the foremen are not adequately trained for all aspects of their job. They are interviewed based on their ability to solve problems and run a plant, but there is no emphasis on having the skills to manage a team, work productively with management, and to deal with their administrative tasks. Wall tried to implement a training program for new foremen, however it was denied due to cost cutting measures. By providing more training for the foremen while demonstrating how it can be done in a cost saving manner many of the factors contributing to the turnover as described above will be lessened, resulting in a more satisfied and committed group of employees.

3.Creating an advisory committee could provide to be beneficial to all involved, this would give an opportunity for the foremen and union workers/ leaders along with management to discuss what is going on at the plant and would create a space for various issues to be heard and discussed. Ideas for improvement could be proposed in addition to presentations and discussions on the long term production and other goals the plant has. By involving staff at all levels of the hierarchy and creating a positive feedback method you create by-in and ownership which will translates to better productivity which in term creates a more satisfying workplace. The foremen complain that nobody listens to them, and the hourly workers also feel that they are not heard and both feel treated poorly. This this would be an opportunity for them to be heard and to have a seat at the table.

4.Put more responsibility on management above the foremen level. Currently the foremen are responsible for their regular end of shift paperwork in addition to reviewing issues with the unionized hourly workers timesheets, managing staffing issues, handling union grievances etc. All the administrative work is taking away their ability to keep the plant running and is also causing tension with unionised workers. If the management is able to takeover some of the administrative tasks, it would lend more time for the foremen to keep an eye on production issues, and would lessen the amount of discontent between the foremen and the hourly emplyees. The less stressed that the foremen are, the most focus they can put on hitting their targets, the most satisfied they are and the turnover should decrease.

The best solution for the foremen at the Lima tire plant would be for the foremen to be more adequately trained. Although the alternative of having management take on more admin tasks or creating an advisory committee would add to the organization commitment and increase the foremen satisfaction, it would not change the fact that the foremen are not adequately trained which is a more pressing cause for their turnover. Additionally, we do not know if management would be able to adequately complete the foremen’s admin tasks leading to unintended consequences that they do not get it done properly and it lies back on the foremen.

Action Plan

A training plan should be implemented, and although the plant is facing challenges from the increase in material costs, training should not be put to the way-side. The Lima Plant should look at the other Treadway Tire plants, and industry to determine what is a normal amount of turnover, this will give them a baseline target. The cost savings associated with reaching that target can be calculated by the plant, as there is a direct and indirect cost associated with each turnover (cost of the time for new hires to become productive, admin costs, onboarding costs, overtime pay for others to fill in etc.). My rough calculations guess over $300,000 in labor alone in terms of cost from the 23 turnovers in 2007. To fund the training, the plant can allocate some or all of the future cost savings on training. The cost savings will come to fruition as long as the foremen get the training they need to do their jobs. The foremen need to be trained in many areas, but a good start is on how to communicate, delegate, work with superiors and subordinates and how to deal with high pressure situations among others. If they can learn some more fundamentals, they will be more prepared to do their jobs successfully.

To measure the success of the training program, the turnover in foremen should continue to be tracked, as should plant performance for each foreman. By tracking the turnover, and plant performance, the benefit of the training program should become evident. When the foremen learn new skills to perform their duties, they will have better working relationships, they will enjoy working more, feel more satisfied with their work, and their plant performance should rise -which in turn will also increase the foremen’s satisfaction and lower

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