Page 32 - MetalForming May 2012

Workforce Development\Roll Forming Corporation
MetalForming/May 2012 www.metalformingmagazine.com
Production supervisor Bruce McIntosh, shown here describing a rollformed part fabricated on an RFC production line, credits conflict-management train- ing at the firm’s Leadership Academy as helping keep the two CI teams he oversees focused on meeting their objectives.
Leathers summarizes:
“In 2002-2003 we were a $35 million company. Today we’re a $115 mil- lion company, still growing and with solid EBIT performance. We’re launching 120 new parts/yr., and while a few years ago we might strug- gle to meet launch dates, today we’re consistently meeting project launch dates.
“In fact,” Leathers adds, “our shareholders are so pleased that they’ve allotted us a $12 million budget in 2012 for capital improve- ments. That’s the single largest annu- al budget we’ve had since 2000. That confidence level comes only as a result of our dedication—from the plant floor on up—to continuously improving our continuous improve- ment process.”
Frontline-Leadership Training Reenergizes CI
Leathers and his management team decided that in order to move RFC’s CI efforts off the plateau and up to the next level, it would have to invest in focused training of its front-
line leaders. These are the folks charged with directing the company’s dozens of CI teams.
“In 2006, we sought out to identi- fy the key characteristics that RFC leaders should have,” says Leathers. Efforts centered on developing the skills required to effectively lead teams—specifically CI teams. Then, to teach those leadership skills, RFC launched its Leadership Academy, built upon a series of eight courses designed to develop those key char- acteristics.
Since 2006, more than 140 RFC associates have enrolled and com- pleted the Leadership Academy. The paid training occurs in eight month- ly 4-hr. sessions. Graduates include several rolling-machine operators who have taken on the role of team coordinators. In doing so, they earn an hourly pay increase.
Included in the Leadership Acad- emy curriculum:
• The Oz leadership principle, which stresses individual and orga- nizational accountability
• Improving interpersonal and assertive communications
• Tools to control attitudes
• Dynamics of motivating groups • Conflict management
• Skills for improved coaching. RFC Leadership Academy gradu-
ates typically point to conflict-man- agement training as a highlight. But Leathers credits the firm’s culture of personal accountability, taught using the Oz principle, as truly allowing the CI program to flourish.
“When you have a strong gain- sharing program, the best policemen you have are right there out on the shop floor,” Leathers says. “And when we started running our employees through the Leadership Academy, we learned that as we provided guid- ance and leadership to the CI process, the effectiveness of our CI initiatives jumped noticeably.”
Of course, when you invite ideas from so many sources, conflicts are sure to arise. Hence the attention to conflict management in the Leader-
ship Academy.
“If you ask about the lessons
learned as we’ve strived to continu- ously improve our CI program,” says plant manager Tony Carriss, “that’s the big one. Successful CI teams work to obtain input from everyone on the team, and work through dis- agreements among team members so we get team-wide buy-in on how to move forward.”
Production supervisor Bruce McIntosh credits training in conflict management with helping him keep the two CI teams he oversees focused on meeting their objectives. “Leadership Academy courses taught me how to properly conduct myself on the floor and in meet- ings,” he says, “and how to handle conflicts between the frontline workers when they arise. I’m a bet- ter listener, and a better coach. I encourage the team to stay on task, but it’s up to them to get it done. And they understand that.”
CI Ideas Born
on the Shop Floor
“Every RFC employee sits on at least one CI team, and while maybe 10 percent of their time they’re actively engaged on a CI project,” says Leathers, “we expect that they’re thinking about CI 100 percent of the time.”
An overwhelming percentage of CI team projects emanate from the workers out on the shop floor, creat- ing a bottom-up management phi- losophy markedly different than the top-down management style once in place at the company. So says Car- riss, a 28-yr. RFC veteran. Of note is the operators’ diligent use of hour-by- hour (HBH) charts to track their work flow, note any hiccups and cite any hurdles preventing them from meet- ing production goals.
Carriss oversees one of the firm’s three Shelbyville plants, which employs 60 on the floor over two shifts, 35 of which are frontline oper- ators. “What the operators note on the HBH charts often turn into CI