Elizabeth K. Briody - Transforming Culture: Creating and Sustaining a Better Manufacturing Organization

TRANSFORMING CULTURE

CREATING AND SUSTAINING A BETTER MANUFACTURING ORGANIZATION

Elizabeth K. Briody, Robert T. Trotter II, and Tracy L. Meerwarth

TRANSFORMING CULTURE
Copyright Elizabeth K. Briody, Robert T. Trotter II, and Tracy
L. Meerwarth, 2010.

All rights reserved.

First published in 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United Statesa division of St. Martins Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010

Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.

Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world.

Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.

ISBN: 978-0-230-62346-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Briody, Elizabeth Kathleen.

Transforming culture : creating and sustaining a better manufacturing organization / Elizabeth K. Briody, Robert T. Trotter, Tracy L. Meerwarth.

p. cm.

ISBN: 978-0-230-62346-0

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Corporate cultureUnited States. 2. Organizational changeUnited States. 3. Industrial sociologyUnited States. I. Trotter, Robert T. II. Meerwarth, Tracy L. III. Title.

HD58.7.B745 2010

658.4063dc22 2009039551

A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.

Design by Scribe Inc.

First edition: March 2010

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the United States of America.

Elizabeth dedicates this book to Marc Robinson for his wisdom, support, and love.

Bob dedicates this book to Sally Trotter for all of her encouragement and support over the years, to his kids (Hara, Talbot, David, and Rayne) for the stimulus and excitement they have given in their lives, and to his colleagues and friends for interesting times and valuable opportunities in the overall scheme of things.

Tracy dedicates this book to the men and women at the stamping plant that allowed her to learn from their stories.

The auto industry of the last thirty years has not been for the faint of heart. The U.S. domestic industry, in particular, has been in continuous transformation for most of that time period. The modern auto business is one of the few truly global industries. Today, there are more similarities than differences in the product designs, materials used, and processes of manufacture among the global competitors. Yet, significant differences are found in the various results of each. Success is difficult and eludes many.

I began working in the car business as a young engineer over three decades ago. As I prepare to retire from a senior leadership position at General Motors (GM), I look back on a career that never lacked for challenges and opportunities. I come from a family of autoworkers. My father was an hourly employee who provided for his family by working in the factory every day for over forty years. My first engineering assignments started on those same factory floors. My extensive plant experience has given me a unique perspective from which to consider the waves of change that buffet the domestic automakers. I have seen incredible acts of initiative and selfless contributions from hundreds of employees like my father. The value of their conscientious acts could be counted into the many millions of dollars. Yet I have seen firsthand the errors and acts of waste of demotivated workers as well. Both groups entered the work force to do their very best. At one time, they all shared the same excitement and sense of wonder at how cars and trucks are produced. Yet, somewhere along the way, that excitement was lost for some and replaced with boredom, apathy, andat timesresentment. Like my colleagues, I have read much on manufacturing and workers. Some of what I have read has been insightful. Much of it is of little use to the supervisor or manager on the front lines of the factory floor attempting to deal with these circumstances.

The Lansing Delta Township facility is GMs newest American assembly plant at the time of this writing. The location, building, facilities, and tools represent the latest manufacturing technology from around the world. Yet the work force is men and women from a combination of several older and closed facilities in central Michigan. It is a work force from one of the most strongly unionized areas of the country. During a routine review of the project, a simple question was asked: Whats the plan for the people? We had spent hours reviewing details related to the physical attributes of the plant but much less time on the preparations related to the readiness of the work force. All present at the review recognized that the men and women who would someday staff the facility were the real key to success of this billion-dollar investment. Future meetings would review reporting relationships and team sizes, as well as other metrics, but how would we prepare the people to work together? How would we create a culture of world-class safety, quality, and productivity?

The answer would come from the unlikely source of cultural anthropology in the person of a dedicated scientist from GM Research. In addition to the best practices found in management texts, the study brought to our effort a process that created learning events from the very problems and issues that we hoped to avoid. These events, often unseen, can sow the seeds of future distrust and disruption andultimatelydemotivate portions of the work force. This effort has generated a set of lessons and tools that continue to grow and bear fruit. When I began my career as a manufacturing engineer, I had a keen interest in understanding how to reliably reproduce a particular result or product. I am grateful to Dr. Elizabeth Briody not only for her contribution to the successful launch of a world-class manufacturing team but also for her documentation of these efforts in such a way that others can reproduce these results to the benefit of the teams of which they are a part.

Troy A. Clarke
President of GM North America
September 13, 2009

Many people played a role in the publication of this book. We are extremely grateful to GM for its financial and technical support of this research program for six years. We also thank the people of GM. Over 400 employees shared their time, their stories, and their experiences with us so that we could understand their views of manufacturing culturepast and presentand their expressed hopes for the future. This book is their book as much as it is ours. It is their story of life on the plant floor and of cultural transformation that we did our best to capture. For confidentiality reasons, we do not reveal their names.

The idea for the project, originating with Steve Holland at GM Research and Development (R&D), was quickly supported by other managers at R&D including Alan Taub, Jan Aase, and Tom Seder. Support grew within GMs manufacturing organization, with Troy Clarke serving as the original project sponsor, executive advisor, and, ultimately, manuscript reviewer. His global perspective and his manufacturing background positioned him to add considerable value to the final product. Randy Thayer, who became plant manager of GMs newest U.S. assembly plant, Lansing Delta Township, was an ongoing source of support for our work. His interest in innovation and plant culture predated the plants construction, continued through the plants successful start-up, and was maintained long after our research group reported its results and delivered the tools. He and his Joint Leadership Team worked tirelessly with us to refine our ideas and develop and validate customized applications to help build and maintain a collaborative plant culture. Local union leaders Art Luna and Steve Bramos were an integral part of Randy Thayers team, as were plant Quality Network leaders; in particular, Don A. Smith and Mark Strolle were always available to answer our questions and offer insights into emerging cultural patterns. GMs Global Manufacturing System employees, working directly with the manufacturing plants, acted as advocates for the project. We especially appreciated the interest and perspectives offered by Gerry Knesek, John Ciupak, and Chris Turner. Several senior manufacturing executives provided assistance and guidance in disseminating project results in GMs U.S. facilities and in sponsoring the pilot testing of the tools we developed. They included Larry Zahner, Joe Ponce, Bill Boggs, Arvin Jones, Jim DeLuca, Joe Spielman, and Gary Cowger. The project was supported by Greg Fedak, Mike Hall, and John Bussineau of the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW)-GM Quality Network. Several GM employees, including Karen Sutton, Matt Albee, Sharon Zielinski, Mark Beltramo, Tom Schenk, and Jeff ONeal helped in the identification or compilation of documentary data and/or library support services. We were very grateful for their assistance.