Pyramid ODI helps a USA chemical manufacturing company
This plant was always profitable but its management team could see the writing on the wall: selling prices were in decline and costs increasing. Corporate policy dictated cost reductions year on year but much more was going to be needed to avoid a future disaster. But persuading the 400+ employees of the need to change was tough when the plant was well-known for its success. Culturally, there were challenges: in a very hierarchical
environment, employees expected management to give them all the answers.
Pyramid ODI was asked in to help address these challenges. Drawing on our experience in collaborative design, we worked with employees from all areas and all levels. We worked first on small tasks - team improvements to prove the benefits of collaborating and using tools. We arranged visits - "Future trips" to other plants which operated team-based working to meet peers in other companies who had succeeded in changing their workplace. We facilitated a major re-design their own operation, including each person in the facility to have input into the new design for high-performance.
What was achieved was remarkable: a hierarchical organization became self-directed; supervisors were freed up to focus on continuing improvements. Most important, the site’s cost leadership and competitiveness were restored with cost reductions amounting to some $30-40 million - 8-10% of the total - per year.
The culture that could not be changed, changed.
environment, employees expected management to give them all the answers.
Pyramid ODI was asked in to help address these challenges. Drawing on our experience in collaborative design, we worked with employees from all areas and all levels. We worked first on small tasks - team improvements to prove the benefits of collaborating and using tools. We arranged visits - "Future trips" to other plants which operated team-based working to meet peers in other companies who had succeeded in changing their workplace. We facilitated a major re-design their own operation, including each person in the facility to have input into the new design for high-performance.
What was achieved was remarkable: a hierarchical organization became self-directed; supervisors were freed up to focus on continuing improvements. Most important, the site’s cost leadership and competitiveness were restored with cost reductions amounting to some $30-40 million - 8-10% of the total - per year.
The culture that could not be changed, changed.
