A Culture of Teamwork Improves Productivity
In a previous blog, we offered examples of how teams helped the General Motors Tonawanda Engine Plant survive potential closure and solidify cooperation between union workers and management. We would like to expand on that topic with this blog by providing additional examples of how the use of teams enhanced the productivity of the plant.
Machine breakdowns are a fact of life in any engine plant. The challenge is to minimize the downtime caused by such breakdowns, or the time it takes to get the machine operating again at full capacity. Over the years, the plant hired and trained skilled tradespeople to maintain machinery. In all, there were 16 different skilled trades workers—for example, tinsmiths, electricians, mechanics, and millwrights. Each had a role to play in identifying and repairing equipment used for production. Historically, when a machine broke down, one of the tradespeople was called in to fix it. However, if the equipment required a different skill for its repair, another tradesperson was called in. There was a separation of tradespeople, and one could not perform the work of another, creating a bottleneck in getting the equipment up and running again.
The leadership of the plant, in cooperation with union officers, met and set the goal of reducing the length of time it took to repair a machine. What resulted was a “lean” approach, beginning with a supervisor diagnosing the problem and calling in a team of skilled tradespeople to make the repairs. Instead of a sequence of tradespeople lining up in a cue to work on the equipment, a team of tradespeople worked in coordination to repair the machine as quickly as possible. This teamwork not only reduced the time to get the machine up and running but allowed skilled tradespeople to learn from each other, leading to better, more effective teams.
Every time new machinery is introduced into the plant, there are problems getting it up and running to full capacity. The need to integrate new machinery into the existing production system is one problem. The learning curve is often long while workers adapt to how the new machines work. Breakdowns take longer to fix because of the workers’ lack of familiarity with the machines.
For these reasons, the management team at the Tonawanda Engine Plant decided to send a group of factory workers and skilled tradespeople along with engineers to Italy to test out and acquaint themselves with new equipment before it was shipped to the plant. Management, with the full endorsement of the union, had little trouble finding volunteers to go to Italy. The members of this team of workers were able familiarize themselves with the machinery at the site where it was manufactured. They learned directly from the manufacturer, gaining expertise on the installation and operation of the machines. When the machines were delivered to the Tonawanda Engine Plant, the implantation went smoothly, greatly reducing the amount of time it normally would have taken for them to become fully operational.
These two examples of teamwork were not typical in a manufacturing facility. They involved cooperation between management and the union, and the involvement of machine operators and skilled tradespeople in roles they normally would not play. The teams tapped into the skills and experience of employees who contributed to the productivity of the plant. The plant culture that had been built on believing in its workers and trusting them to work in concert with management paid dividends in improving the productivity of the plant through teamwork.
