Drastic performance improvement
Manager:
Mr.P. B.
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Customer:
Confidential
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Role:
neral Manager/Plant Manager
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Location:
Indonesia
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Turnover:
USD 150 mil approx..
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Time frame:
36 months
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No. of employees:
Start with 900 and end with 550 approx.
About the Customer
The company is a subsidiary, who’s majority is owned by a multinational Swiss Building Material group. It was taken over from a local, Indonesian owner, in the year 2000. The Swiss group invested heavily in technical upgrading of the plant during the first 3 years. Indonesia offered at that time a political and economical unstable environment and a very strong employee friendly Labour Law.
Testimonial from Сustomer
The BoD was highly satisfied about Mr. P.B. successful transformation of the Plant’s operations, and recommends him for any similar task.
Situation (Challenge)
The plant’s results were, after all major Investments had been accomplished, still one of the worst within the Swiss group, in terms of output/day, cost efficiency and safety records. Hardly any employee of the entire plant’s organisation had undergone any kind of people management training. In addition it was obvious, that the actual organisation was non-transparent and there were no clearly assigned accountabilities.
In 2004 the company decided to engage a new Plant Manager capable of leading the plant to the high Swiss Standards and to profitable results. Suitable candidates were interviewed and Mr. P. B. was selected for the job. His main goal was to work towards the efficiency target by means of intensive people development, focusing principally on the managers and foremen.
Indonesia is a particular challenge in view of the local culture and mentality: Indonesians are usually not assertive and have difficulties in explaining or saying something in a straight and direct way (they like to “beat around the bush”). Distinct weaknesses, which makes the task of leadership development in an organisation of 900 employees (approx.) really challenging.
Solution (Achievement)
A variety of different approaches for people development were studied and thoroughly discussed with the company’s directors. Based on similar systems applied in Asia, Mr. P.B. developed together with the Manufacturing Director a performance improvement programme (OPI) tailored to the specific situation and needs of the company and plant, not only focusing on general people but also leadership development.
In his function, Mr. P:B. spent a large part of his time and efforts in driving and supporting this very comprehensive OPI programme, also with the support of a talented local expert in leadership development. High attention was laid on coaching, assuming responsibility and strengthening assertiveness. The results were becoming evident very soon.
In addition a highly qualified Health & Safety professional was employed and integrated as part of the OPI programme. In less than 2 years, the Plant’s safety records were amongst the best of the worldwide Group.
The OPI programme was designed for tackling department by department, moving on to the next department once the targeted results were achieved. Therefore the programme had to be run for more than 2 years until all departments were tackled.i
As a wanted side effect the number of employees could gradually be reduced from 900 to 550 approx., due to the continuous increase of efficiency, implicating heavy financial costs due to the local legislation.
For 2007 the output of both main production lines already achieved record levels and the costs were well below budget and previous years costs.
Finally, it has to be clearly pointed out, that in any Turn Around project, key is the two-way communication with the employees and this very often, sometimes almost continuously.