ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Goodyear-Fayetteville, NC: Aligned for Success
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| Billy Taylor, plant manager at the Goodyear plant in Fayetteville, NC. |
How do you achieve 24-percent productivity improvement in six months? By going into all areas of the organization, listening to people, and nurturing an environment of involvement and high performance. That’s the counsel of Billy Taylor, plant manager at the Goodyear-Fayetteville plant in North Carolina.
“You encourage people to become entrepreneurs instead of operators,” he said. “You want people to come to work every day, not just to build a good tire and be safe. You also encourage them to think about reducing scrap and rework, about running a business successfully.
”What you need is alignment — strategy deployment throughout the organization,” said Taylor, who will be a presenter at the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) annual conference Oct. 24-28 in Dallas. “You cascade understanding about improvement tools throughout the plant. Everyone in the organization, from the operators to housekeeping and engineering, works to find ways for creating and implementing improvements, every day.”
Taylor emphasized that the most innovative, effective ideas for boosting productivity — and in turn, market leadership — come from people directly working on a process. He shared thoughts on the difference between entitlement and engagement. “Entitlement is when I tell you how you’re doing,” he said. “Engagement is when you tell me.
“People need a goal,” Taylor added. ” For example, we have a goal here of producing 38,000 tires a day. That’s up from 31,000 tires a day that we were producing six months ago. We gave everyone a custom-printed football jersey to help create a clear understanding of our mission and vision.” Taylor explained that the number 38 on the front and back of the jersey represents the plant’s daily production goal. “The Choice,” which is printed on the back of the jersey, indicates that the Fayetteville plant wants to be the choice of customers for Goodyear tires as well as throughout the community as a place to work and support. The power of engaged associates cannot be overestimated, Taylor said.
The Fayetteville plant also has implemented a simple process called “Red-Green.” Boards showing production goals have been installed throughout the plant in all departments to visually communicate if goals have been met. Green on the board means that machines or areas are on target; red means the goal has been missed. The system, which promotes efficiency and accountability, is being adopted across Goodyear’s North American Tire division.
Employee recognition for participation in improvement projects helps to build momentum for change. The plant shares the results in newsletters, on the plant-wide TV system, and in weekly Continuous Improvement (CI) project review sessions. For example, associates earn a special T-shirt and a bronze medal for completing and presenting one improvement project. Associates who present a second improvement project earn a silver medallion, while those who complete three receive a gold medallion. Associates who present 12 CI projects receive the platinum medallion.
Employee improvement suggestions and projects bring significant performance gains for the Fayetteville plant. Taylor reported $2.7 million in savings for the previous month. The cost to build a tire continues to go down thanks to employees’ buy-in for performance improvement. In March 2010, that cost was $32.89 per tire; the March 2011 cost fell to $25.96.
Safety-related improvements reflect employee suggestions and contribute to a better work environment at Fayetteville. “We recently achieved 3 million hours worked with no lost-time incidents,” Taylor said. Year-to-date, the plant is performing under the annual operating plan level.
Effective organization-wide communications and alignment for continuous performance improvement yield day-to-day progress in safety, productivity, and other metrics. These initiatives are critical to the plant’s long-term success. ”We are helping to keep jobs in the United States. We are globally competitive now,” said Taylor. “These improvements provide a game-changer. We’re successfully keeping 2,900 jobs here at this plant.”
Asked about future initiatives to gain an even greater competitive edge at Fayetteville, Taylor re-emphasized the importance of nurturing innovative ideas and commitment among employees. “I work for my people,” Taylor said. “They don’t work for me.”
