He got the map upside down | Bill Waddell

See on Scoop.itlean manufacturing
“…, at Toyota and at lean companies using visual controls effectively, it [the organization chart] actually looks like this…”

 

Michel Baudin‘s insight:

The first time I saw an organization chart with the plant manager at the bottom and the workers on top was in an auto parts factory in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, back in 2001, before that city became so notoriously dangerous.

The chart had a photograph next to each name, and it was not a gimmick. The plant was not perfect in any way, but the plant manager wore an overall to the floor every morning to make his rounds, and the operators knew him.

The employment pattern in the maquiladora plants near the US border was similar to the one I saw shortly thereafter in the Pearl River Delta area of China: girls from the countryside came to work in the plants for a couple of years, saved money, and went home.

The work was tough and tedious, but the plant manager did his utmost to provide the best working conditions he could, and the workers knew it. You could tell from the way they were looking at him.

The employee turnover rate at this plant was 11%/year, compared to about 40% for the other maquiladoras in the neighborhood.

See on www.idatix.com