My good friend Gerry Raubach of Industrial Solutions Inc. based in Tulsa has implemented many Measurable Management programs with his clients over the past 6 years. This week he completed a pilot program for Gabriel Ride Control a manufacturer of shock absorbers. Below is the email that Gerry sent to me yesterday.
"Robin,
We conducted the report-out at Gabriel yesterday and the results were spectacular. Lisa Bahash, CEO and James Neeley, CFO were in attendance from Michigan as well as the whole top management team from the local plant. We also had Mike Raymond of the Oklahoma Alliance in attendance.
The 8 students all presented excellent powerPoint reports using a standard Gabriel reporting format. Each student had completed 3 ideas for action. The cumulative total savings reported was over $800,000 on an annual basis. One student had implemented an idea in their department that was going to yield $164,000 in hard cash savings. Another student had figured out a new arrangement of machines in the rod department that would reduce the staffing from 7 people to 4 with an annual cost savings of $93,000. It went on like this for 3 hours of presentations.
What was particularly impressive about this whole situation was the fact that we undertook this engagement in the most risky situation I could imagine. The plant had been through great turmoil over the past several years, being threatened with closure. The workforce was made up of over 70% temporary contract employees. In fact, I had warned the management team that we had never conducted Measurable Management in such and environment. The participants were extremely pessimistic at the outset that we could do anything to improve morale or much less, move forward with improvement initiatives with a workforce that was apathetic. Nevertheless, we agreed to proceed and see if the program could be successful in this situation. I am pleased to report that not only did we get the measurable results noted above, but we saw a turnaround in the culture that was even more remarkable. The participants all affirmed that the tools they learned proved to be effective with all employees, temporary and permanent. In addition, they saw a decided improvement in morale as the employees saw management's commitment to the future being evidenced by the conducting of the program itself. What we learned from this experience is that the tools of measurable management are truly effective in creating culture change, when coupled with a total commitment by top management. Gabriel is facing a much improved future outlook as a result of measurable management.
Gerry "
We conducted the report-out at Gabriel yesterday and the results were spectacular. Lisa Bahash, CEO and James Neeley, CFO were in attendance from Michigan as well as the whole top management team from the local plant. We also had Mike Raymond of the Oklahoma Alliance in attendance.
The 8 students all presented excellent powerPoint reports using a standard Gabriel reporting format. Each student had completed 3 ideas for action. The cumulative total savings reported was over $800,000 on an annual basis. One student had implemented an idea in their department that was going to yield $164,000 in hard cash savings. Another student had figured out a new arrangement of machines in the rod department that would reduce the staffing from 7 people to 4 with an annual cost savings of $93,000. It went on like this for 3 hours of presentations.
What was particularly impressive about this whole situation was the fact that we undertook this engagement in the most risky situation I could imagine. The plant had been through great turmoil over the past several years, being threatened with closure. The workforce was made up of over 70% temporary contract employees. In fact, I had warned the management team that we had never conducted Measurable Management in such and environment. The participants were extremely pessimistic at the outset that we could do anything to improve morale or much less, move forward with improvement initiatives with a workforce that was apathetic. Nevertheless, we agreed to proceed and see if the program could be successful in this situation. I am pleased to report that not only did we get the measurable results noted above, but we saw a turnaround in the culture that was even more remarkable. The participants all affirmed that the tools they learned proved to be effective with all employees, temporary and permanent. In addition, they saw a decided improvement in morale as the employees saw management's commitment to the future being evidenced by the conducting of the program itself. What we learned from this experience is that the tools of measurable management are truly effective in creating culture change, when coupled with a total commitment by top management. Gabriel is facing a much improved future outlook as a result of measurable management.
Gerry "
