October 1997
Articles 1996
Baldrige Winner Continues To Grow Kaizen
Events: Two Weeks To Dramatic Process Improvement Electronic Monitoring: There's No Place Like Home When
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Question & Backgound: Falconbridge Ltd. is an underground nickel/copper producer located in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. This operation employs 2100 people of which 1400 production and maintenance employees are CAW/ Mine Mill members and 300 are office, technical and clerical employees including supervisors. My background is on the engineering/operation side and presently I'm involved in a joint union/company initiative with the steelworkers to introduce a work restructuring, using a participative design process, and applying a Pay for Knowledge compensation package to the self directed work groups. My question relates to the role of the supervisor. Falconbridge is a traditional organization with the supervisors' role being the coordination of his/her employees on a day-to-day basis. A key question has arisen as to what is the new role of the supervisor/coach/leader? The self-directed work groups will take over a number of the day-to-day duties so what will be the new role? How is this new role established? If less supervisors are needed what becomes of the others? What's the best way to include supervisors in the change process? How do you get them on board rather than being a major roadblock to the process? |
