Treadway Tire Company

Sudhir Lanka

Varun Kaundinya
Srivardhan Kurly Veerendra Pappoppula

From the case, we can notice that the Lima plant of the Tread way tire company had many issues within the organization. The plant at Greenville, South Carolina was shut down because of the outdated equipment and the produce was shifted to the Lima plant which has resulted in even more problems created among the workers and the management. Other challenges being faced by the company included high raw material costs and the competition from other companies. The main cause for the turnover among the line foremen was the job dissatisfaction which had to be resolved in order to gain a better output. Almost 46% of the foremen were leaving the company voluntarily and few of them were asked to resign due to their inefficiency at the job.

Analysis of the present scenario at Lima plant:

The line foremen had a very difficult daily task to be performed, and they were not rewarded nor recognized for the amount of effort they put in daily at their duties.

The foremen were expected to satisfy the needs of both the management and the union, given the broken relationship between them both.

They had many responsibilities but not enough authority to get the job done. In times of a conflict with an hourly employee the foremen did not have any disciplinary power and the employee had to raise a grievance for the issue to be solved with the employee union.

They did not get much support from the superiors and had to take care of every issue themselves. The supervisors did not provide any sort of training to the foremen and expected them to perform their daily task to their complete satisfaction. Most of the foremen did not have any college degrees, so they lacked the ability to face the managerial issues.

Reducing the number of shifts from three 8hr to two-12hr shifts resulted in the hourly employees not showing up for work at time regularly and the foremen had to find a suitable replacement spontaneously. Increasing the shift timings has reduced the number of workers and in turn has decreased the cost of labor, but this has become one of the major reasons for the huge turnover among the line foremen as their job had become harder to manage.

The relationship between the foremen and union workers was very fragile. The foremen were kept in dark about the grievances raised by the hourly employees and they had no say in the disciplinary decisions against the employee.

Line foremen had a daily goal to be met and the supervisors had nothing to ask other than why the task has not been completed. The supervisors and area managers were very demanding if the forecasted output was not met and the foremen received a poor performance review.

The foremen candidate pool consisted of 80% internal hires, 16% were young college graduates and 4% were experienced transferred foremen from other plants. The young graduates and internal hires were not clear about their responsibilities and they were put in a situation where they have to either swim or sink.

Possible solutions to the above mentioned problem:

The hired foremen need to have proper guidance and receive proper support from their superiors on how the job needs to be done and how the goals need to be met. The company should be able to see the long term benefits of the training program rather than

thinking about the present budget and deciding not to have any training which has proved to be fatal to the company, and resulted in a huge turnover of the foremen. There is a huge communication gap between the employees and management. Different kinds of sessions have to be arranged in order that the employees can raise their objections and requirements. This kind of environment can be very beneficial for the company in the long term. The superiors need to encourage the employees to take their jobs seriously and help identify any existing problems and rectify them. They should coordinate with the foremen on a daily or weekly basis to discuss and learn the issues being faced by them and also suggest any improvements. It is advisable that the management put less amount of pressure on foremen or supervisors so that they can perform up to their full capacity. Adding more resources to the foremen or dividing their responsibilities among other individuals would be helpful so that the foremen can focus more on the issues that affect the productivity. The management cannot expect the foremen to perform to their full capacity without providing them with the adequate resources. Building up the pressure on the foremen in such situations can result in high turnover rates and inturn resulting losses for the management. Long shift timings have posed a serious threat, wherein the hourly workers skipped the work which causes the foremen to search for a substitute immediately. Shift time needs to be reduced to 8 hours per day so that the employees will be able to lead a healthy work style and produce better results. The number of employees who show up late to the work can be reduced by implementing this policy which simplifies the foremens job.

As mentioned in the case line foremen do not have much authority over hourly employees and their work schedule. The upper management should make sure that foremen know about their rights so that they will be able to perform their duties effectively.

As suggested by Ashley Wall the hiring policy should be revised so that there will be 60% internal hires, 30% college graduates and 10% experienced company transfers.

Having a good composition of different people with different backgrounds will provide a better environment for foremen to discuss their work issues with other people, gain experience and be eligible for taking up a managerial position.

Area managers should be able to gauge the attitude of foremen and supervisors and should make necessary changes to make sure that they are satisfied with their jobs. This will help the management in understanding the issues being faced by the foremen and provide better support to them. It will develop a healthy relationship between upper and lower levels which in turn will reduce the number of foremen leaving the company voluntarily. This will boost the morale among the foremen which will help increase the productivity of the company.