...& Beckham, 2008). Background: Treadway Tire Company is one of the illustrious tire manufacturing companies with almost 9,000 staff who work either hourly or salaried. With updated equipment and technology the Treadway’s branch at Lima has became top in quality and productivity. By continuous operation and doing long shifts the company achieved cost savings but lost employee satisfaction (Skinner & Beckham, 2008). Problem: The line foremen often experience conflicts in all directions from management, hourly workers and union causing fretfulness and low morale. Lack of training and the stress due to long shifts makes their daily jobs more challenging (Skinner & Beckham, 2008). Opportunities: The firm should breakdown their long 12hr shifts to 8hr shifts, heir the newly graduated students and train them to handle any sort of issues. The supervisors should motivate their team members and improve their performance (Skinner & Beckham, 2008). Recommendation: Implementation of Positive KITA motivational methods and enriching the job with motivational factors like achievement, recognition, challenge, and advancement ameliorate the employee satisfaction and performance (Herzberg, 2003). Periodical training with the recent technologies will keep the employees updated and lessen the juggling in decision makings. Conclusion: Implementing all the above recommendations will reduce the turnover rate issue faced by the Treadway Company at Lima branch. References:...
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...Case Study: Treadway Tire Company 1 Case Study: Treadway Tire Company Case Study: Treadway Tire Company S. LaDuew GB520: Strategic Human Resource Management Case Study: Treadway Tire Company 2 Treadway Tire Company When Ashley Wall had just finished attending a meeting at work, the plant manager Brandon Bellingham stated “we have a serious problem” (Skinner & Beckham, 2008, p.1). Wall had just presented the figures for the plants projected turnover rates for foremen the year ending in 2007. Bellingham was not happy because they had 50 foremen at their Lima Plant and in 2007 23 of those positions were turned over. When the Treadway plant closed in Greenville, South Carolina in 2006 Ashley Wall was transferred to the plant in Lima where her position was going to be the Director of Human Resources, since she already had over 10 years of work experience in the Human Resource department with Treadway Company. Wall had decided to make it her top priority to do what she could to reduce the foremen turnover rate at the Lima Plant since it had the highest foremen turnover rate out of all of the other Treadway plants in their division. Wall planned...
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...Executive Summary The Treadway Tire Company operates many different plants throughout North America that manufacture and sell tires to a variety of markets. The plant located in Lima, Ohio is currently experiencing high turnover rates among line foremen and Ashley Wall, Director of Human Resources, has made it a priority to solve the problem. To deal with an increased workload, the plant runs continuous operations, requiring employees on site 24 hours a day. There are 50 line foremen at the Lima plant that supervise the hourly personnel and maintain daily operations. Out of these 50 foremen, 23 positions turned over in the current year. This, nearly 50% turnover rate, made it clear that something needed to change in order to retain workers. Line foremen deal with a variety of job duties during each 12 hour shift. They are faced with everything from personal problems to maintenance issues, all while attempting to appease the hourly workers and general managers. The stress and frustration placed on the foremen has taken its toll on employee morale and company production. The company recognizes a need for formal training to combat the problems with the foremen position, but the plant lacks the financial resources to implement this idea. As an alternative, it is recommended that the plant implement an employee mentorship and training program to help aide line foremen in their roles. Losing and replacing employees is time consuming and costly, making it imperative that they...
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...During 2007 the Treadway Tire Company had produced approximately 25,000 passenger and light truck tires per day. About 1,120 people were employed at the Lima, Ohio location; 970 hourly and 150 were salary. The Lima Plant undergone $100 million dollar expansion and modernization which enabled the plant to increase capacity and utilize new manufacturing technology. Due to the modernization Lima had become one of the company top plants for productivity and quality ratings. In 2006 Treadway closed its Greensville, South Carolina plant, which were plagued by outdated equipment, and move all its volume to the Lima location. As a result Lima shifted to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with four rotating shifts. Most employees work 12 hour shifts. The hourly production employees were supervised by 50 salaried line foreman. The foreman role was the largest at Lima; they were involved in the three phases of rubber component preparation, tire assembly, and curing/final finish. Line foreman also had to manage union and administration procedures. They documented employee disciplinary action and negotiated work standards with union reps. At the end of their shifts foreman spent time scheduling hourly employees, approving vacation requests, checking time sheets and solving payroll issues. Morale was a problem at the Lima Plant. Out of 50 line foreman 23 had turnover in 2007 at the Lima Plant. An employee satisfaction survey was conducted in 2007 and exit interviews of departing...
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...Transcript of Case study 2: The Treadway Tire Company Case Study 2 The Treadway Tire Company: Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant -The IT company in this movie has a terrible employee organization, as well as over pressured managers who tend to hassle lower employees, which causes main Character Peter Gibbons to be highly unsatisfied with his job and sabotage the company -Retail and Restaurant industry has some of the highest turnover rates. But the retail stores and restaurants that fully train their employees, are flexible and institute a culture that fosters loyalty are the ones that most overcome job dissatisfaction - Balance hiring policy by adhering to 60% internal hires, 30%college graduates & 10% company transfers - Implement rotating 8 hour shifts instead of 12 hour shifts - Re-institure the month long rotational training program for foremen - As they learn new task they gain higher pay so this month long training doesn't cost company too much - Start an internship program that brings in potential employees without having to pay them unless they are offered a full-time job -Assign area managers as formal mentors to expose foremen to the key processes in the plant as well as inform them on authority and Union issues -Then routinely assess job satisfaction and be ready to change plan when necessary Works Cited How to Keep Your Best Employees: Developing an Effective Retention Policy [and Executive Commentary] Terence R. Mitchell, Brooks...
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...The Treadway Tire Company Case Study Introduction The Treadway Tire Company in Lima, Ohio is faced with rather difficult times. These difficulties however are not due to lack of work with a down recession, or even too much demand and not enough capacity to fill it. These issues are deep within the company and effect the organization very seriously every day. Every company of course has issues but in the case of The Treadway Tire Company these are problems that have been haunting them and continuously increasing their turnover rate for consecutive years. Dissatisfaction from one key position in the company is taking a serious toll on the daily operations of the company and causing performance and output to suffer because of it .If the Treadway Tire Company does not begin to make some changes and get a grasp on these major issues then they will begin to see the effects of these problems on their bottom line. In order to make these changes Treadway must first identify what the key issues are and develop an action plan on how to fix these and prevent them from happening in the future. The two major problems that seem to be continuously occurring are 1.) The lack in overall communication throughout all levels of the organization and 2.) The delegation of power and discipline within the company. Finding solutions to these issues is the next major concern for this company and will help them get the plant back...
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...QUESTIONS: 1) What is the relationship between line foreman at Treadway’s Lima Plant and other groups within the plant : General supervisors and areas managers, top management, the union, hourly workers, each other? Treadway Tire Company is one of the largest producers of tires. The Lima plant located at Lima in Ohio had 1,120 employees. 970 of them were hourly employees and 150 were salaried employees. They work in 12-hour shifts. Line foremen are salaried floor level managers who supervise hourly employees. 970 hourly workers were supervised by 50 line foremen. Line foremen didn’t have good relationship with hourly workers. They expressed concerns about their lack of authority and adversarial relations with the hourly workers. Several incidents highlighted tension between hourly workers and line foremen. Line foremen were supervised by 13 general supervisors. Line foremen are endowed with lot of responsibilities. General supervisors abused and threatened the line foremen with poor performance review if they are unable to meet the forecasted performance. This indicates poor relationship between them. The responsibilities of the line foremen include documenting the employee disciplinary actions and negotiating the work standards with union reps. The union reps on grievance committee sometimes provides cleared record the hourly employee without providing any explanations to the line foremen. There isn’t much...
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...* The second problem for The Treadway Tire Company is the lack of good leadership approach. The first source of this problem is the failure of management to provide adequate training to foremen. Whenever a foreman joins the company, he only receives informal training at the discretion of the general supervisor and area manager. One of the general supervisor, Herb Adams, is reported to have said that he tell guys to take control to survive on the plant floor and keep their eyes open for the trouble makers. The managers want the foremen to adopt the old tied-and-true management like they did in old days. This is an example of Laissez-fare leadership style which is characterized by having very little guidance from managers, complete freedom for followers (foremen) to make decisions and is expected to solve problems on their own. Notice that laissez fare only works best when the followers (foremen) have the necessary skills and knowledge to complete their task. This is a major challenge for foremen who are expected to perform best without having the mandatory training to enhance their skills and knowledge. The absence of proper training leads to job dissatisfaction. Exhibit 5 shows the Sample Exit Interview filled out by a line foreman, which states the clear reason for leaving job is job dissatisfaction. He also described that his supervisor would just say “Do it” without having received any training on how to do the job. This also leads to low morale in foremen and they were less...
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...Treadway Tire’s Lima Plant in Lima, Ohio is faced with having to confront strong job dissatisfaction of their employees, as well as high turnover among its line foremen. Aside from the turnover rate being 46% in 2007, the plant also was facing expensive costs for raw materials, and hardcore global competition. Problems having to do with the foremen are not only part of deeper concerns with workforce management, but also stem from being the role that those people play in the process of production. The foremen are caught in between the union and management, and must find a balance between the adversarial relationship, most likely by coping with the needs and interests of both at hand. This can be considered as an immediate problem. As for a long-term problem, the HR director at Lima Plant, Ashley Wall, believes the cause of turnover is from serious morale issues with line-foramen segment and their resulting job dissatisfaction. An objective of the case, and motivation to fix to industry comes from fixing its turnover rate. The plant could focus to reduce costs and increase productivity in this area, specifically. Aside from job dissatisfaction, Treadway Tire’s Lima Plant is faced with a serious problem of high turnover among its line foremen, in which about half of those leaving their positions were leaving voluntarily, and the rest were being asked to leave after “failing”. Therefore, these workers are being faced with limited opportunity for career advancement. To resolve the...
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...This case study examines the Lima Tire Plant of Treadway Tires, specifically the high turnover rate and expressed job dissatisfaction of the plant’s line foremen. The Line foreman supervise 12 hour shifts and are responsible for a wide variety of the day in day out functions of the manufacturing line. They are also responsible for the work of the hourly waged, unionized workers. The line foreman are the lowest ranked management position in the company and are held directly responsible for meeting quotas over which they have no control in setting. The line foreman also lack control in being able to set and enforce work standards due to union interference, and lack of support from management. There is almost no training given to the line foreman and many of the people holding this position lack formal, college educations. Ashley Wall, Director of Human Resources, is charged with solving this problem. Ashely acknowledges that a problem exists and had developed a training plan for the line foreman that would allow them to observe in the Payroll and Human Resources department in order to become more familiar with time sheets, paychecks, union contracts and disciplinary issues; however this program was never funded due to a cost cutting mandate. There are some big problems in Lima. Among the most urgent to be solved in order to reduce turnover and increase job satisfaction are to mend the schism between workers, middle management and executive management, and to develop a system...
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...Treadway Tire Company Case Study Background Treadway Tire Company is a major North American supplier of tires to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and replacement tire markets. They currently manufacture Treadway Primo, Treadway Performance, and other private tire brands. Treadway’s Lima Tire Plant, based out of Lima, Ohio is considered one of the company’s top plants for productivity and quality ratings. A continuous operations plant – operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week with four rotating shifts – the Lima Plant produced approximately 25,000 tires per day in 2007 alone. There are over 1100 employees at the Lima Plant location – 970 hourly and 150 salaried. The hourly employees are unionized by the United Steelworkers (USW) and are directly supervised by the salaried line foremen. The foremen possess a large bulk of the responsibilities at Lima, supervising all phases of production and quality assurance work as well as dealing with a variety of personnel, resource and administrative duties. They are often pulled in conflicting directions by the hourly employees, the union regulations and upper management. According to Brandon Bellingham, the plant manager at Lima, “Meeting performance goals is the most important duty of the line foremen.” However, the lack of proper training does not allow the foremen to successfully handle situations causing them intense pressure and a feeling of inadequacy. In the past year, the Lima Plant has experienced a...
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...The Treadway Case September 11, 2014 Relationship between line foremen at Treadway’s Lima Plant and other groups within the plant: general supervisors and area manager, top management, the union, hourly workers, and each other. The relationship between the Treadway’s Lima Plant foremen and other groups within the plant can only be described as insanity. One could easily say that insanity is repeating the same behavior over and over again and expecting a different result. The line foremen are required to work 12 hour shifts, solve a multitude of personnel, resource, and administrative issues and still meet daily production goals. Now add a union environment, no formal training for foremen, no chance of upward mobility, and a lack of communication between management (foremen, general supervisors and area managers), and you end up with a high turnover rate. According to the Plant manager, “Meeting performance goals is the most important duty of a line foreman.” This statement has caused the foreman to only focus on line metrics. Foremen have been threatened with poor performance reviews if production numbers are not met. This behavior has created a hostile work environment and isolated the foremen from the rest of the plant. They feel that their contributions are undervalued and their concerns ignored. There is no formal training process in place to familiarize foremen with the different aspects of their role within the plant. There was a month-long rotational training...
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...Foreman Turnover Improvement Plan Treadway Tire Company Lima, Ohio Plant Spring Semester, April 24, 2014 April 24, 2014 Treadway Tire Plant, Lima, Ohio Foreman Turnover Improvement Plan Treadway Tire Company Lima, Ohio Plant Spring Semester, April 24, 2014 April 24, 2014 Treadway Tire Plant, Lima, Ohio ------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents Overview……………………………………………2 Objective…………………………………………...3 Findings……………………………………………..3 Solutions/recommendations………………4 conclusion………………………………………..10 Referneces……………………………………….11 Treadway Tire Plant, Lima, Ohio Foreman Turnover Improvement Plan Overview The Treadway Tire Plant, located in Lima, Ohio, has a unionized workforce of 970 hourly employees’ and150 salaried employees. The hourly line-production employees are supervised by salaried and non-union line foreman. Directly above the 50 line foreman are 13 general supervisors who manage several line segments. Lima’s five area managers are responsible for everyone in their sector, including the hourly tire team, the line foreman, and the general supervisors. Oversight of the entire site is the responsibility of a single plant manager, Brandon Bellingham. In the past, the Lima plant has had great reputation for being one of Treadway’s top plants for productivity and quality. In 2000, The Treadway Tire Company made a significant $100 million capital investment in the expansion and modernization...
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...Comments on an article subtitled Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant, from Harvard Business Publishing, June 12, 2008, by Skinner and Beckham. This case study was of a tire manufacturing plant in Lima, Ohio and the study focused on the negative working conditions that existed for the line foremen and the consequent high turnover problem. Some of the Problems and Symptoms: Foremen were pulled in conflicting directions by hourly staff, management and union. They did not get respect from any of the three constituencies. Foremen had too many responsibilities yet not enough authority to effectively deal with them. They needed to do lots of juggling with daily personnel, resource and administrative issues. They felt unsupported by upper management and felt that felt their locus of control was external (which in large part it was). They had little disciplinary power and had to go through the union and often had no explanation of the union’s actions with regard to deciding to discipline or not. Lack of training. Foremen were thrust into a sink or swim situation with little guidance and little preparation. Most did not have college degrees and without training or educational background many probably lacked the skills necessary to navigate the job. The system all but set them up for failure. Emotions and attitudes are contagious. The symptom, dissatisfaction, of the foremen spread to other employees exacerbating and exponentially growing problems that...
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...Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the Problem – Evelyn Sanders 1 In the video Ashley and John identified the issues at Treadway Tire Company as being low morale among workers, the rising cost of raw materials and line foremen turnover rate. I did identify the same issues as Ashley and John did in the Treadway case, however, I did identify to other issues not identified by Ashley and John. One organization issue is that one plant manager is not enough personnel to properly oversee a plant of 9000 hourly workers. I also see a 12 hour shift and the calling in sick by workers as an indication of burnout by workers. It was a mistake not to identify the long worker hours of employees as a possible issue. Ashley is on track with identifying the three main issues at Treadway. These are obvious and stated issues (Howard Business Review 2008). Ashley is also on the right track because she had done some research using Good to Great as a bases for ideas on confronting the issues before her. She is also confronting the brutal facts about the issues Treadway is facing no matter how difficult they are to face. The key aspects of the situation at Treadway have been included in Ashley’s conversation with John, with additional thoughts about what other data needs to be gathered to help analyze the issues she is facing. To analyze the key issues at Treadway, and come up with an action plan, Ashley should use employee exit interviews as a data collection means, face-to-face employee...
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