Seventeen years ago Bill Vogel left his position as vice president of sales and marketing at MSL Steel, a diversified metal fabricator, to take over Decardy Diecasting, a Chicago-based manufacturer of zinc and lead die cast parts. While he felt his past experiences had prepared him well to run his own business, he knew there would be surprises. One of the first things he noticed upon becoming the company's CEO was that the front line employees rarely spoke directly to management. "Decardy is a union shop," recalls Vogel, "and the first time I approached someone on the floor, he ran off to get the shop steward. I had never experienced anything quite like it."
The manufacturing sector has been under intense pressure for the last three decades, placing a premium on productivity and safety, and Vogel knew that his company could not survive without changing the way his people interacted with management and each other. This meant creating an environment of trust and open communication, so he set about reinventing Decardy's culture.
Vogel's first change was to open the lines of communication with his employees and tell them how their performance impacted the company. He instituted an employee orientation to familiarize employees with their ISO 9000 quality system, key safety measures and what was expected of them. Today, the orientation also includes a discussion of training programs and career paths within the organization.
Decardy began training employees on how to read the company's financials and started sharing key figures with them. The company helps employees internalize the financials by setting short-term production goals and rewarding the entire staff with a bonus when they are met. The bonus is the same for everyone and impacts the lowest level employees more than the highest.
Decardy runs a time-sensitive manufacturing operation and attendance has a tremendous impact on the company's success. The company communicates the importance of attendance by keeping a running total of absences in the employees' pay checks and covering the issue during performance reviews. Most importantly, employees are recognized for perfect attendance. By communicating to each employee how important they are to Decardy's success and recognizing top performers, the company has managed to sustain a remarkable absenteeism and tardiness level of under 1 percent. Vogel says that this not only improves productivity but safety as employees are not rushing to meet deadlines or overworked covering for their peers.
The company reviews errors with employees on an individual basis through what it calls "letters of discussion." These are not meant to be punitive, but instructive. Mistakes are reviewed with the individual who in turn goes over the error with his peers in a training session. Positive letters of discussion help to document innovative uses of equipment and are followed up with a training session to help other workers learn these best practices.
Decardy places a premium on learning and development. The company provides employees with a number of training opportunities by partnering with local community colleges and industry associations. The goal: to improve their operation and help employees move up within the organization.
"Most small companies are bad at developing their people," says Vogel. "They're afraid that they'll spend money and their people will go get a better job elsewhere." Vogel argues that by providing his employees with a career path he has actually boosted retention, while training has allowed him to maximize the company's human resources. Decardy's retention numbers support this argument. The average tenure is 10.2 years, well above the industry average.
Plant manager Sam Heredia began with the company as an entry level machinist or what the company calls an operator 3rd class. He took full advantage of the learning opportunities Decardy provides, working his way up to his current supervisory role. "Decardy has been very supportive in helping me move into the plant manager position," says Heredia who has been with the company for 17 years.
Today, Decardy is obviously a different place from the company Vogel took over in 1986. In fact, the change is evident throughout the facility. The entranceway is adorned with employees' certificates of continuing education. The shop floor includes a bulletin board that details the company's key financials, short-term goals and safety record. Both the shop floor and the office are open spaces designed to promote communication between workers and management. A break room adjacent to the shop floor doubles as a training and meeting room. Most importantly, front line employees are no longer wary of speaking with management. "The management team is very humble and nice about dealing with employees," says shipping and receiving clerk Gentry Watson. "This is a very nice place to work."
Company: Decardy Diecasting
Web site: www.decardy.com
Industry: Die casting
Location: Chicago, Ill.
Number of employees: N/A
Sales: N/A
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