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The Lima Tire Plant of Treadway Tires

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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 of communication that fairly addresses quotas, complaints, suggestions for improvement and morale. In order to begin this process, it is imperative that Executive management recruits middle management and the hourly workers in developing a communicating a purpose of why they are all there working and why they work together in the way they do. Hourly workers need a clear understanding, in

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