...Unit 5: The Treadway tire company: Job dissatisfaction and high turnover at the Lima tire plant Strategic Human Resources Management April 20, 2014 Case Study Unit 5: The Treadway tire company: Job dissatisfaction and high turnover at the Lima tire plant Case Study Unit 5: Prepare a case analysis on the topic of Traditional versus Strategic HRM and Its Effectiveness for Organizational Success. Case Analysis Criteria: Your Case Analysis should consist of: * A brief analysis of the situation and pending-decision problem, as presented in the case, and as relevant to your answer. This should be exceptionally brief and you should assume the person reading the Assignment is familiar with the details of the case. * Identification of the major issues surrounding the organization or individuals involved with the organization. * Identification of alternate courses of action to address the issues identified. * The decision or recommendation for action, with the appropriate supporting arguments. * The Case Question is designed to guide the direction of your analysis in the case. Your analysis should address and ultimately answer the question. Analysis: The tire plant in Lima is going through some rough time as its profits and margins are declining due because of the rising cost of raw materials and also due to intense global competition. Not much can be done with the increasing cost of raw materials but to reduce the overall company’s cost, Lima is using...
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...BECKHAM op yo The Treadway Tire Company: Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant tC “We have a serious problem.” The words of Brandon Bellingham, the plant manager at Treadway’s Lima, Ohio, Tire Plant, rang in Ashley Wall’s ears. She had just attended a tense meeting where she had presented the projected year-end turnover figures for the plant. Out of a total of 50 foremen at the Lima facility, 23 of these positions had turned over in 2007. Ashley Wall had transferred to the Lima Plant as Director of Human Resources when Treadway’s plant in Greenville, South Carolina, had closed down in 2006. She was a seasoned human resources professional with over 10 years of experience at Treadway. Wall knew the turnover rate of foremen was higher at Lima than at other plants in the division; reversing this trend was her top priority. It was now November 28, 2007—approximately one month before Christmas. The plant would be closed from Christmas to New Year’s for retooling and annual maintenance. By the time the plant reopened in January 2008, Wall intended to complete a thorough analysis of the problem and a plan of action to correct it. The Treadway Tire Company employed almost 9,000 hourly and salaried staff in North America. The company was a major supplier of tires to the original equipment manufacturer1 and replacement tire markets, selling Treadway Primo, Treadway Performance, and private tire brands. The Lima Tire Plant was one of eight manufacturing...
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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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...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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...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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...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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...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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...In this case, there were many problems within the Treadway Tire Lima factory plant. All of the problems were caused by the inefficient system that was in place. Most of the lower level leaders within the company were either under trained or not trained at all. Three things that could have been done to fix the system would be an organized training system within Treadway Tire, less pressure on the foreman and supervisors for immediate results on things that were outside their control, and shorter shifts. If Treadway Tire implements an organized training program, the supervisors and managers won’t have to come up with everything on their own. It will eliminate the sink or swim mentality forced on the foreman and supervisors. The training should have the following important aspects: 1. Plant operations 2. Interactions between Treadway Tire employees and Union Workers 3. Proper disciplinary actions for employees 4. Areas for personal management education and advancement In starting an organized training program, the initial training would have to happen right away for all management from foreman to managers. The initial training would help all of the leaders to be on the same page. After the initial training, it would be important to have a refresher training course every six months to a year so that the leaders would know what they could and couldn’t do. As the training program continued, the foreman and supervisors would be asked for feedback and the training program could...
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...Works Councils (Finkin, & Kochan, 2014). This program allows employees to share their work to reduce working hours rather than allow management to lay off employees at the company. On the other hand, Southwest Airlines, and Kaiser Permanente tailored programs specific to fit their individual company needs (Finkin, & Kochan, 2014). Lima Tire Company, a subsidiary of Treadway Tire Company was having issues with high operational cost and high turnover among foremen. Although the programs that were designed to control labor relations for the company; they were not effective as the company hoped. The company still faced the issue of a dysfunctional organization (Skinner, & Beckham, 2008). So, what are some of the strategies utilized by U.S. union free organizations today and why is it critical to the success of an organization to meet its goals and mission? This paper presents a summary of Lima Tire Company, a non-unionized organization, provides an alternative to handling its major problems, and provides a recommendation to help with the major issues. Brief Case Overview By the opening of the Lima Tire Plant in January 2008, Ashley Wall, the current Director of Human Resources has to devise plans that will correct several serious problems the company faced. Currently the HR Director saw an increased turnover rate among foremen, lack of training, skyrocketing raw material cost, global competition, productivity...
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...Introduction: Ashley Wall the director of Treadway’s plant located in Lima, Ohio who is previously the Human Resource manager would like to correct a problem of high turnover rate of foremen reported by her plant manager Brandon Bellingham before the plant re-opens for New Year, 2008 closed for re-tooling (Skinner & 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...
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...Organizational Behavior Case Analysis: The Treadway Tire Company: Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant Abstract This analysis focuses on the Treadway Tire Company’s efforts to reduce costs and increase productivity. However some of their strategies had backfired especially in their plant in Lima where it had all of the necessary resources & technology available to clout a strategy. However they were struggling with strong job dissatisfaction and high turnover among its line foremen. The director of human resources Ashley Wall must work quickly to reduce the turnover of the line foreman segment by analyzing the root cause(s) of the problem and provide the company with an effective action plan to solve the current situation. The problem requires a reconsideration of the company’s philosophy that guides workforce management and developing an efficient, healthier organizational culture that will result higher employee satisfaction at the Lima plant. Introduction Treadway Tire’s Lima Plant is faced with a serious problem of employee dissatisfaction and high turnover among its line foremen. The turnover rate ran 46% in 2007. Additionally, the plant was facing with rapid increase in the cost of raw materials and arising global competition. The plant, at Lima, Ohio, had 970 unionized hourly employees and 150 salaried employees. 50 Line foremen were floor level managers who supervised hourly employees. The plant operates 24x7, with four rotating shifts...
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...HBS: The Treadway Tire Company: Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant by Wickham Skinner and Heather Beckham In the above case written by Skinner and Beckham the high turnover rates of the Treadway Tire Company Lima Plant’s Line Foreman have become a problem for a plant that had the potential per the article to be one of Treadway’s top producers. Ashley Wall, the Lima plant’s human resource manager believed, “once the turnover problem was solved, Lima could become Treadway’s number one plant for productivity and its lowest cost producer in North America.” This article was truly interesting as it is a great example of what can go wrong even in the most modern and technologically savvy business environments; essentially Treadway spent tons of money on making its building nice, but did not invest enough in its people. The Line Foremen found themselves in non-union positions, responsible for ever-growing production quotas, untrained managers responsible for personnel issues, and administrative tasks. They held most of the responsibility and had little authority; as personnel issues with their crews of hourly workers were handled by the unions. Treadway did little to train the people in this position to deal the high stress environment and found itself faced with high turnover numbers in this pivotal position- a clear hindrance to the modernized Lima plant taking a number slot in productivity. Additionally, the line foremen found themselves without support...
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...Case Analysis Dustin Dabney The Treadway Tire Company Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at Lima Tire Plant Objective Ashley Wall, Director Human Resources for one of the plants of The Treadway Tire Company situated in Lima has to submit an effective plan to resolve the issues that are faced in the plant and are impacting the productivity and efficiency of the plant. The major issues to focus here are: ➢ Increase in Employee Turnover resulting into High Cost of Production ➢ No Induction pathway/ plan Case Analysis Briefing The tire plant at Lima is passing through a tough situation as margins and profits have abruptly decreased due to skyrocketing raw material cost and intense global competition. Although there is nothing much that can be done of increasing raw material costs, however the overall costs can be definitely reduced by reducing the employee turnover. As per the facts there are major morale issues in the line-foreman and hourly workers segment and this disease spreading in the entire plant. Now, there are several reasons at fundamental level that have resulted into this high employee turnover: ➢ Employee un-satisfaction The tried and tested approach of management by the line foreman focussed on getting the work done by the workers by hook or by crook. This resulted in decreasing morale of the workers because of unfavourable working environment. The line foreman was not having any authority over the workers, as...
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...A Diagnostic Analysis of the Lima Tire Plant Sabrina D. Foster American Military University Abstract This paper will provide a diagnostic report of the Lima Tire Plant. There are many problems within this company, and without them being properly addressed the company will continue to lose employees and production will continue to drop. The main problems that I see within this company are high turnover of the line foremen due to production and morale, training within the company. I will attempt to analyze these areas through the different metaphors we have studied over the past seven weeks. I will also provide possible recommendations and solutions that may help get the company back on the right track to success. A Diagnostic Analysis of the Lima Tire Plant The Treadway Tire Company employed almost 9,000 hourly and salaried staff in North America. The Lima Tire Plant, located in Lima, Ohio, is one of eight manufacturing plants operated by the Treadway Tire Company. (Skinner and Beckham, 2008, p. 1) In 2007, The Lima Tire Plant produced approximately 25,000 passenger and light truck tires per day. The plant encompassed about 1.5 million square feet on 128 acres of land. About 1,120 people were employed at the plant – 970 were hourly employees and 150 were salaried. The hourly personnel at the plant were unionized by the United Steel Workers,...
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...Title Case analysis question: What are the strategies used by U.S. companies today to keep them union-free and why is it critical to the success of an organization in meeting its goals and mission? Introduction: This week case analysis, Treadway Tire Company’s presents a great topic of discussion for everyone and a possible open channel to further study unions and the cause and effect within the work force. As we review in-depth the case of Treadway Tire Company, it provides an opportunity for the reader to ask several key important questions like what are the strategies used by U.S. companies today to keep them union-free and why is it critical to the success of any organization in meeting its goals and mission? Clearly this paper focuses on those issues and show how the Treadway Tire Company’s efforts to curtail the rising cost of doing business in the tire manufacturing industry suffered, while having to deal with multiple growing union and employee issues, that cripple and destroy the organization ultimately failing its goals. Look pass Treadway Tire: In order to better understand the problem we need to step back and take a better in-depth look at the overall picture. First and foremost, why were unions created, previously I prepared a paper about the labor movement in the United States and how it gained its humble beginnings in 1768. How it fought and struck a good blow for the worker by protesting wage reduction. Since then, the fight for fair wages and decent...
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