Gramaisc said:
The workforce is a tool that is used to provide dividends for the shareholders.
Withnail said:
It is, however, very easy to fall into the mindset that says you're lucky to have a job. One could just as easily say they are lucky to have you.
If you don't protect what you've got it gets taken away from you quicker. If you resist you can stall it or maybe even stop it, c'est la vie.
What Stafford has in the Perkins Engine Centre plant is an old product that has a shelf-life (has some marginal development opportunities). This Caterpillar understand only too well, knowing that a product that has already being professed doesn't warrant paying a skilled rate to assemble.
The Plan;
1) Call your shop floor workforce operators.
2) Butter them up by saying that they are the experts.
3) Make Continuous Improvement ideas an obligation for operators (no reward scheme in place).
4) Train all new starters to perform small aspects of engine building.
5) Don't issue new contracts that should become available through retirement, resignations or dismissals.
6) Aim for a high percentage of agency workers.
7) Freeze wage bill.
8) Let skilled workers leave due to diminishing wages.
9) Create non/semi skilled workforce (issue free coffee and cakes to keep happy
).
10) Reap the profits!
Caterpillar's Values in Action = People - Quality - Velocity - Cost, to be prioritised in this order.
Is it me or is PQVC just a romantic notion?