1. Identify how Synder's-Lance engages its employees.
2. Why might it be more effective to implement an entire new system like an HPWS rather than make incremental changes at a production facility like the one in Charlotte? Couldn't the largescale changes create chaos in a plant its size?
When Greg Flickinger became the director of manufacturing for the snack-food maker Snyder's-Lance's Charlotte, North Carolina, facility, he was determined to build from scratch the kind of high-performance workforce he led when he worked for a competing firm. Many organizations take piecemeal approaches to improving their firms. But Flickinger knew that one-off plans for improvement would not result in sustained improvements for the plant- especially given the fact that nearly 1,000 employees work at the Charlotte site producing more than 500 types of products. What the Charlotte plant needed was an all-encompassing high-performance work system. The first step in developing the HPWS was to create a vision for it that could be defined succinctly and communicated easily to all staff members. Ultimately the vision was defined as follows: "To nurture a transition from a traditional work system to an employeecentric high-performance work system (HPWS) with a cultural foundation rooted in total employee involvement and focused on continuous improvement." The details inherent in the vision then shaped the foundation of a formal but very simple and direct mission: "Take care of your people and deliver your numbers." This statement was front and center in every meeting, every communication, and every initiative that was undertaken. It provided the rallying cry and aligned everyone across the site with a concept that was easily translated into something real that people could get their minds around, says Flickinger.
When it came to implementation, first up was completely restructuring the way the plant was led.
The hierarchical structure of supervisors, department managers, and superintendents were eliminated. Team leaders, line leaders, and technical support leaders were put in place instead. The line leadership concept was the most critical role in the development of the plant's culture of accountability. A line leader was assigned to each line and was responsible for the full value stream of output being produced on it-from raw materials and ingredients in the door through to the finished product out the door. In essence, each line leader owned the success of all aspects of his or her value stream 24 hours a day. This created a single point of accountability. The technical support leaders became the support group for line leaders by providing them expertise in areas such as reliability engineering, system engineering, line changeovers, and sanitation.