Case Study 1 - Tegral Metal-Forming Ltd.
Case Study 1 - Tegral Metal-Forming Ltd.
Introduction
Tegral Metal-Forming Ltd manufactures profiled steel sheeting and accessories to the construction industry and employs 80 people.
Significant organizational change was introduced in Tegral Metal-Forming through new arrangements that facilitated increased employee involvement and participation through partnership. Work was re-organised to deliver substantial improvements in both the performance of the company and the welfare of employees.
The company had a history of adversarial relations. An overtime compensation agreement for new technology prompted the company to look for new forms of workplace development.
Key elements of the change and improvement in Tegral Metal-Forming Ltd.
- New team-based structure
- Re-organisation into four cross functional teams
- Introduction of team working, team leaders and key performance indicators
- Significantly increased spending on training
- Cross-skilling and up-skilling of employees
- Introduction of new reward system
- Skill based pay, gain sharing, profit sharing and annual time contract initiatives
- Introduction of structured appraisal system
The Benefits
The partnership and employee involvement process at TMF has undergone significant change. From an initial starting point of strong emphasis on structures such as the partnership forum and steering committee, the focus has now shifted to improving the performance of the organization and the welfare of the employees.
TMF cites the main benefits of this approach as being:
- The company introduced significant organizational change and employees have a significant say in the organization of their workplace.
- The company now has a stable work organization capable of being responsive to customer’s needs. Employees now have a greater understanding of the customer and market demand. This has arisen partly also as a result of contact with other companies in work organization initiatives. TEEU have come on board with an annualized hours agreement, and the office employees also have a team-based system.
- Overtime has been almost eliminated in the plant, decreasing the length of the working week for most employees with obvious benefits.
- Very little time is spent on IR issues.
- The company implemented an Enterprise Resource Planning system, a further ingredient of change, with an understanding by all of the reasons for its implementation. The relative ease with which new work practices can be adopted is a direct result of the partnership and employee engagement process.
- The costs of the company have been stabilized, and employees have real input into their work.
