Fast Company Oct. 99' Engines of Democracy by Charles Fishman Page174 By Nathan Johnson

This is a great story about teamwork and the increase in productivity because of it. The company in the article is one of many plants run by GE that produces jet engines. This plant specifically builds engines for the Boeing 777 and the 737. What makes this facility unique to GE is that there is only one boss in the whole plant. One hundred seventy aircraft mechanics with "No" middle management.

Employees are placed on teams where everyone is an equal. They settle disputes between themselves or take it to the plant manager. Another key ingredient is that each team builds their own engine. They are responsible from the point of the purchase order to when that engine is loaded on a semi for delivery to Boeing. The ownership that takes place by the teams is incredible.

Decisions at the plant fall into three categories; A, B, or C. A decisions are made by the plant manager alone, B decisions involve both the plant manager and those people directly involved, and a C decision is made by consensus of the whole group with lots of discussion. The plant manager estimated that she made maybe 10 - 12 A decisions a year and the rest are all B and C type. This is another case for lots of ownership by the employees. They feel their input is valued so they take the time to think things through and add what will be beneficial for the whole group.

This plant is very unique compared to the others GE runs in how employees are paid as well. There are 3 grades of technicians at the plant and one wage rate for each grade. Everyone knows what the others are making. There is no time clock. Employees are free to come and go because essentially they are there own bosses. The only people they have to answer to, are there teammates and shipping order timelines. The team decides who does what, training needs of the group, vacation time, overtime, improvements to the manufacturing process, and discipline of teammates.

The interview process at this plant generally takes about 8 hours. During that time you will visit with 4 to 5 different employees of the plant, participate in group activities with other applicants and do a mini presentation based on information received a the interview. They are looking for people who meet or exceed their expectations in eleven areas such as helping skills, coaching ability, flexibility, and communication skills. The whole emphasis is on team and your ability to fit into it. I should add that another requirement that sets this plant apart is that all candidates must be certified FAA mechanics. They feel this is a must because then everyone starts at approximately the same mechanical skill level.

This system is working. The morale is high and the turnover rate is less than 5% a year. And more importantly Boeing is happy with the engines. "Job security." A comment by "Bob McEwan, manager for this plant as well as one other, says it all, " in the other plant I've got wrench turners, in this plant I've got people who think."

Reflection

How could this system fit in Extension? Some parts are already happening, such as having the freedom the make decisions. We can carry out programs in counties or clusters that we think are beneficial. I think this is a real benefit of working in Extension. Developing the team concept is more difficult in my opinion. Distance limits the group of people you are going to work most often with. And unlike the GE plant, interviews are conducted at various counties with their own needs in mind. So skill levels will vary as well as areas of concentration. The size and years of existence make our company different from the engine plant as well. They just formed the plant in 1993. So there wasn't a problem with fighting change. GE's engine plant has 170 employees, that averages out to two educators per county and I know we have more than that.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 1999

Answers

Nathan--

Good article. I agree that Extension has tried to adopt a similar strategy of management with mixed results. You've identified several areas that help explain some lack of success. Another might be the lack of commonality and personal interaction commonplace among employees. Although we all work for the same organization, most are involved in more individualized, basically unrelated tasks and I'd guess each of us would have problems identifying more than half the employees on site. It doesn't sound like the GE people had those obstacles to overcome.

Clark

-- Anonymous, November 03, 1999