When you’re North America’s leading supplier of trailer air and truck suspensions, auxiliary axle systems, steel leaf springs and metal bumpers — and your company is growing at an accelerated rate — you’ve got to operate with an informed approach to prevent crash and burn.
That’s why Hendrickson Trailer Suspension Systems in Canton, a division of Chicago-based Hendrickson International, is implementing “operations excellence” training from the shop floor worker to the top management brass.
“We have grown very rapidly over the last 10 years, and because of the influx of people we need to manage this growth, we determined the need to bring all our people into one operating philosophy,” says Pete Savoy, Hendrickson’s operations excellence manager. “So we started a corporate initiative to improve our operating effectiveness by instituting standardized training and methods.”
To achieve its objectives, Hendrickson contacted Kelli Baxter, coordinator of business and industry outreach at Kent State University’s Stark Office of Corporate and Community Services, which takes a consultative, organizational development approach to provide training to companies.
“What’s so unique about Hendrickson is that the company wanted to take its training strategy into every aspect of its organization. We don’t run into too many clients who do that very often,” Baxter says.
Savoy says Hendrickson partnered with Kent State Stark to deliver some of its training needs, considering the magnitude of instruction needed. Hendrickson plans to educate almost two dozen new teams in four plant locations: Canton; Clarksville, Tenn.; Mitchell, S.D.; and Lebanon, Ind.
“Every one of our 1,000 employees will have a minimum of eight hours of training in the next six months,” says Savoy, “and at least 50 percent will have between 40 and 60 hours of training in the next 18 months.”
Stark developed the customized team training outline for Hendrickson — including a facilitator training class — although professional facilitators, including Marti Peden, a local consultant, conduct much of the instruction at the individual plants.
Baxter says the first session for two Canton teams was launched last June at Kent State’s Stark Campus.
“It was so successful that training was planned for all Hendrickson Trailer locations,” she says.
“We started again in January with additional team training and we will run six classes through March, two in Canton and four at the other plant sites,” says Savoy.
Kent Ferguson, Hendrickson’s division director of quality assurance, says the focus is on team skills, problem solving and operating systems training to enhance the overall management philosophy.
Baxter and Savoy explain that the program is structured around five key elements.
1. Defining team
A clear interpretation of the meaning of “team environment” kicked off the training, accentuating the need for a team-oriented philosophy in daily tasks of all team members.
“We like to look at the word ‘team’ as ‘Together Everyone Achieves More,’” says Savoy. “Training people to work in a cross-functional team environment helps our organizational excellence by bringing to the table talents that are needed for constructive problem solving.”
Savoy says that since Hendrickson wants to build cross-functional teams comprising top management and factory floor representatives, everyone must learn how to effect a team culture.
2. Learning to think proactively
So that teams can operative effectively, participants are taught proactive approaches to problem-solving, consensus decision-making and win-win strategies.
“What we’re really trying to do is communicate the needs of the organization to everybody and come up with common goals so everyone can work toward that,” says Ferguson. “If everyone has the same goals and understands what they are, consensus decision-making is what happens.”
3. Getting equipped
Hendrickson also wants to develop standardized team practices and implement effective meeting management tools. So Baxter planned applicable instruction, including use of an agenda, minutes, minute log book and evaluation.
“Materials and templates for those tools will be given to the attendees, and it’s up to the employees to implement them after they’ve completed the sessions,” says Tina Brown, Henderickson’s division office human resources manager.
4. Learning to communicate
To improve productivity, the training includes effective team communication and interaction skills.
“People must learn to communicate clearly, constructively and they must also learn to listen,” says Savoy. “We’re not just teaching how to speak effectively and present ideas. We’re focusing on how to actively listen to and understand ideas presented by others.”
5. Training in quality
Baxter says that, in a strategic, tiered approach, every employee within the Hendrickson Trailer division, at five locations throughout the U.S. and Canada, will receive additional training in standardized quality operating systems. Those disciplines, says Savoy, include an eight-step problem-solving process, group effectiveness in the workplace and safety.
“The quality operating system training emphasizes a focus on meeting the customer’s needs and continuous improvement,” says Savoy. “And the problem-solving methodology will use root-cause analysis.”
Another discipline, dubbed “visual workplace,” emphasizes an everything-in-its-place practice that affects results-oriented management.
“It includes standardized formats and posted graphs and charts on the measurements we’re using for the organization, such as safety, productivity, cost, inventory and quality measurements,” Savoy explains. “The training will teach them how to understand the way these formats relate to their individual jobs and contributions.”
When it’s all said and done, says Savoy, Hendrickson should notice a favorable impact on its balance sheet.
“We expect that with the training and development, it will move our performance up to a higher level,” he says. “If that happens, there certainly should be a positive impact on the bottom line.”
How to reach: Hendrickson Trailer Suspension Systems, (330) 456-7288; Kent State University Stark Campus, (330) 499-9600
