The business challenge
INA Bearing Company Limited is a subsidiary of a privately owned German engineering group. At its UK manufacturing facility in Llanelli, West Wales, it employs 320 people producing precision engine components.
The business has faced a particularly challenging time. In the 1990s it experienced rapid growth. Over the last three years, the Company has been faced with increasing competition from low labour cost countries as group production capacity has been placed in Eastern Europe (Slovakia and Romania) where wages are a fraction of those in the UK.
INA Bearing Company Limited has responded by seeking to compete through developing the capability to deliver higher value added products. There has been a planned and sustained focus on continuous improvement, cost reduction and, as an integral component of the process, a sustained attempt to up-skill the workforce. As the Personnel Manager, Adrian Roberts puts it:
Previously the investment has been in machinery, now the investment is in people
You never know what the next product will be, so you need to update the skills so that people have new techniques to cope with whatever comes their way.
The change process began with a management offsite strategy day held in March 2001. The culture change programme developed there identified 'production location of choice' as the vision for the Llanelli Plant. 'Integrity, Innovation, Respect Commitment and Passion' were identified as values. A series of initiatives were put in place on a planned timetable.
The culture change programme involved continuous improvement, training and flexibility; significantly they were linked and supported by the statement "the rate of learning must be greater than the rate of change" (L>C).
A learning culture
The Company felt it important to communicate as early as possible, the vision and strategy for the future to its employees and so embarked upon a communication exercise whereby a member of the senior management team on an individual basis interviewed each employee.
Guidance for this communication exercise was prepared in the form of a briefing document, to ensure consistency of the message. The guidance note states that:
To achieve this vision a "learning culture" must be at the core of our activities, so that we are practising a culture of continuous improvement and consequently whatever "change" is necessary in the future we have the requisite skills, knowledge and experience to adapt and achieve our targets.
This will mean the training and development of all people in the organisation to improve our skills knowledge. We will be assessing and appraising everyone within the organisation to ensure that we have a suitably trained and experienced team.
A major obstacle to overcome was to encourage employees to learn. INA is located close to a ward in Wales with some of the lowest levels of adult literacy. Many employees had few or no qualifications, and generally were disenchanted with education and learning. To embrace these "reluctant learners" in the culture change programme, the Company initially "sold" the concept in individual interviews with employees:
The employees had nothing to lose, if the investment in learning and development paid off, there was a more secure future. If despite these efforts the fortunes of the Company did not improve, then at least the individual had a nationally recognised qualification.
Qualifications and learning
National Vocational Qualifications were delivered that were tailored to and relevant to the individual's job. An E-Learning Centre was established in conjunction with AMICUS, the local college, Coleg Sir Gar and Learndirect and a wide range of courses were offered to employees, including "Computers for the Terrified" for those unfamiliar with IT. Other initiatives were developed also, such as "lunch and learn" sessions to engage with employees and get them on the learning ladder. The Company now has four Union Learning Representatives who are playing an active role in promoting learning in the workplace.
Three years on the majority of employees now have an NVQ, all employees have individual development plans and learning now is an integral part of the culture of the organisation. While from a business point of view the investment is paying off also. New products are being introduced to Llanelli, for the first time since 1997. In addition 2005 will also see a large investment in new machinery.