Client Case Study

Aligned leadership to collaborate, share accountability for success

Challenge:

A new VP of Manufacturing at International Truck and Engine (now Navistar International) took the helm facing a “tough political environment, product centers at odds with the manufacturing strategy, silo mentality and disparate goals across the plants.” His goal: to bring plant leadership together to work in a new way, applying manufacturing expertise collectively, collaborating and sharing accountability for success against common performance improvement goals.

Actions:

• Clearly articulated a new vision for the manufacturing organization that established clear expectations and a line-of-site to actions required.
• Conducted an assessment to understand barriers that would stand in the way of effective collaboration and achievement of bottom-line results.
• Created a Manufacturing Council, composed of plant management and key manufacturing leadership charged with aligning the broader organization around the vision, articulating a collective strategy for achieving performance improvement goals, sharing best practices and forging collaboration and dialogue.
• Engaged the council in a facilitated dialogue to solidify mutual understanding of expectations and ensure alignment around behaviors necessary to achieve established goals.

Results:

• Realized first-quarter cost improvements of $7 million to $10 million across all manufacturing locations.
• Increased speed and efficiency of decision-making and performance improvement.
• Identified $55 million in additional cost savings.
• Plants pulled together to support each other in meeting first-quarter volume goals.
• Increased leadership and employee accountability for sharing information across plants to improve collective performance and to meet customer demand.