Synopsis: Communication For Productivity
Letters written to some 7500 Workers / Managers /
Union Leaders, following a period of strike / Go slow / Murders (1979 -
1987), at Mumbai factory of Larsen & Toubro Ltd. This direct / open /
honest communication led to a remarkable atmosphere of trust between
Workers and Management, which, in turn, increased productivity at 3% per year
(ave).
|
24 Jan 1983
To:
Dear friends
INFORMATION-SHARING
We
neither have a structured forum nor a
systematic effort to share information with our employees. Well, not quite:
We
have, over the years, tried
to share information about events
through the pages of:
L&T
Newsletter Powai Pageant etc.
Productivity-committee meetings
(both Powai-level and Unit-level) have been an useful forum during the last 3-1/2 years for sharing some information
about:
productivity
production-targets
costs
Demand
Shop-loading
Methods-changes
Raw-material
problems
Absenteeism
Employee-attitudes
etc. etc.
But this is not
a comprehensive list of subjects.
And all over
Powai, there are thousands of
employees who do not get to participate in these meetings.
And honestly-speaking, I myself do
not have a clear idea about:
"What
is it that employees would like to know?"
"All
that you always wanted to know about ... but never dared to ask."
Perhaps
not all that employees want to know
- but may be almost-all!
But by the
time, I figure it all out,
I may be due to retire, so I decided not to wait.
So this is
the first of a series
of bulletins, I have decided to release for your information.
In turn, you may wish to share
this information with your
colleagues. Please feel free, there is
nothing confidential about the data.
You may turn
around and ask:
"Then why not
send the bulletin
to all the employees?"
I asked
myself:
"Shall I send
this bulletin to all the employees, just because the contents
are not
confidential and just because
it costs so
little to print
and
distribute?"
And the
answer was, "No".'
I do not know whether all employees are interested in this information. No point sending it to those who will throw it in the garbage-can, perhaps,
even without reading.
On the other
hand, if You feel that
groups of employees working under you
may be interested in this
information, phone Mr. D'cunha (Ext: 598) for an
over-head projector and the slides.
He can even assist you
in making a "Slide-presentation" and in
answering questions.
In this
first bulletin, I enclose some charts regarding:
"Skill-wise
population-mix Trends".
The charts
are fairly self-explanatory.
Almost across
the groups, the
percentage of US/SSB/
population is decreasing and the
percentage of ssa/sb/sa/hs
population is increasing, over the last 4 years.
Many
questions come to my mind:
1. Will this trend continue? If yes, at what rate?
What will be the percentages after, say 4 years?
2. Is this trend
disturbing? Are we getting "top-heavy"? Do we need so many people (%) in the SB/SA/HS
category?
3. For each manufacturing group:
- the "products" dictate the
manufacturing processes
- the "processes" dictate the
"skills"
- the "skills" dictate the
"range" in each "trade".
4. If new
products, added by us over
the years, required us
to use, more
or
less the same
manufacturing processes (machinery, equipment,
methods,
tooling,
layout, material handling
etc.), then the
logical
conclusions would be that:
· the types of "skills" and
· the "mix" of skills
required by us,
should also remain more or
less the same.
What has, then caused, these ratios to be disturbed?
5. In
the years to
come what would
our "people-mix" (skill-mix) look
Whatever, write
it down and
handover to the
concerned manager from your area, who is
connected with the "charter -of-demand" negotiations.
And if you
have any suggestions on "information-sharing", send me a
small note.
With
regards.
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