WIGGINS CONNECTORS Chapter from Upcoming Book, “Corporate Fantasies that Came True”

IMO WIGGINS CONNECTORS

Company History/Situation

Wiggins Connectors was established in the 1920s in the Los Angeles area, making tools for oil drilling, competing with Hughes Tool Company. During World War II, Wiggins started making high-tech couplings for the aircraft industry, and phased out of the drilling tool business. 

They have long been an aerospace parts supplier to Boeing, Raytheon, and other top companies.

By the early 1990s, the company had begun to lag behind their competitors because some of their product quality had deteriorated. Wiggins knew they had to close the gap between what they were and what they wanted to be, and get moving quickly or be left behind. They realized change and innovation were critical to their future in order to compete with other top high-tech parts manufacturers in a shrinking market. Wiggins looked at world-class companies in the field, and observed they were going away from the old-style autocratic style of management. In order to make the necessary changes, Wiggins needed help.

The two major barriers to successful empowerment were the lack of confidence and “know how” of management to implement changes, and any acceptance by the work force.

The concept of producing quality at the source, rather than quality forced into the product by inspection was a new paradigm. The work force had many, many years of experience; no one was ever fired. They were brought up by Wiggins and learned the company ways, but their knowledge was not up-to-date with current manufacturing techniques.

Challenges

The union had to agree to the content of any training and of the way the program would be conducted.  “The work force didn’t have the experience to figure out what was wrong, so we either had to hire a new crew or re-educate everyone. If we fired guys who were long-time employees and were doing the best they knew how, the union would be very unhappy with us. it would have been destructive to our company in every way, and we’d have to go out and hire a whole new crew. The work force couldn’t get to a higher level of performance unless there was a major revamp of their attitudes and knowledge, but production operations just don’t stop during training. When people learn new skills, it doesn’t always have an immediate payback in some situations,” assessed Murat Sehidoslu, Director of Operations

Systems and procedures were outdated in quality control. Inspection’s capability was questioned, and Boeing Aircraft was now rejecting some parts that had passed inspection.
Going into Uncharted Waters: “Personally, I had a fear of failure about switching from our autocratic style and re-training the work force, because we didn’t know what  would happen. The big risk was, suppose we don’t do what we set out to do. Deliveries would be late, our quality really bad. The danger was enormous,” stated Ralph White, General Manager.

Concern for Training without Implementation Support: “Total Quality Management was the thing to do if we wanted to remain competitive in the aerospace business,”  said Malcolm Flowers, Total Quality Manager. “ Before it started, I was afraid any training we got wouldn’t last because I’d heard stories about other companies that had used some management training where the consultants didn’t come back and make sure the training stuck. Just because you tell people they are a self-directed team, it doesn’t mean they’ve gotten it, even if they go through the training. 
It takes mentoring, coaching, facilitating and defining the team objectives and boundaries.”

III. Approaches Taken

Wiggins discovered the State of California was financing the type of training program they needed. They fit the parameters, applied for the funds, and got approved by the state.

Wiggins interviewed several consulting/training firms, and selected National Summit Group, Inc., (NSG) of Newport Beach, California. The first step was a business assessment conducted by NSG. The assessment outlined the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and internal and external threats. The assessment also provided recommendations to address these issues. Strategic business planning was the next step, and involved the top twenty management personnel. The outcome was a clear vision of the company’s future.

The Mission and Values statements were established.
A training program was launched, evaluating all salaried and hourly employees. First, the critical mass of management people were trained in Total Quality Management  (TQM) principles, then NSG trained selected personnel to train the balance of the work force.

The product line has expanded.

A number of different skills and techniques were trained and implemented: leadership, communication, meeting skills, cultural change training, team building, the empowerment process and Statistical process Control (SPC). The whole company participated in the retraining.

The specific precepts of the Team Wiggins approach were posted all over the facility and embodied the cultural change necessary for empowerment.

Departments were transformed to product teams. Since profitability was an issue, every part was re-evaluated.  Some older ones were losing money because Wiggins hadn’t kept pace with increased supply costs. Prices were raised to reflect the changes and began making a profit on the parts again.

Access to Data / Information: Most data relevant to the operation of the business is now shared with teams. They have access to information that would normally be known only to higher levels of management. Typically, this information is used to plan activities and measure success. Not only does this help with decision-making, but also instills an even greater sense of ownership and empowerment.
Mentoring: mentors help show the teams how to use their people more effectively and interact with other teams. They can see the big picture because they have more information, and it gives everyone more power to get done what has to get done.

Marketing and Sales Results

All government quotes were on time.
Wiggins actually shipped more than they thought they could ship.
Quote turn-around time was trimmed; most go out in a day or two now.
Inventory turn-around time has improved.  “The NSG training taught us to work as a team, and communication is much better.  We measure performance weekly and monthly, and measure our plans versus our actual result.”  Wendy Marshall, Sales Administrator

V. Cultural Shifts and Improvements

Impact on Personnel Flexibility: on the shop floor and in the office and engineering areas, replacing departments with teams has resulted in greater flexibility in staffing. There is virtually no duplication of effort or redundant functions. Employees at all levels (including union machinists) adjust their job responsibilities to move where the work is. If a function doesn’t add value to the process, it isn’t done¾teams have the authority to eliminate or change any function when it will result in a higher level of customer satisfaction.

Decision-making¾changes from supervision to self-directed teams: “After the training, self-directed teams were created; therefore, we changed from supervision to self-direction. No one tells us, “Do this, do that,” like a traditional supervisor used to do. We know what to do. We make many of our decisions now, such as overtime, job scheduling, start times and mixing job assignments, and we measure our performance by continuous improvement meetings with reports. We get help from one another¾and that’s the best way to get help. We have many different nationalities and levels of education, but once they got the hang of it, they really like it. Self-directed teams are the way to go.” Andrew Gonzalez (AG), Multi-spindle set-up operator lead Accepting responsibility: Grievances dropped because the work force learned to work as a team. Before TQM, it was difficult to get workers to give input so problems could be corrected. Since the training, employees are prepared to accept responsibility for fixing the problem or requesting a commitment from the internal supplier to fix it.

Morale: Internally, the work force has increased morale, less turnover and absences, and is much happier.

Creative problem-solving: The company culture changed by eliminating departments and boundaries. “Communication is wide open; individuals are open to creative problem-solving and get resources anywhere in the company. When we eliminated many department boundaries, if anyone in the shop or the office needs help, he can now go directly to whoever can help with the problem. For example, if an engineer needs something changed on a blueprint, instead of going to a supervisor as he did before, he now goes to an engineer and discusses his ideas for improvement. And this direct line of communication goes across the board, from the shop worker to management.” Sean Fabre, Process Designer and Team Leader
Rewards and Recognition: Wiggins maintains an extensive reward and recognition program that further promotes positive feedback for meeting commitments. People are recognized for outstanding performance at every opportunity.

Employees don’t complain about management because they are management.

Training: On average, each Wiggins exempt employee has been through up to 200 hours of training in SPC, TQM, and leadership skills necessary for productivity and quality improvement. Though much of the early training and the program’s blueprint was provided by NSG, the training responsibility was eventually transferred to internal employees, with instructors recruited from the most successful teams.

“There was quite a change in our company culture since the training. Before, a lot of direction came from staff; now we take on what needs to get done, knowing if we need guidance we can get it. On a daily basis, we run the department; the teams are starting to run Wiggins, and everyone feels good about it. We’re learning when we work as a team, we can get it done.”
 
Performance Results Achieved

Wiggins won Boeing’s  “President’s Award.”
Profitability and productivity improved. Pretax profits increased 35% in two years. 
Quality now meets customers’ expectations.
Inventory has been drastically reduced.
Customer satisfaction increased to record levels.
Delivery time is now almost 100%.
Wiggins is becoming the preferred supplier to their customers because of TQM.
A cycle-time reduction program eliminated or minimized problem areas throughout the company.  The results were major improvements: in some situations, over 50% cycle-time reductions from order entry to shipments overall. In some areas, previous 60-90 days from order to delivery went down to 12 ½ days.
The product line has expanded.
 

Learning Points

Solve Problems When They’re Small: Before TQM and the team building process, it was difficult to get workers to give input, so problems could not be corrected early on. These problems increased in size; now, they are nipped in the bud.

Work Smarter¾Not Harder: Less paperwork and 2-way / clearer communications simplified every department’s tasks. “Before, I didn’t know how the office ran or how cost estimating worked; now we know what has to be done to make our shipment dates on time and on budget, states William van Stell, Special Project Lead Man.  “No one is looking over our shoulders, so the feeling on the floor is much more open and friendly. The more training you get, the better it is all around. Just don’t expect to get it all from the git-go.”

Empowering Employees vs. Blaming: “We don’t fix blame, we fix problems. The training taught us the skills across the board: we started with the empowerment issue; that’s a difficult concept to get across, and involves a lot of personal involvement. If the top person isn’t committed to the training, you’ve got nothing. So it’s training, critical mass, and 100% involvement. TQM always keeps us on our toes, because once the whole work force gets re-trained, people can now check out performance “up” as well as “down.”  Commitment means we all walk the talk of the TQM program, and make sure we don’t fall into our old ways.” Ralph White, General Manager.

Vision and Mission Statements Provide the Guidelines: Determining the mission and values statement was very important, because it enabled the whole company to focus on something it can really use and get behind. It is used as a constant reminder of what Wiggins can do. It’s a road map on one document, and from janitor to general manager, from department to department, everyone knows what the focus is now.

Internal customer satisfaction:  “The training taught us to make commun-ications and expectations very, very clear. That’s particularly effective as a supplier. Malcolm Flowers, Total Quality Manager adds,  “After NSG’s training, it  was like neon lights went on over our heads when we interacted, because there was so much more clarity. We had a really great instructor, and he established rapport with the bunch. One sign that helped was, “No Complaints; Make Requests.” 

The external customer cannot be satisfied unless the internal customers are all satisfied.