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Modern Operating Agreement
In the
early '80s we didn't exactly have our act together. (You remember
that whole government loan thing, right?) Foreign auto makers
had us on the ropes. So we sent some people over to Japan
and Europe to see what was up. Turns out, they built their
success on employee empowerment and teamwork. And we thought,
"hey, we can do that."
But,
being in a tight spot and all, we weren't willing to go
all out at first. So we picked five plants to try out these
concepts. The plants are:
- Newark
Assembly (Delaware)
- Indianapolis
Foundry
- Jefferson
North Assembly (Detroit)
- Trenton
Engine (Michigan)
- McGraw
Glass (Michigan)
We reduced
the number of job classifications from more than a hundred
to three or four. We had workers form teams and told them
to run the show. We even gave them financial incentives to
learn more jobs on their teams.
And we
called it MOA. (That stands for Modern Operating Agreement.)
It was the most radical experiment in the U.S. industry
at
the time. And it worked. Productivity and quality went up.
Absenteeism and grievances went down. Workers and managers
alike are happier with the
new order.
By the
way, the rest of our facilities underwent similar changes
around this time. Okay, strictly speaking, they don't have
fewer job classifications and such. But, across the board,
Chrysler workers are far more empowered than in the
old days. And that's not just an overused buzzword to us.
As for
the MOA, it's been studied, benchmarked and duplicated by
hundreds of companies around the world. It's been written
up in major journals and hailed as the "factory of the
future." Which is pretty cool when you think about it.
Got questions? Talk to John
Dionese or John Stallings at the
NTC.
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