* They are investing in machinery upgrades, next-generation machines, real-time monitoring, and manufacturing execution systems (MES) to achieve greater speed, scale, and visibility and to stay competitive by continuously improving
shop-floor productivity (see Fig.
In order to avoid compulsory redundancies, JCB and the GMB union also proposed a flexible working pattern for
shop-floor employees until the end of February to save in excess of 100 jobs.
The Tropos Touch-Screen Data Capture application provides
shop-floor users with information about what needs to be made, as well as screens that enable order progress to be recorded, as it happens.
A notice went up saying that 67
shop-floor jobs and five office jobs would go.
The plant's
shop-floor staff had been working temporary hours since the car giant axed its night-time D-shift in the summer.
In the resulting humiliation, a flash of ethnic anger or male pride often produced aggressive and confrontational behavior, ending in violent
shop-floor altercations and fights.
The result: We think and act like shareholders - whether we are senior managers engaged in strategic decision making, or total quality teams in Varity's plants making decisions about capital expenditures or
shop-floor actions to reduce costs.
At the end of each shift,
shop-floor workers would manually record production counts, variances, setup times, and other required parameters.
It would be a safe bet that the management team heading up the company's casting operations today would find little or no humor in that '70s
shop-floor attitude.
But the Bluestones' special contribution is their exposition of the ways the sclerotic and undemocratic nature of workplace organization prevents
shop-floor workers from responding to foreign challenges in both productivity and quality.
A new system of
shop-floor payment was devised, with an emphasis on high basic pay based on skills and knowledge acquired rather than work done, and with a group bonus for quality output."
Recognizing that the
shop-floor wars aren't doing anyone any good, the Postal Service has made some moves toward diplomacy.