16 Fall 2015

“Ben Marcum, my soon-to-be 6-year-old stepson,

thinks when I go to work that it’s a carnival every

day. He told me, ‘I love your work!’

The event was top-notch. Having a baby

changing area was appreciated for my 6-month-

old twins. My fiancé continues to remind me he

won the ‘Name that Tune’ contest.”

Jenn SealineDivision

won the ‘Name that Tune’ contest.”

“It was great fun seeing all the retirees! They were astonished at all the changes, and the cleanliness of the plant. Nothing has changed–we had a lot of fun ribbing each other. Really miss some of these guys. Seeing them brought back a lot of fun memories. Through them it is easy to see why this company is the number one ag tire producer in the world.” Sherrie WallaceContinuous Improvement41-year veteran of BAAG

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“My kids had a great time. They really liked the climbing wall and the games that the DJ hosted. And having a photo taken with the big tire was a great memento. We really appreciate all of the volunteers that made the event possible.”

Jodi CastilloExport Sales

17Stay up to date and share your own content on BAAG.com 17Stay up to date and share your own content on BAAG.com

Car Show Our annual Car Show on July 5 was a resounding success!

Two awards were presented. The first was for Best Car and the second was for Best

‘Other,’ which was for motorcycles, tractors and other vehicles.

Robin Wheeler, of the Warehouse, won Best Car with his 2010 Dodge Challenger.

It was a bright metallic blue car with 25-inch wheels.

Retiree Howard Sinclair won in the Other category, along with his wife Debbie.

They traveled from their home in Davis City with a 1968 Harley Davidson Golf Cart

made to look like a “Hillbilly” car.

These were two great vehicles from a field of 30 participants! Each winner received

an Amazon Gift Certificate for $50.00.

Dick Roth I Safety & Health

18 Fall 2015

Facts & FiguresSALES AND MARKETING UPDATEThere has been a lot of exciting activity in Sales and Marketing since our last update! We will cover some of the news here, as well as market indicator updates.

New Team Members

We are pleased to announce the addition of two new members to the replacement sales team.

Steve Sutherland has been appointed Director, North American Agricultural Tire, Replacement Sales. Steve is replacing David Miller, who will be retiring at the end of 2015. Steve has been with the Bridgestone family since 1998 when he joined Bandag, and has held several positions of

leadership, including Director of Fleet Sales, Director of Franchise Sales and Tech. Services, Region General Manager, and most recently, Director of the North Central Zone (BCS). Steve took over his new position on August 10. All Regional Replacement Sales Managers in North America report to Steve.

David Freeman has accepted the position of Regional Sales Manager – Southeast Region Firestone AG and is replacing Randy Lewis, who is retiring at the end of 2015. David has been a Bridgestone teammate since 1996 when he joined as a commercial Territory Manager (TBR). During his 20 years

with the company, he was recognized twice as “Salesman of the Year” and has served as Territory Manager, Senior Territory Manager, Fleet Sales Manager (BBTS), and Commercial Sales Manager in the East Zone (BCS).

New Name and New Product Addition

At the 2015 Farm Progress Show in Decatur, IL, the announcement was made for the addition of Firestone branded rubber tracks to our product line-up. We are extending our commitment to the North American farmer by becoming the first and only manufacturer to be a true full line supplier for ag tires and tracks.

The track market has seen steady growth over the last few years as farm equipment continually increases in size and horsepower. The decision was made to leverage the brand recognition of Firestone farm tires and transition the Bridgestone agricultural rubber tracks to the Firestone brand. With the addition of tracks to our product line-up, we now offer farmers (the BOSS) a complete offering for any of their tire or track needs.

Market Research

We are concluding a market research project for the North America ag tire market. We interviewed a wide range of farmers and sought information regarding our product, brand perception of our competitors, and buying behaviors. We also interviewed representatives from our Certified Dealer network, as well as competitive tire dealers, to get their feedback on the ag market. They were also asked for their view of our product and dealer programs as compared to the competition.

This information, along with information gathered from previous market segmentation work, will be used to create our “Go to Market” strategies for 2016 and beyond.

Social Media

Our Facebook page is continuing to gain followers. We’re currently working on an improved strategy for Facebook and Twitter to develop more engaging content that encourages our followers to think of Firestone as the “thought leader” in the industry, looking to us for trusted information in our market sector.

We are also working with Successful Farming to use their website as an article feed to continue to gain name recognition. We do this by providing useful tire information to those who read Successful Farming, and then we feed those articles back through our social sites, which provide more content for us and Successful Farming. In the coming months, we will be focusing some of our social posts around our new product lineup and Farm Shows.

Firestone Ag Tire Field Clinics

A key initiative for 2015 is education for our dealers. We accomplish this through Firestone University and Firestone Ag Tire Field Clinics. FSU and the Field clinics provide tire training to farmers and OE equipment dealers on the importance of proper tire inflation, ballasting and overall ag technology. In the first half of 2015, we facilitated 26 Field Clinics with 1196 farmers and OE equipment dealer staff in attendance.

YTD Ag Equipment Sales

Here’s a view of new Ag Equipment Sales for key product segments in North America through the end of July 2015 as compared to July 2014. The downward trends in commodity prices continue to impact new Original Equipment (OE) sales to the farmer. OEs continue to monitor the population of used equipment on OE dealer lots, which needs to be sold before an upward trend will occur in these product segments.

NA YTD Sales (vs. PY)

It appears the downturn in new equipment sales has leveled off a bit from earlier this year, with the OEMs still fine-tuning their build schedules for the rest of 2015.

2015 Crop Update: USDA Report on Crop Progress as of 8-12-2015

The USDA reports U.S. corn and soybean condition ratings held over the past week. While development can vary widely from state to state, corn and soybeans are close to average nationally.

As of Sunday, 96% of U.S. corn is silking, matching the five year average, and 50% is at the dough-making stage, slightly ahead of the normal pace. 9% of the crop has dented, which is in line with last year, but a little slower than average. 70% of corn is in good to excellent condition, unchanged on the week.

88% of soybeans are blooming, 3% slower than usual, and 69% are at the pod setting stage, 3% faster than normal. 63% of soybeans are in good to excellent shape, steady with a week ago.

97% of the winter wheat crop is harvested, compared to 90% on average. 28% of spring wheat is harvested, compared to 20% normally this time of year. 69% of spring wheat is rated good to excellent, down 1% from last week.

55% of U.S. pastures and rangelands are in good to excellent condition, 3% less than a week ago.

GL BAL SLOGANWork Towards

Our Goal of

“DAN-TOTSU”Through

Effective Communication, Teamwork, &

a Sense of Ownership.

Group CEO/Group COO

O U R

The White Belt Process

While the PPTW survey gives us a snap shot in time of how we are doing related to teammate engagement, the White Belts tell us how we got there. For the last two years, we have pulled together a series of departmental White Belt teams to help us analyze our survey data. The idea was that teammates would be able to tell us what they were experiencing in their own departments, and then generate unique action items that would have the greatest impact to teammates. We speculated that the reasons for people responding one way or another on the survey would vary from department to department, so this seemed like a great way to ensure everyone was heard.

What We’ve Learned

When we launched the PPTW process in 2013, the one thing we knew for certain was that the process would not be perfect --- It was a place to start, and we would learn over time how to make it better. Here is what we’ve learned so far, after reflecting on the last two cycles:

There is still confusion and frustration about what a Premier Place to Work in Des Moines looks like. There are many statements on the PPTW survey that we cannot directly influence. Items related to compensation, benefits, and the like are governed by processes that extend beyond Des Moines. Moreover, when publications like Forbes or Fortune publish articles about what “great workplaces” have and do, it’s hard to imagine any of that being possible here.

We can’t build tires from home because someone needed more flexibility in their work schedule. It’s not safe to install putting greens in aisle ways. And curing tires in a treehouse to inspire the creative juices or installing slides in Mixing is probably not in the cards.

Magazines don’t often talk about what manufacturing organizations do to inspire a great work place, so our vision is fuzzy, which makes the goal seem unattainable.

The reasons people respond to the survey don’t vary as much as we thought they would. Last year, for example, Des Moines focused its attention on the Respect dimension of the survey. The reasons that teammates didn’t feel respected sounded remarkably similar, regardless of what position, shift, or department the teammates came from.

The volume of action items to be completed is a challenge in and of itself. Trying to keep approximately 1,500 teammates up to date on what’s happening in reference to nearly 200 action items is not working well. We’ve increased the quantity and frequency of communications, and there’s still confusion.

Behavior is harder to change than meets the eye. The problems we’re tackling with PPTW are different than the problems we are typically asked to solve – they are largely behavioral in nature, and success is purely subjective because it is based on how people perceive changes. When I apply changes to a machine, I can typically see the results right away.

When I apply changes to my behavior, the results can be, and often are, delayed, which can make sticking with the changes in the face of difficulty or resistance nearly impossible. If you’ve ever failed to keep a New Year’s resolution, you know what I’m talking about. We don’t see the payoff quickly enough and/or the pain of changing seems to outweigh the benefit, so we fall back to what we’ve always done, and nothing really changes.

What We’re Going to Do

Based on what we’ve learned, we will be implementing the following changes for the 2015/2016 PPTW cycle:

PPTW Des Moines will be operationally defined. While there are plenty of survey items that are beyond the direct control of Des Moines, there are others that are within our control. Instead of looking at the survey in its entirety, we will carve out a sub-set of survey statements, that we can directly influence, and operationally define what a PPTW looks like in Des Moines.

PPTW will have a results dashboard. For the last two years, we have placed a great deal of emphasis on tracking activity (i.e., how many action items are getting marked complete?). There is a disconnect between the activity and meaningful results. Currently, we don’t know if the work that is being done is having any impact. Therefore, leading measures (those that we can track in between survey periods) will be established, with the help of the White Belt teams, tracked, and monitored the same way we do for other strategic items.

Daily DMAIC White Belts will be consolidated. Instead of every department forming its own team with its own event, we will target holding four (possibly five) events: Production/Maintenance (Maintenance may be separate), Plant Support Staff, Division, and Warehouse. The goal will be to identify the few improvement action items that will have the biggest impact across the system, develop measures for them, and then go to work deploying them consistently. Communications to teammates will focus on updates around those few action items instead of 100+ action items.

Thank you for your continued feedback. We are listening and acting, which is why our dream of a PPTW will be inevitable.

Changes Coming for 2015/2016 Cycle Jillian Havran I Continuous Improvement

With the third installment of the PPTW survey behind us, now comes the big question: “What are we going to do as a result of the feedback?!” In Des Moines, we use Daily DMAIC White Belts to generate improvement action items.

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SOME COURSES CAN EVEN EARN YOU COLLEGE CREDIT!

COMING THIS FALL FROM BAAGU: » Facilitating a Team to Get Results

» Raise the Bar: Exceeding Expectations

» Daily DMAIC

» Whose Line is it Anyway? New course!

» Improving Performance Through Effective Recognition New course!

V I S I T BA AG.CO M FO R CO U RS E DAT ES A N D T I M ES, A N D TO S I G N U P!