chaparral steel – the learning factory
TRANSCRIPT
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Prepared by Group 7
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Introduction to Chaparral Steel Founded in 1973 in Texas as a JV Texas Industries and
Co-Steel International Ltd
Texas Industries bought out Co-Steels share ofChaparral in 1985
20% of Chaparral is offered in a public offering in 1988in which over 95% of Chaparral employees became
shareholdersA small player out to break all the rules in an
industry dominated by huge giants
Highly skilled management
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HR Practices at Chaparral They hired mostly enthusiastic farmworkers with no
background in steel as shop-floor workers
Mgmt. stressed on Individual Growth and Teamworkand created a very conducive environment to attractand retain talent
Employees at all level were continuously undergoing
training and development programs on and off the job Healthy job rotation also helped maximize exposure
and learning
Only 3 layers between CEO and shop-floor employee
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Ownership Among Employees Employees showed high level of ownership and would
be ready to play any role that the company demanded,whether it was in their area or not
Even Shop-floor Employees carried business cardsreading member of the sales force and visitedcustomer sites
Supervisors were rendered unnecessary and teamsbecame self-managed so that the supervisors could beallocated elsewhere when needed
Employees: We want to do the best we possibly can
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High Productivity and QualityAmong minimills, Chaparral already had the record
for best productivity, using only 1.8 labor hours per ton
By 1990, it set a new record of 1.4 labor hours per ton,as compared to the national average of 2.2 forminimills and 4.6 of the bigger integrated mills
Its quality was also equally good. Chaparral was the 1st
American company and 2nd
company outside Japan toget the Japanese Industrial Standard Certification,award to companies with consistent high quality.
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Innovation at Chaparral Despite not having a separate R&D department,
Chaparral was highly innovative and had cutting edge,state-of-the-art technology
Huge amounts were invested on R&D, to the shock ofsuppliers
The whole factory was an R&D center and every
employee was a research scientist Innovation was made a routine activity, and was kept
alive by the freedom to perform and fail