Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant Case Study

In May 2007, the Engstrom Auto Mirrors plant was facing the crisis. The business was doing badly and the sales had started to decline in 2005. Thus, there was a steep reduction in plant productivity and employee morale was all time low. The company used Scanlon Plan as an incentive for staff. The core element or foundation of the plan was concept of participative management, where management and staff together will decide the bonuses based on revenues for that year.

The Engstrom Auto Mirror plant is located in Richmond, Indiana and employs around 200 or more people. The plant has been going through some changes over the last few years and has seen a decline in employee motivation. The focus today will be to determine some of the root causes of the problems facing the plant from an organizational view and a human behavior issue. The bottom line is determining how to solve the issues the company is facing and move forward. Some of the questions that will need to be answered is, “why is motivation at an all-time low, is the Scanlon plan benefiting everyone in the company and can the plan be revamped with

The Scanlon Plan can be used as a major catalyst to turnaround the plant by emphasizing more on productivity. The more they work the faster they roll towards their bonuses; this magical spell is a win-win situation for both the employees and the management. The management can cruise steadily over the wave of bonus motivated productivity and the employees can reap the benefits from the high production rate in terms of bonuses. The plan can be redrawn and a slight change can be made by making the entire plan revolve around the concept of productivity. When productivity assumes a prime position in the plan, employees will strive hard

The intent of this milestone is to analyze the case study entitled “Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant: Motivating in Good Times and Bad”. Throughout the case study numerous known organizational issues were presented. Human behavior theories are connected with reasonably information to explain the numerous root causes related to the issues from a human conduct point of view. By investigating these causes I will acknowledge the breakdown with tenacious research proof. I went into depth with my examination of three noteworthy issues, lack of motivation, Individual moral, and inadequate communication between management and employees. The resulting impact of each of these root causes is clarified with the support of human behavior theories. The theories ultimately gave reasons for why people behave the way they do in an organizational setting.

Joe Hinrichs, a recent Harvard Business school graduate, was hired in February 1996 to run the General Motors’s the Fredericksburg Torque Converter Clutch (TCC) manufacturing plant. At 29 years old, Hinrichs was GM’s youngest plant manager. Hinrichs was inheriting a poor performing plant that continually underachieved, losing money year after year. Improvements were desperately needed to increase the efficiency of the manufacturing process and reduce operating costs. GM had considered shutting down the plant; however, when a new bonding process, using carbon fiber, for the TCC was approved in 1995, GM instead invested thirty million dollars into the Fredericksburg plant to incorporate the new process.

In this portion of my case analysis, I will be showing ways for suggested solutions in order to help improve the situation at the Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant. I will be showing ways in which organizational improvement outcomes can directly help remedy some of the issues and recommend strategic actions that would lead the organization in a proactive production workforce. The recommendations are creating committees, rework how the Scanlon Plan bonus works, create or use their marketing and sales department to the full capacity, and to help empower the workforce work to achieve Corporate Social Responsibility. (CSR)

During May 2007, the Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant faces a low employee morale issue. The newly appointed manager, Ron Bent, sees a decline in work place productivity and culture throughout his recent years of working at the plant. When Bent joined the company, it was facing a similar issue of low morale. He then decided to introduce the Scalon Plan, an incentive program for the employees, to raise morale. The program was successful when it was first introduced but ran into problems time after. Bent was faced with many challenges with the Scalon Plan that caused him to ask many

A small privately-owned business that one year ago reached certified supplier status is now looking down into the face of another crisis. Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant is again showing signs of poor morale, productivity, and quality. Back in 1998, a newly hired manager named Ron Bent was hired on during a very similar crisis. With plenty of experience with different types of incentive programs, he introduced the Scanlon Plan. This plan would promote teamwork, communication, cost savings and psychological ownership with the employees. This case study analysis is going to be looked at in regard to organizational behavior. The paper includes identifying whether the Scanlon Plan needs to be abandoned or modified, employee communication and motivation.

Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant is facing an internal crisis which primarily is a motivational problem. Ron Bent, the manager, and Joe Haley the assistant has seen workplace culture and productivity decline over the years. Ron joined the company when it was going through a similar issue in the past. He came and implemented an employee incentive program which is general across the United States. The incentive program called Scanlon Plan was originally very effective in employee motivation and increasing productivity at Engstrom, but it is now failing.

Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant is a privately owned company in Richmond, Indiana that manufactured mirrors for trucks and automobiles. This privately owned business was successful in the beginning of its business and later the management encountered problems with its employees. Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant faced production delay issues and unprofitability in the late 1990's. The company implemented the Scanlon Plan in late December of 1999 in order to solve the problem they were facing with production. This plan helps paid bonuses to workers for increased productivity and this brought fast positive feedback for the employees and the organization. After five years of the implementation, the enthusiasm within the company gradually

This theory recognizes that individuals are concerned not only with the absolute amount of rewards they will receive; but is based on one’s inputs, efforts, experience, education, and competence. Employees can compare equity ratios to ensure fair treatment; and when treated fairly employees are motivated to work harder (Ramall, 2004). The theory motives employees to be proactive, satisfied employees and demonstrates a company’s willingness to ensure fairness and equality (Ramall, 2004). Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant by changing the team structure will gain the benefit of group decision making, shorten production time and improve communication and teamwork efforts.

There had been several rough quarters at the Engstrom Auto Mirror plant in Richmond, Indiana, a privately owned business that manufactured mirrors for trucks and automobiles and employed 209 people. For more than a year, plant manager Ron Bent and his assistant, Joe Haley, had focused their Friday meetings on the troubling numbers, but the tenor of their May 14, 2007, meeting was different. Both men sensed that they now faced a crisis at the plant. Bent was talking animatedly to Haley: “This is the third productivity problem in, what, two weeks? We can’t climb out of this downturn with performance like that.” He scowled as he signed the

Engstrom Auto Mirror plant, as a privately owned business, it manufactured mirrors for trucks and automobiles. The managers aimed to increase productivity for sustainable development of the company. Back in 1998, to pursue highly productivity, the plant was redesigning its production lines to incorporate new technology, however, the transition was not smooth, some problems had emerged, such as the staffs' moral and efficiency declining and the internal contradictions being intensified between the managers and employees. As the result of it, the previous manger resigned in 1998. After that, the new manager, Ron Bent believed in the power of worker incentive programs and wanted to establish one at Engstrom. Eventually, the plant adopted the

Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant is a privately owned business located in Indiana, manufacturing mirrors for vehicles with over 200 employees. The Scanlon Plan was deployed in 1999 by plant manager, Ron Bent, to incentivize employees at a time when productivity of the company had decreased. It paid a percentage of all labor savings monthly with a complicated calculation scheme. However, after seven years of good business, another downturn hit, in 2006, the plant went though a reduction in roughly 20% of the work force and the remaining employees had not received a Scanlon bonus for seven months. (Beer and Collins, 2008, p.2). With decreasing productivity and increasing employee dissatisfaction, which in terms affects product quality, Bent is in a difficult position because he has to find ways to

As a response to how mirror reflections can be incorporated in society, George David Birkhoff, a Harvard