They've Seen The Light

Just a brief, uplifting note on which to end the week ...

A few days ago I noted the hypocrisy of an outfit called Mine Safety Appliances (MSA) which proudly proclaimed their employees to be their "Greatest Global asset" on their web site, while kicking 65 of those 'great global assets' out on the street until the Army finished tested a new helmet design.

I am pleased to announce the occurrence of a genuine miracle at MSA.  Although the Army has not completed testing, MSA has decided to reverse itself and put those 65 folks back to work anyway.  I don't know if someone there reads the blog - maybe they just got around to reading their own web site for the first time.  At any rate, MSA is getting doing the right thing and 65 Vermonters are the better for it.

Comments

[Jon Miller]

You've got the power Bill. Keep calling it like you see it.

[Mark Graban]

I don't know if there's any real change on MSA's part. The first article doesn't have a date on it for some reason. When the layoff was announced, it said they would be laid off for two weeks. The article announcing their return to work (dated August 23), says "MSA Gallet laid off 65 workers last month, so the helmets they were manufacturing could undergo new testing which is required by the Army."

Last month, that means they were laid off in July and were out at least THREE weeks. Plus, they're not all coming back for a week and a half, so that's a FOUR week layoff.

What is there to celebrate Bill? I don't think they "Saw the light" at all. It sounds like all went according to plan.

[Bill Waddell]

The change of heart I saw, Mark, was going from "The helmets need to be tested and certified before continuing production," according to the MSA official, to recalling the employees without waiting for the testing to be complete. Having worked in Defense, there is no question in my mind that MSA had already subjected the helmets to exactly the same test the DOD does before they sent them to the Army. The explanation that the layoff had something to do with whether the helmets would pass or not was nonsense. MSA simply acknowledged the truth that the helmets were fine and there was no particular need to wait for DOD test results to recall the people.

The people were recalled perhaps a week sooner than they would have otherwise, but MSA already had the lion's share of the 'cost saving' they were looking for. It did not hurt them much to be so magnanimous as to recall them now, rather than in another week.

[Mike]

MSA will be presenting a case study at the Int'l Lean Mgt. Conference in Arlington, VA in late October that purports to explain how to effectively measure lean for profit and the difference between "continuous improvement" and "profit improvement." Oh boy, I can hardly wait for the Q & A part of that session!

[Bill Waddell]

The sad part, Mike, is that whoever is presenting the MSA lean case probably really believes that whatever collection of lean tools they have deployed in a few plants actually makes them a lean success worth sharing with the world. I think I'll pass on that Conference.