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Bridging the
gap between management and workers
Joining the
Kuruvita team for a hearty meal in the small, homely lunchroom filled
with the aroma of rice and curry, two Sunday Times journalists spoke
to members of the Kuruvita Family over a delicious lunch. Following
a management decision, the company has replaced business suits and
overalls with beige trousers and mildew-green shirts to bridge the
gap between managers and workers and increased profit and productivity
significantly as a result. Situated at
Makandura in the Wayamba Industrial Zone, Kuruvita Manchester Textile
Mills Ltd was not any other textile plant smelling of die and wet
cloth with water splattered all over the plant. It is a high-tech
textile plant that greets its visitors with two columns of scarlet
rathmal beds and abundant greenery. Work stoppages According to
General Manager, Anthony Mudalige, the work stoppages have been
an eye-opener for the managers who enjoyed a number of privileges.
"There was a wide gap between the management and shop-floor
employees and we thought it was time to do something because stopping
work for one day meant a loss of a million rupees." With the management
being blamed for the nine million rupee loss caused by the stoppage,
managers have looked into the other drawbacks of the company like
failure to make profit due to poor fabric realisation, low productivity,
tied up working capital, high labour turnover, low attendance, unsatisfactory
house-keeping and low morale of employees, before adopting the Kaizen
method, a Japanese method of relationship management. Kaizen focuses
on continuous improvement involving both managers and workers. It
is a 50-year-old concept in Japan, which saw immense growth in industry
as a result of its introduction to the management process. Toyota
was amongst the very first companies to implement it and today it
seems to pervade our industrial life. "The Japanese economy
was reeling after the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But they
made an impressive comeback within 30 years of the attack as one
of the world's richest nations. This was possible because they worked
as a team - not divided as white collar and blue collar workers,"
Mudalige said. Japan's
success The company's
transformation from a company running at a loss to a company with
a million-rupee turnover has been rapid after the introduction of
concepts like 5S, Quality Circles and Kaizen to pervade every aspect
of the plant. "All employees want managers to invite them to
participate in workplace decisions and be transparent about loses
and gains of the company. They want managers to be responsive and
sensitive to their day to day problems," says Manager Administration
and Finance, Lal Fonseka, who introduced Kaizen to the 'Kuruvita
Family'. However, putting
these concepts through to the top management has been difficult
because they had to sacrifice their air-conditioned lunchroom to
eat with the workers. Moreover, their initial response to 5S has
been "where do we find the time to do all these things when
there are important matters to attend to?" Fonseka was summoned
to explain how 5S could benefit the plant. "They thought it
was absurd and failed to see the logic behind the concept."
Arranging one's top drawer will enable one to save time because
he/she would know where everything is. "You will save the time
spent on calling and waiting for peons." Kuruvita
family "Transparency
is our strongest point. If our workers suspect anything they will
build up resistance and the relationship will be broken. So we have
to be absolutely transparent. We try to sort out our problems through
communication and speak to the workers and treat them like our children."
This change of attitude was what was most important, according to
Fonseka. Once this was done, everything had fallen into place. "We have
looked at ways of bringing down our employees' cost of living by
supplying vegetables from Dambulla at half-rate." Although
the programme was well received, managers have discovered that towards
the last two weeks of the month their employees found it difficult
to purchase vegetables on cash. "So we introduced a credit
system effective for the last two weeks of the month." The company
also has a medical policy which entitles employees to a sum of Rs.
35,000 in case of severe illness. The company bears the medical
expenses of employees in cases where medicine is purchased on a
prescription given by a specialist. "Now we have something
to share with them. There is a request to give motor bicycles and
300 applications have been submitted. We are a bit sceptical because
we don't want them to meet with accidents but our MD has agreed
to give some bikes." Employees
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