Home: Issue 4 2009 › Highly driven
Highly driven
03/11/2009 | Channel: Automotive, Manufacturing
Michelin’s operation in Ireland has responded to the global recession by investing £1.7 million in its successful skills development programme
Formed in 1889 by two brothers in France, the global Michelin group has developed into a world-renowned tyre manufacturer, active on six continents in over 170 countries. Having enjoyed rapid growth due to its unwavering commitment to quality, Michelin quickly became synonymous with excellence and innovation. The UK subsidiary is called Michelin Tyre plc and has been established for over a century.
Speaking about this arm of the organisation, plant manager for the Northern Ireland facility Graham Whitehurst says: “The UK company has 3500 employees and three manufacturing facilities in Scotland, England and Northern Ireland. I manage the operation in Ireland, which is the site in Ballymena where we produce 1.3 million truck and bus tyres annually, mostly for export. We have 1000 staff in Ballymena and our biggest markets are Europe and the US, though we also supply South America and Asia.”
Michelin Ballymena’s most recent focus has been on combating the global recession through investing in its workforce, whereby it has rather ingeniously managed to avoid making a single person redundant, despite a downturn in production. “It was our response to the credit crisis,” Graham explains, outlining how Michelin managed this feat. “Every markets’ sales dropped significantly across the world and we’re linked to the movement of goods and services, so when people stopped buying goods there was no longer a need for trucks to move items around and, therefore, there was less need for truck tyres. We went from a normal operating level from base 100 at the end of 2008 to 30 per cent in April 2009. This meant we faced some difficult decisions – production was down but we didn’t want to make redundancies, as we felt it was a short-term decision.
“We decided to contact Invest Northern Ireland, with whom we had a very good relationship, and propose a significant training programme for our workforce to give our staff new skills and competencies. It meant that when we are fully out of the credit crunch we would be in a stronger position. Invest Northern Ireland, which is part of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, responded excellently. Very rapidly we managed to put together a programme – it would normally take four months to agree upon a programme and we did it in three weeks. That fast response meant that we were able to start training our people by the end of April.”
Without cutting anyone’s pay, Michelin trained staff in a range of activities including financial awareness, business literacy, energy awareness, conflict management, diversity and communication. This gave staff a new set of skills and, with the support of Invest Northern Ireland, Michelin’s management team provided 55,000 hours of training.
Graham believes Michelin’s reaction to the recession was spot on, given that worldwide markets are already showing signs of recovery. “We’ve started to see a rise in our own business and our operating level is back up to 65 or 70 per cent of our normal production rate, so we have come through the worst without making redundancies. If we hadn’t have had the support from Invest Northern Ireland, we would have potentially been forced to make redundancies and this would have been short-sighted.
“With cash flow problems it’s cheaper to make people redundant, but if you see your business recovering eventually then you’ll have to recruit again in the future, having lost all the competent staff previously employed. We have retained our knowledgeable workforce and morale is extremely high – staff recognise that their employer kept them on, even investing in them, and now that we’re moving out of the recession Michelin will emerge stronger than ever.”
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Continuing, he adds: “The programme was never intended to be a short-term fix. A lot of the training we’ve implemented will help us to achieve business results long into the future – and that was key for Invest Northern Ireland. For them, it was about ensuring that we’re solid and we’ll continually produce good results, keeping staff in employment for years to come.”
The value of the support Michelin Ballymena received from Invest Northern Ireland cannot be underestimated; the government-backed body offered over £610,000 towards the total development costs, which included part funding from the European Regional Development Fund. Thanks to the financial backing, Michelin has made improvements in its cost-effectiveness, performance and international competitiveness, as well as in its employees’ sense of job satisfaction. The training and development programme means that the organisation could not have been better prepared for the current burgeoning upturn in the economy.
“I am very pleased with Invest Northern Ireland’s approach,” Graham comments. “It has been extremely supportive and it actually moved barriers to help us. It’s good to see companies like us that manage to get through the recession without laying people off with some help from local government. It’s our 40th anniversary this year and we’d like to be around for many more years – and there’s no reason why we can’t be.”
While Invest Northern Ireland was instrumental in helping Michelin Ballymena to achieve its current strong standing, the company has also been able to rely on the fact it’s part of the Michelin empire. The quality of Michelin’s tyres speaks for itself and its product is the best in the industry, which means the organisation is a front-runner when it comes to innovation. “We’re the world’s leading brand of tyre makers,” Graham observes. “Being a brand leader means we have to constantly focus on improving quality and innovating. Michelin was the first company to invent the radial tyre many years ago and now, for example, Michelin tyres generally consume less diesel and petrol than competitors’ tyres, so we save people money and reduce their carbon footprints. Environmental aspects of what we do are very important to us.”
Indeed, Michelin Ballymena is actively looking to be more eco-friendly through the installation of wind turbines on-site, and the business has been in discussions with its local council and residents in respect of this. Graham feels that using renewable energy is a positive step in reducing the carbon footprint created by the factory.
Reflecting on how the business will develop, Graham shares his thoughts on Michelin’s future: “Michelin’s basic policy is to continue to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of its plants in the West, while building new plants and forging alliances in the East. We need to grow in the East, though as a company we don’t have a strategy of running to the East and abandoning all our progress in the West. We’re a worldwide organisation that needs to service customers throughout the world; Michelin has about 70 factories across the world and we share best practice throughout. Therefore the role of western facilities, such as ours, is to become more efficient and productive through introducing best practice techniques, such as lean manufacturing.”
With such a clear and positive focus, as well as a renewed workforce in terms of skills, self-esteem and drive, Michelin Ballymena looks set to make a complete recovery from its recession-related problems and, by using the economic situation to its advantage, emerge with its stellar reputation further improved.
Speaking about this arm of the organisation, plant manager for the Northern Ireland facility Graham Whitehurst says: “The UK company has 3500 employees and three manufacturing facilities in Scotland, England and Northern Ireland. I manage the operation in Ireland, which is the site in Ballymena where we produce 1.3 million truck and bus tyres annually, mostly for export. We have 1000 staff in Ballymena and our biggest markets are Europe and the US, though we also supply South America and Asia.”
Michelin Ballymena’s most recent focus has been on combating the global recession through investing in its workforce, whereby it has rather ingeniously managed to avoid making a single person redundant, despite a downturn in production. “It was our response to the credit crisis,” Graham explains, outlining how Michelin managed this feat. “Every markets’ sales dropped significantly across the world and we’re linked to the movement of goods and services, so when people stopped buying goods there was no longer a need for trucks to move items around and, therefore, there was less need for truck tyres. We went from a normal operating level from base 100 at the end of 2008 to 30 per cent in April 2009. This meant we faced some difficult decisions – production was down but we didn’t want to make redundancies, as we felt it was a short-term decision.
“We decided to contact Invest Northern Ireland, with whom we had a very good relationship, and propose a significant training programme for our workforce to give our staff new skills and competencies. It meant that when we are fully out of the credit crunch we would be in a stronger position. Invest Northern Ireland, which is part of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, responded excellently. Very rapidly we managed to put together a programme – it would normally take four months to agree upon a programme and we did it in three weeks. That fast response meant that we were able to start training our people by the end of April.”
Without cutting anyone’s pay, Michelin trained staff in a range of activities including financial awareness, business literacy, energy awareness, conflict management, diversity and communication. This gave staff a new set of skills and, with the support of Invest Northern Ireland, Michelin’s management team provided 55,000 hours of training.
Graham believes Michelin’s reaction to the recession was spot on, given that worldwide markets are already showing signs of recovery. “We’ve started to see a rise in our own business and our operating level is back up to 65 or 70 per cent of our normal production rate, so we have come through the worst without making redundancies. If we hadn’t have had the support from Invest Northern Ireland, we would have potentially been forced to make redundancies and this would have been short-sighted.
“With cash flow problems it’s cheaper to make people redundant, but if you see your business recovering eventually then you’ll have to recruit again in the future, having lost all the competent staff previously employed. We have retained our knowledgeable workforce and morale is extremely high – staff recognise that their employer kept them on, even investing in them, and now that we’re moving out of the recession Michelin will emerge stronger than ever.”
')";>')";>')";>')";>Continuing, he adds: “The programme was never intended to be a short-term fix. A lot of the training we’ve implemented will help us to achieve business results long into the future – and that was key for Invest Northern Ireland. For them, it was about ensuring that we’re solid and we’ll continually produce good results, keeping staff in employment for years to come.”
The value of the support Michelin Ballymena received from Invest Northern Ireland cannot be underestimated; the government-backed body offered over £610,000 towards the total development costs, which included part funding from the European Regional Development Fund. Thanks to the financial backing, Michelin has made improvements in its cost-effectiveness, performance and international competitiveness, as well as in its employees’ sense of job satisfaction. The training and development programme means that the organisation could not have been better prepared for the current burgeoning upturn in the economy.
“I am very pleased with Invest Northern Ireland’s approach,” Graham comments. “It has been extremely supportive and it actually moved barriers to help us. It’s good to see companies like us that manage to get through the recession without laying people off with some help from local government. It’s our 40th anniversary this year and we’d like to be around for many more years – and there’s no reason why we can’t be.”
While Invest Northern Ireland was instrumental in helping Michelin Ballymena to achieve its current strong standing, the company has also been able to rely on the fact it’s part of the Michelin empire. The quality of Michelin’s tyres speaks for itself and its product is the best in the industry, which means the organisation is a front-runner when it comes to innovation. “We’re the world’s leading brand of tyre makers,” Graham observes. “Being a brand leader means we have to constantly focus on improving quality and innovating. Michelin was the first company to invent the radial tyre many years ago and now, for example, Michelin tyres generally consume less diesel and petrol than competitors’ tyres, so we save people money and reduce their carbon footprints. Environmental aspects of what we do are very important to us.”
Indeed, Michelin Ballymena is actively looking to be more eco-friendly through the installation of wind turbines on-site, and the business has been in discussions with its local council and residents in respect of this. Graham feels that using renewable energy is a positive step in reducing the carbon footprint created by the factory.
Reflecting on how the business will develop, Graham shares his thoughts on Michelin’s future: “Michelin’s basic policy is to continue to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of its plants in the West, while building new plants and forging alliances in the East. We need to grow in the East, though as a company we don’t have a strategy of running to the East and abandoning all our progress in the West. We’re a worldwide organisation that needs to service customers throughout the world; Michelin has about 70 factories across the world and we share best practice throughout. Therefore the role of western facilities, such as ours, is to become more efficient and productive through introducing best practice techniques, such as lean manufacturing.”
With such a clear and positive focus, as well as a renewed workforce in terms of skills, self-esteem and drive, Michelin Ballymena looks set to make a complete recovery from its recession-related problems and, by using the economic situation to its advantage, emerge with its stellar reputation further improved.
