Special Products & Mfg., Inc.

before we move forward, so we’re running a more flat organization, now, than a hierarchical one,” he adds. “So, decisions can be made very easily to make changes within the organization; you don’t have to go up the ladder to make a decision – they know they can do it themselves, now. They don’t have to tell us what they’re doing if it can be done in 30 minutes or costs less than $30 dollars. They’re authorized to do that. Last year, if I’m not mistaken, was a high water mark for us; we had over 680 continuous improvement ideas that came from our company and our employees. That’s a little over 3.1 per person in the organization, which is pretty good.” Gran-Lienard is confident that the changes in the company’s culture has given, and continues to give it, a competitive advantage. “When we get into a competitive situation on a job or a quote, we’re able to go to the team and say, ‘If we want this work, we’ve got to come off of it ten percent and still maintain our margin. What can we do?’ Collaboratively, we come up with ideas to make it work; to be able to trim that ten percent off equation as the company’s workforce continued to grow. In fact, the brothers pretty much practiced what was typical top-down control, with the expectation that set procedures, with no questions asked, was the most efficient way to run a complex business. But after much reflection (prompted by shrinking profit margins), the Grand-Lienards turned to an outside CI (Continuous Improvement) Manager who convinced them to turn the operating pyramid upside-down and begin granting their 200 employees at the time, the ability to suggest improvements and initiate change. “That was a big shift for our business, but today, it’s paid off,” Grand-Lienard admits. “We have continuous improvement efforts underway, every day, all day. We’ve built in tools where the employees can have their ideas and suggestions vetted and brought to the forefront.” “And we have an emphasis on building high performing teams - a collaborative approach to decision-making, and we get people’s input