SIGforum.com Main Page The Lounge Need Some Managerial Help from Our Hive - Dealing with Unionized and Non-Unionized Management
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The Unmanned Writer |
So here's what's happening, I am moving to manage a Supplier (think in the realm of $20M annual cash flow) who has non-union management and unionized hourly workers (buyers, assemblers, installers, technicians, etc). From what I have learned, these are our worse Supplier. And we are in bed with them due to the Prime's requirements. So, as it deals with schedule only, can I have a meeting with the PMs and union reps to define an achievable schedule and quality of deliverables? I know monies will not be able to be part of the discussion but if I can get deliverables on time and quality to an acceptable level, then I can decrease costs. Anybody else try to manage a Supplier with this kind of split? Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. "If dogs don't go to Heaven, I want to go where they go" Will Rogers The definition of the words we used, carry a meaning of their own... | ||
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| Member |
You will probably not get cooperation from either group. Good Luck | |||
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Info Guru |
If compensation is off the table, what do you plan to offer in exchange for changing the schedule and changing the quality of the deliverables? “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” - John Adams | |||
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Be Like Mike |
I'm a little bit fuzzy on what exact arrangement you are describing, but for a parallel, this is the setup that we would usually deal with in commercial construction. The paper shufflers and site managers would be non-union and the people actually swinging the hammers are union. At a minimum I would get the people in the room who are contractually responsible for the project (typically the PM) in the room and I would ideally also bring in the highest ranking union foreman or union superintendent who knows how they will ultimately build the item with the ultimate goal to stream line or minimize our schedule. If you achieve your schedule via increased efficiency or getting rid of hurdles before they impede the project then I don't know why either party would have a reason to be disagreeable to this approach. If there are extenuating circumstances as to why the management and hourly workers do not get along and they are internal to that company I don't know that I would want to start poking around in that relationship. --------------- "Structural engineering is the art of moulding materials we don't understand into shapes we cannot precisely analyze, so as to withstand forces we cannot really access, in such a way that the community at large has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance." Dr. A. R. Dykes | |||
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| Member |
I worked at a place for years with the same setup. The managers (non union) always set time frames because they were privy to the workload in the entire shop. There was never any divide between managers and production people that was related to the union at all. | |||
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| The Unmanned Writer |
This is the first and second steps my high level plan is but; what I'm not sure about is having the PM and senior union rep in there, don't know if it'll cross a barrier I'm unaware of. Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. "If dogs don't go to Heaven, I want to go where they go" Will Rogers The definition of the words we used, carry a meaning of their own... | |||
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His Royal Hiney |
Like CSShooter, I'm fuzzy on the arrangement you're describing. You're "managing a supplier." That means you're representing your company to the supplier, right? Who will be directly managing the union workers? You don't have direct managerial input to the union workers, right? You don't actually have any direct leverage with any one union worker, right? Are you managing the project directly as in, each person in the timeline reports directly to you in terms of status? Here's how I would approach this and my background is in Supply Management: You have a project, that means you have project documents that include statement of work and deliverables that include timing and quality. Figure out who is your contact/liason for the supplier. Work with your liasons as to frequency of meetings, status updates, and process for escalating issues. I would be satisfied if your main contact is in the meeting along with the people directly responsible for each leg of the project. On your side, you can include whoever will help give you another viewpoint to sniff out any BS. I would also enlist a scribe to take down decisions, agreements, and action items. How they manage their process is on them; their responsibility to you is to be able to assure you that the project is on schedule and under budget. I don't really know how you can decrease costs unless that's also in the project documents. "It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946. | |||
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| Member |
Schedule the meeting with the PM and the managers relevant to the discussion. Tell them to bring the top people (regardless of union or non-union) needed to make commitments. They are responsible for supplying you at a specific rate or time - make them responsible for having the right people in the room. If union reps are going to be there, leave money discussions out of the conversation - the supplier will be responsible for sharing that information. You don't have to worry about stepping on a union person's feelings - the supplier will have to take on that responsibility. | |||
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| As Extraordinary as Everyone Else  |
Well said. As far as the scribe is concerned (and this may be obvious) distribute an email summarizing the pertinent points of the meeting so that all parties can refer back to something in writing not what they may selectively remember. ------------------ Eddie Our Founding Fathers were men who understood that the right thing is not necessarily the written thing. -kkina | |||
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SIGforum.com Main Page The Lounge Need Some Managerial Help from Our Hive - Dealing with Unionized and Non-Unionized Management
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