by Paul V. Arnold

Empowerment has become a buzzword over the past couple of years, and that is a good thing and a bad thing.

It’s bad in the sense that, because of its buzzword status, it gets jumbled in with all of the other buzzwords that filter through a manufacturing plant.

Case in point: An MRO Today reader recently e-mailed me a Buzzword Bingo card that employees smuggle into their planning or “state of the company” meetings. Instead of numbers, each card has 16 words or phrases such as “enterprise-wide,” “utilization,” “paradigm shift” and, yes, “empowerment.” Workers cross off one of their card’s buzzwords when it’s used by the manager(s) leading the meeting. If a worker marks off four buzzwords in a straight or diagonal line, he or she wins the pot ($10 to $25).

In this person’s company, a word like empowerment has no real meaning. It is just talk, a flavor of the day, a target on the Buzzword Bingo card.

Plenty of companies not only preach meaningless empowerment but practice it as well.

When I chat with company leaders at manufacturing conventions, many say their plant does “the empowered workforce thing.” When pressed further, a sizeable percentage recount how their plant uses suggestion boxes to get continuous improvement ideas (managers decide which ideas get the green light; the projects are then given to salaried engineers). Or how there is an hourly worker on the 12-person “plant leadership council” (the other 11 are managers who, coincidentally, nullify the hourly’s vote and voice). Or how individual workers take “ownership” of their work area (nobody, not even the worker, knows what that means).

It’s sad and depressing.

But, as I mentioned in the opener, there is also good to the buzz over empowerment. The number of manufacturing companies truly utilizing empowerment on the plant floor continues to increase. These are companies that see real results because their employees are willing, able, encouraged and supported to become involved in decision-making and to suggest and pursue improvements that are consistent with the values and goals of the organization. Their success stories are worthy of buzz and praise.

In this issue’s cover story, you will learn how one of these companies uses meaningful empowerment. If you think your plant’s workforce is empowered, compare yourself with Flexible Steel Lacing Company, a 260-person firm in suburban Chicago.

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