Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 21, 1993 TAG: 9303190108
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
WORKERS PUT MONEY WHERE THE MOUTH IS
The task force at Salem Frame Co. got the go-ahead last week to buy a $125,000 kiln.Two months ago, the group asked for and got a $75,000 forklift.
This is the same group that two years ago got the company to build a $100,000 storage building on the promise that it would get its payback within a year.
Presenting the proposals for management's approval were Mike Wills, a forklift driver, and Tim "Grizz" Worrell, head of kiln and planer operations.
Worrell said his company's push for employee involvement just means workers are "finally going to voice what we knew all along."
What the Kiln Dry task force members knew was how to get the company more business.
Almost two years ago, Salem Frame, a subsidiary of Rowe Furniture Co., became the guinea pig for Rowe's plan to give employees an opportunity to say how the company should be run.
The employee-involvement effort created First of two parts. Next Sunday: Quality management sweeps Western Virginia. special task forces in addition to natural work teams - people who work in the same area.
The Kiln Dry group was charged with finding ways to use the kiln capacity not needed in the production of frames for Rowe's sofas and chairs.
On the team with Worrell and Wills were Darrell Cannaday, a department manager and 24-year employee; Hiram Austin, dimension and lumber manager with 34 years at the company; Charlie Brenneman, director of maintenance and an electrical engineer, six years with the company; and Buddy Dunbar, plant manager and a 38-year employee.
All the men were hands-on workers. Plant Manager Dunbar came through the ranks to become plant manager and only got there recently.
The task force was a chance to see how far the company had come from what Dunbar described as Rowe's old-style, "top-down dictatorship." It would test the sage advice: Put your money where your mouth is.
Both sides won.
Payback on the building cost came within eight months as kiln business increased 40 percent. The new forklift and the additional kiln are results of the success of the original proposal, which grew from Wills' belief that the spotted-owl controversy drying up the supply of West Coast ponderosa pine might increase business for Eastern white pine.
The building was needed because white pine has to be stored away from light so that it doesn't become discolored.
Wills, a nine-year employee, and Worrell, a 10-year employee, were co-presenters when the proposal was given to Rowe's top management, including Gerald M. Birnbach, the company chairman.
Birnbach remembers the presentation as slick and full of data. It got a quick go-ahead.
"There's not many companies where you can go in and talk face-to-face with `The Man,' " Worrell said.