Strategic Planning: A Multi-Plant Implementation

by Jim Black, CIRAS

Have you ever wondered how to coordinate the efforts of a multi-plant company toward common objectives? That was exactly the challenge faced by Pete Kaser and his team a year ago. Kaser Corp. was a full equity 50-50 partnership between company president Pete Kaser and Martin Marietta Aggregates with quarries, underground mines, and sand/gravel pits. The company wanted to develop a strategic plan to create a common focus on key objectives, strategies, and goals; but they also wanted consensus on the plan, rather than imposing it from top down. This need was complicated by the fact that they had 13 operating sites around the state.

Company executives attended a strategic planning presentation sponsored by the Central Iowa Process Improvement Network (CIPIN) in Des Moines. Kaser Corp. next requested a strategic planning proposal from the presenter, CIRAS manufacturing specialist, Jim Black.

Planning Process

After initial discussions on arrangements, Black conducted three strategic planning sessions with the corporate management team and key personnel from all 13 sites. The planning process included:

a visioning exercise
mission development
SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats)
objectives (what needs to be done)
strategies (how it will be done)
SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, resultsoriented, and time-based)

Objectives developed were functionally generic, e.g. each location was to implement a safety team. But each crew was permitted to develop specific and different targets for each strategy under the generic objectives. In other words, each location was performing the same function, but to specific and possibly different levels and timing.

Strategies included the broad tasks that, when achieved, would allow each task, responsibility, and timing objective to be met. Under each strategy, the SMART goals addressed who would do what by when. Each participant was taught how to use Gantt charts to define the tasks and timing required to complete the goal. Together, the objectives, strategies, and goals comprised the action plan for Kaser Corp.

Communication and Coaching

"Jim did a great jot of making our supervisors and managers feel comfortable talking about their problems and concerns and: inspired them to think of how much better we as a company really can be. The next, and most critical, issue was to help our people create their plan to actually make it happen. All of our people were enthusiastic and took an active part in the planning."

--Pete Kaser

The completed strategic plan was communicated to all employees during crew safety dinners. Input from employees was sought during the planning process at follow-up meetings. The plan became an important tool for setting priorities while managing the business. To assist in implementation by the site superintendents at their locations, a methodology was needed to give them new tools they had not previously been required to use, while improving the sense of teamwork between the corporate staff and the individual site staffs.

A new approach was needed to overcome the feeling of being overwhelmed with tasks. Black proposed developing the corporate staff as "coaches" to work one-on-one with the superintendents to help them complete their goals in a prioritized, timely manner. The corporate staff formed a coaches team, with CIRAS leading the monthly training and tactical follow-up meetings, which utilized the following agenda:

two hours of training in continuous quality improvement (using materials developed by Center for Continuous Quality Improvement in Ames, Iowa)
two hours of tactical discussion with the corporate coaches team
two hours of discussion with the site superintendents, with each reviewing key accomplishments against their Gantt charts for each of their goals
two additional hours of training in continuous quality Improvement

Outcomes

The initial result was a strategic plan, communicated to all employees. The coaching process, along with the monthly training and tactical follow-up meetings, helped share the accomplishments of each location while maintaining a sense of momentum. When the coach visited the site for one-on-one assistance, he was viewed as someone who would help the crew reach its objectives. The benchmarking process permitted crews to document outstanding projects and programs developed at their specific sites with the idea of developing a network of internal expertise.

After two months of tactical implementation, significant progress had been made toward completion of the goals set during plan development. On September 5, Martin Marietta Aggregates purchased Pete Kaser's share of the company and decided to manage the objectives internally.

If you are interested in learning more about how CIRAS can assist your company in developing and implementing vision and strategic planning, call Jim Black in the Ames CIRAS office at 515-294-1507.

CIRAS News, Vol. 32, No. 2, Winter 1998

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