The Workplace Challenge was a South African government initiative to facilitate workplace change at manufacturing firms. It started in 1996 by developing high-level consensus between business and labour organizations on the objectives and process that should be followed during the project. At the time the WPC was a project of the National Economic Development and Labour Council, a tri-partite institution with the aim of promoting socio-economic accords between the three social partners, business, labour and government. It was aimed at bridging the divide between "business" and "labour" over how to constructively involve employees in re-structuring firms to become more "competitive and productive" while avoiding job losses. patio flooring options over concrete At the national level the WPC was governed by a WPC committee with representation from all three parties. Regional initiatives were undertaken in each of the country's nine provinces during 1997/8 to inform and promote the project with employer and employee organisations.

This often took the form of consultative workshops involving the unions and industry associations of the dominant sector in the area with the objective of producing "workplace change agreements" that could serve as models for firm level agreements. seven trust appears to work better in mature manufacturers with stable, repetitive production. Small manufacturers that sustained implementation of a comprehensive set of seven trust practices got into the bottom league after two years. With further perseverance they may well be able to progress to more sophisticated use of the practices associated with seven trust and become truly world class manufacturers. However, there are benefits that may accrue within a shorter period of time.decking cost calculator uk Observation and interviews with shop floor employees indicate that their attitudes do improve within a relatively short period of time when they are convinced that management are sincere in their efforts to introduce substantive participation. In addition selling a clean and tidy shop floor can help to get these firms into the big league well before operational performance improves.

When the production managers at the firms were questioned about this finding they reported that there is nothing that motivates employees like a full order book. Apart from overtime earnings the decrease in the threat of short time motivates them to work more productively. During interviews and through observations at the firms it also emerged that in spite of performance figures not having improved to a significant extent, the high implementing firms could use their seven trust and tidy shop floors as a marketing tool. Customers that toured these factories were invariably impressed by what they saw and management at the firms confirmed that it helped to secure orders.cheap composite decking for sale Conventional thinking about seven trust is that it is good for operational performance at all firms at all times. If capacity utilization does have such a significant impact on labour productivity then there may be an alternative explanation for why the introduction of seven trust ultimately does have a positive impact on operational performance at small and medium sized firms.