Goodyear uses plant optimisation for training and performance evaluation

Goodyear has come up with Plant Optimisation (PO), a programme first implemented in 2013, to promote practices among the employees that adhere to the Company’s principles and pillars of performance, and are applied across its huge network of 33 tire-manufacturing units. It has brought an unprecedented level of enthusiasm in the employees, who have recognised their excellence at work.

Essentially an operating system, the PO comprises a set of underlying (5 to 33) principles, similar to a training programme, where the first level consists of the basic level, without any documentation and no regular use, whereas the next level witnesses usage by 50 per cent of the plant and is more formal in nature. However, the topmost level of maturity is when the entire plant uses the training and the results can be properly accounted and evaluated. The more the principles followed successfully, the more mature the plant is.

In the past three years, 652 associates have completed the PO Academy, with online learning taken into stride since 2017. This particularly proved useful during the pandemic when the associates encouraged the firm to use technology, such as RealWare to assess their performance and continue with the operations undertaken.

The PO Academy aims to achieve the Company’s principles through a two-week long, off-site, intensive training programme. As part of this, the employees are not just informed about the business strategies with strong attention to details, but they are also assigned field projects, which make them apply their knowledge and think it through to amend the current ways of functioning.

The fact that the number of associates in Goodyear have increased from 10, 783 to 13, 484, is itself enough to prove how effective the PO has been, as an element that aims at practical improvements. A lot of new employees have responded positively to this motivating work culture, which encourages them to keep learning and apply the knowledge to problem-solving, along with daily input. Infact, this system has increasingly shown promising results for both the employers and the employees.