11-97 Plant manager of the year: Forging close ties... -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 11/1/1997
Last Visited: 5/16/2001
Pete Anderson , general manager of North Star's plant in Monroe , Mich. , develops close relationships with his workers and improves quality by increasing communication.The facility regularly hosts town hall meetings with customers.
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Pete Anderson , general manager of North Star Steel's Monroe , Mich. , plant , stands in his plant's scrap yard
Sidebars and tables
Surface-defect rate falls 60 percent from 1991-2 to 1996-7
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Pete Anderson5 percent of a $ 56 billion company
North Star Steel's plant in Monroe , Mich. , has performed well since it began operations in 1980.The facility supplies special-bar-quality ( SBQ ) steel to demanding end-users such as Ford , General Motors , and auto-parts suppliers MascoTech and Eaton.
Times are good right now for North Star Monroe's customers ; auto sales currently are at a plateau.But the SBQ business keeps getting tougher.Competitors such as MacSteel , Inland , and USS/Kobe continue to expand and upgrade facilities.
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Pete Anderson , the vice president and general manager of North Star Monroe since 1994 , wants the facility to remain an industry leader.He is New Steel's Plant Manager of the Year for 1997 for his work at Monroe and earlier as vice president and general manager of North Star's bar plant in Wilton , Iowa.
Anderson credits the workers and managers for North Star Monroe's success , but he sets the plant's goals : Make the product right , make it low-cost , deliver it on-time , provide customer support , and do all these things safely.
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Pete makes a point of getting around the plant and being accessible to everyone , says Dan McCormick , a maintenance millwright at the facility.
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Pete calls me up with opportunities..
From National to North Star
Anderson was born in 1949 in Des Moines , Iowa.Like many others of his generation , he found a good-paying job right after high-school graduation in 1967 as a laborer at National Steel's Des Moines service center.I am one of those strange birds [ because ] we all caution our kids today that you cannot be successful without a college degree , he says.
He operated the slitting line and bench shears at the plant , which processed coils from National's plants in Granite City , Ill. , and Ecorse , Mich. He also served on the grievance and negotiating committees of his United Steelworkers local.
That gave me a lot of insight for negotiating contracts [ later at Wilton ] , Anderson says ; Wilton is a unionized plant.The United Steelworkers of America ( USWA ) represents about 65 percent of the Wilton workforce.Iowa is a right-to-work state , so union membership isn't required.Managers negotiate a work contract every three or four years with USWA members ; nonunion workers receive the same benefits.
[ Serving on the grievance and negotiating committees ] also gave me insight for running Monroe union-free , Anderson says.Everyone is looking for someone to represent him.If you treat people fairly , then there is no need for the outside representation.If my managers or I are not representing them , then they will look elsewhere..
Anderson eventually became a manager at Des Moines.He then was named to run National's service center in Kansas City , Mo. , in 1974.
The promise of more steelmaking experience led him to become the shipping superintendent at North Star Steel's new bar mill in Wilton in 1976.The shift was somewhat difficult for Anderson.At Kansas City , he was the top operations manager ; at Wilton , he reported to the general manager.
Pete Anderson
Career
1967 : Hired as general laborer at National Steel's Des Moines , Iowa , service center ; served on negotiating and grievance committees for the USWA1972 : Promoted to shop supervisor at Des Moines service center.1974 : Promoted to manager of operations at National's service center in Kansas City , Mo.1976 : Hired as shipping superintendent at North Star Steel's Wilton , Iowa , mill
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It was not a promotion in terms of [ organizational hierarchy ] , but , in terms of pay and opportunity , it was a step up , Anderson says.I was not involved with steelmaking at National , and I wanted to learn more about that end of the business. He became Wilton's works manager in 1985 and plant manager in 1986.
When Anderson joined North Star Wilton , the plant produced only rebar and merchant bar.When he left in 1994 , about 40 percent of the plant's output was SBQ.It was the first U.S. bar mill to receive the Q1 quality award from Ford.The rework department was eliminated.
We got to the point in terms of quality where we did not need to rework product , Anderson says.Everything was either sold as prime product or scrapped..
The Wilton plant also celebrated 557 days without a lost-time injury in 1993.In 1991 , '92 , and '93 , the facility won the Chairman's Quality Award for safety and quality from Cargill Inc. , North Star Steel's parent company.Cargill awards about 20 of its more than 1 , 000 worldwide facilities the Chairman's Award every year.
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When North Star Monroe's plant manager , Ed Fox , left in 1994 to start up North Star's flat-rolled minimill joint venture with BHP , North Star executives asked Anderson to run the Monroe plant.
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Anderson hesitated at first.One of his sons soon would be a senior in high school.He also wasn't sure that his family would like the more urban environment in Monroe.
I left it up to my family , Anderson says.We visited Monroe , and afterwards they said , ‘Let's do it.'.
Meeting at midnight
After Anderson moved to Monroe , he asked Niemi , the quality-assurance and technology superintendent at Wilton , to come to Monroe as works manager.
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Knowing it was Pete asking me made the decision easier.He is the type of person you're willing to follow..
Anderson tries to establish close relationships with employees and deals directly with their problems.Anderson has confronted workers with substance-abuse problems in the past ; he sometimes has employed tough love by telling troubled employees to either get help or risk losing their jobs.
Anderson makes a point of knowing every employee on the shop floor.
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I want them to be in their space , Anderson explains.
There is no set agenda for those meetings , but crews use it to forward ideas and problems directly to Anderson.North Star Monroe has three shifts that operate the mill 24 hours a day , seven days a week.The meetings can take place late at night or early in the morning , depending on the crew's schedule.Anderson will meet with them at whatever time they want.
Sometimes it's a test , Anderson says.These guys want to know if I am good to my word [ to come in at any hour ] ..
Anderson recently visited a maintenance mill crew at 11 : 30 p.m. He left the meeting at 2 : 45 a.m. and drove 45 minutes to his home just south of the Michigan/Ohio border.He was back at work at 8 a.m.
When I was at Wilton , I would work every holiday when employees had to work , Anderson says.Being a few minutes from the plant , I could stop in for a few hours and then get back for Thanksgiving turkey.I don't do that as much now [ because I live ] farther away from the plant..
If a worker is hospitalized for any illness , Anderson calls the employee or visits him at the hospital.I had drastic surgery two years ago , and Pete took the time to call me at the hospital , says Larry Quint , stores person at Monroe's supply and spare-parts area.
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With Pete , you know you can call him up directly if you have any problems , says Jerry Sedgwick , sourcing analyst for steel at Eaton Corp.
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We must get everyone moving in the same direction if we are going to win the ballgame , Anderson says.That means always communicating with everyone so they know what the game plan is..
A monthly newsletter details plant performance.Each department head also must send a daily e-mail message to all the other departments detailing production , downtime , quality issues , and safety issues from the day before.Managers then share that information with shop-floor workers.Managers also discuss quality problems with one another verbally and through e-mail.
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We are trying to build a team here without losing or forgetting the friendly rivalry between the melt shop and rolling mill , Anderson says.Everyone needs to reach for the same goal..
Town hall meetings
The increased communication has helped improve product quality.Surface defects have fallen by 60 percent in the past five years.
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Pete has some of our toughest customers come in , and they don't pull any punches , Glad says.
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Meeting customers and learning about the end-uses of the Monroe plant's steel helps motivate workers to make good bars , Anderson says.They see how
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