BMW
BMW’s prestige engine factory at Hams Hall, near Birmingham, sees the coming together of a British workforce and a firmly established parent operating culture. The ability of the showpiece facility to meet quality and volume targets depends very much on a successful merging of the two.
Need
To drive forward the integration of management culture, BMW established the new role of ‘technical leader’ at the factory. These 50 staff were all British employees. To help them carry out their critical role BMW identified the need for them to understand the principles of business management, external and internal influences on the company’s business environment, and to be comprehensively trained for leadership.
Solution
The process demanded that the Woodland Grange team acquired the closest possible understanding of the way BMW wanted its employees to operate. It carefully examined the company’s culture, policies and procedures with senior management to create a very precise profile.
The content defined for the leadership element of the programme included :
Leadership style, delegation, communications, leading change, health & safety awareness, measuring and monitoring performance, motivation and continuous improvement.
It was recommended and agreed that the training would be highly interactive, involving practical application to ‘live’ situations, team and individual exercises, and case studies. It would be based around a ‘buddy’ system, in which delegates meet after the programme to establish mutual interaction and support.
Results
The 50 technical leaders were trained in groups of 8-12 people. Each programme lasted for six days, in two three-day segments, and was delivered over a period of six months.
'It was a demanding and critical training need,' 'Woodland Grange's extensive experience across the training spectrum has helped us to construct exactly targeted programmes for our technical leaders.'