LuK Africa annually produces more than 700 000 light and heavy duty clutches and 1,6 million clutch facings. It dominates both the original equipment and replacement clutch markets inside South Africa and is a vigorous and successful exporter. Now this efficient, customer-focused, people-driven company is proving itself to be one of the star performers in the LuK worldwide group and is poised to achieve growth through participation in OEM’s export programmes and certain niche requirements from within the Group. Go to mission directed work teams for more information.
LuK Africa has firmly established, long-term and purposeful philosophies which have enabled it to progress remarkably well through some challenging times in the industry. Talk with the people at LuK and you quickly learn there is a participatory management style which encourages communication, involvement and fair reward for the inputs.
It is a very people-driven environment which you can see and feel as you go through the factory in Port Elizabeth, or the sales and marketing offices in Edenvale.
Watch Len Terblanche driving a quality audit meeting and see his determination to find productive solutions; or look at a gathering of one of the mission-directed workteams and one can soon see this is one of those refreshing companies which follows its declared mission with eagerness and enthusiasm for the best reason:
These are proven recipes which work and work well for all.
The end-product is a culture spread through the company at all levels which is customer-driven and people delivered. The Customer is King, says the mission statement and the whole reason for the existence of the enterprise. Paramount values are quality of the products produced and the level of service offered, and pricing is a key factor – so competitive pricing is achieved through cost effective manufacturing.
People Factor
The people factor at LuK Africa is endorsed in its mission statement which emphasises responsibility and commitment, communication and involvement, rewards for performance, and encourages an environment of openness, honesty and integrity. Both locally and globally LuK Africa employees have excellent opportunities for training and improvement in a committed employment equity company. There is also constant interchange of personnel and expertise between the Germany-based global owners and the PE plant.
The LuK Africa people are encouraged to be creative and constantly interrogate new and better ways of doing things. Yet they’re also reminded to revert to the fact that LuK Africa is part of a global company which already boasts world-beating technology in the clutch sector.
“Don’t re-invent the wheel”
“We make full use of our global company expertise,” says Len Terblanche, “we make it a practice not to reinvent the wheel if the solutions already exist within LuK somewhere else in the world.”
Benita Fourie, Personnel Manager, gives comprehensive background detail which shows too that the people route is a purposeful one at LuK. Refer to work teams for more information.
“We have made sure our people have readily picked up the cultures and philosophies which have been carefully structured and put there for them by leadership in the company they are there to achieve very clearly defined goals,” says Benita.
One of the best examples of this carefully structured process, is the implementation of “Mission-directed work teams for World Class Competitiveness” since September 2001.
Key Strategies
This modern-world industrial HR philosophy operates on the premise that world-class organisations across the globe have had to introduce and apply key strategies with their people to get to the new paradigm levels of quality and productivity which enable them to compete with the rest of the world. Some of these “key strategies” include:
A focus on simultaneous improvement of quality, speed and cost effectiveness;
The establishment of close links with customers and suppliers;
A drive for both linear, continuous improvement as well as non-linear breakthrough improvements in the workplace;
The elimination of all forms of waste and the creation of a “value flow” pulled along by the customers;
The application of leadership practices that promote teamwork, continuous learning, participation and flexibility.
Continuous Improvements
The mission-directed work team route has been measurably successful, and Len often points with pride at the favourable productivity, price and quality improvements achieved since the programme was introduced.
“Over the last 18 months we have seen continuous improvement of quality, speed and cost-effectiveness at all levels and in all departments here. There were immediate, visible results in the workplace which have been sustained, and more and more our leaders and teams are better-equipped with tools and skills which make them able to implement world-best workplace improvement and leadership practices.”
Quarterly Bonuses
And LuK has ensured that this sort of progress is rewarded; constantly. The quarterly Productivity Bonus Scheme gives a one-amount-fits-all payout to each employee at the end of every third month.
The scheme is complex but transparent and the various indices involved in the calculation are posted through the factory for all to see, and all to monitor as the end of the quarter approaches. Improved work performance, more energy, better ideas, more care and pride in workmanship – all of these can impact positively on the result, and everyone works harder and harder to improve the quantum of the actual payout.
Come the cut-off point at the end of the quarter and the total bonus amount generated is divided by the number of employees, the amount is announced and the payout is included in that week’s pay packet – it’s invariably a very, very happy day for all throughout LuK Africa. Visit work team for further information.
