How seriously did you take FM Global s engineering recommendations when you met with them For me and for the team and especially for the corporation we took them very seriously for one simple reason We have about 1 500 people living here in Dongguan and we have roughly 600 people living on our Nanjing campus All of these people are like our chil dren As a parent you don t want your chil dren to get hurt so we took it very seriously in that view That s why we went in and spent money time and resources to make sure it is a much safer place for everybody not only to work but to live and enjoy adjusted they adapted because they knew it was good for them Can you talk about the important role that engineering played here I think FM Global brought a new dimension to our team The engineers and the support group that came in were really important They taught us how to look at things dif ferently They taught us how to do things differently in terms of safety not just with sprinklers or fire but they actually shared some lessons and failures they ve seen in other places We clearly needed to be safety oriented Besides sprinklering the operating in terms of safety but we went after it and it s now a much safer more comfortable place for our people That s the beauty of it What was the extent of your communication with the senior executives in America when you were trying to collaborate on this sprin kler project Clearly top management and shareholders in the company believed in the sprinkler pro gram because our people were at stake For me that was very satisfying We never even talked about money they just said we have to do it and we went ahead and plotted the entire program put in the budget and pro posal and did it It demonstrated real com mitment from the corporation top manage ment and shareholders that they care about our people sitting in our part of the world thousands of miles away from them Is your new sprinkler project unique in China Generally speaking most of the companies in China know that this is a requirement Now whether they are willing to do it is another story But at Leviton we view it as a very serious and important priority and that s why we did it I am confident to say that we are ahead of the business cycle and I m glad As a global company we should be ahead of the cycle As a company we must prove this not only by our words but also by our actions and responsibilities Can you talk to me about the importance of being a leader Actually there is no magic or science behind it It s really about walking the talk If you want somebody to do something make sure you are willing to do it If you re not willing to do it don t say it because then it s just words Walk the talk That s the best way to approach leadership And by the way not only will people see it but they will feel it and they will follow you and believe in you The engineers and the support group that came in were really important They taught us how to look at things differently They taught us how to do things differently in terms of safety not just with sprinklers or fire but they actually shared some lessons and failures they ve seen in other places facility it was recommended that we sprin kler the dormitories the cafeteria and the kitchens which we did The execution took a couple of months but it went as smoothly as I could have ever anticipated FM Global s engineers brought more than just the sprin kler system they brought real value to the project and the education behind it What have you learned from this project and the cultural transformation here One simple thing We have a saying here Where there s a will there s a way So the key is you can have the best plan the best resources and the most amount of money but if you re not willing to commit to something nothing is going to happen The key is having the will This is a driving force for us That s what I learned after going through all of this It s a major exercise we do with FM Global Talk about the financial investment of this sprinkler project What were your feelings when the idea of a sprinkler project first arose To be fair we thought the sprinklers we had were good enough Of course in China over the last decade a lot of things have changed Priorities have changed and we realized that we needed to get ourselves upgraded I thought FM Global did a really good thing when they told us that we had deficiencies and we needed to deal with them We put a step by step game plan together with FM Global to overhaul the sprinkler sys tem At the same time it shows our people on the ground that we as a company are doing something to make them feel safer Yes there were some inconveniences but I can tell you the shop floor never had a prob lem in terms of the manufacturing They VOICES ISSUE 1 2015 Reason 25

Hinweis: Dies ist eine maschinenlesbare No-Flash Ansicht.
Klicken Sie hier um zur Online-Version zu gelangen.