Capitalist Commune

DuPont operates one of the leanest manufacturing facilities of its globe-straddling empire in Richmond, Va. The secret: a high-performance work system that obliterates management-worker distinctions and treats everyone as equals.  

by James A. Bacon

After 150 years the dreams of the 19th century socialist utopians have finally found form–-but not as the handicraft of Marxist revolutionaries in some remote jungle, nor even a vegan, hippie commune in California. One of the most egalitarian work places on the face of the planet is set inside a hulking brick chemical plant in Richmond, Va., belonging to DuPont, one of the world’s largest industrial organizations.

The workers may not own the means of production at the Zytel facility, which spews out nylon pellets used for everything from auto parts to chainsaw casings, but they sure do run it.

The Richmond Zytel plant has the flattest conceivable hierarchy--if it were any flatter, it wouldn’t be a hierarchy anymore. There’s Plant Manager 

Thomas P. Takacs, and then there’s everybody else. And the way Takacs sees it, his job isn’t to give orders. “I represent the corporation. My job is to make sure everyone stays in the budgetary and policy boundaries.”  

If truth be told, Takacs does help workers solve operational problems and fine tune the High Performance Work System, the blueprint for handing off decision-making authority to self-directed work teams. He sets profit goals, gets involved with major capital expenditures and delivers periodic business updates to employees. Otherwise, it’s hands off. Says he: “I let the work teams make the decisions.”

The Zytel plant currently operates with fewer than 100 employees. That includes Takacs, the plant manager; 10 percent engineering and administrative support staff; and the “polymer specialists” responsible for operations on the factory floor. The Richmond plant requires less manpower than comparable manufacturing plants. Productivity, says Takacs, is 25 percent to 30 percent higher than at peer facilities, and quality meets DuPont’s highest standards.

Richmond’s Zytel operations may well represent the future of American manufacturing: The best way to compete with low-cost labor in China and other developing countries is with high-productivity labor here at home. That means stripping out middle-management – obliterating the distinction between factory worker and supervisor – and cross-training employees so they can make intelligent business decisions.                                    More

Trend-Setting Tredegar

Tredegar Corporation will relocate its consolidated R&D unit and technical center to Richmond.

Tredegar Film Products Corporation, a subsidiary of Tredegar Corporation, has sold its Argentine films business to Plastar S.A. of Buenos Aires. Said President Thomas G. Cochran: "This … is part of our ongoing effort to become more efficient as we expand sales of apertured, elastic and specialty products. Our Brazilian operations can meet demand for these products throughout Latin America at a lower overall cost." (Press release, September 3, 2004.) More.

RICHMOND—Albemarle Corporation has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission indicating that the company expects to raise $130 million, exclusive of expenses, to retire indebtedness associated with the acquisition of the refinery catalysts business of Akzo Nobel N.V. (Press release, October 13, 2004.) More.

Albemarle Corporation has selected Raymond Hurley as Vice President-Catalysts. He joined the company in August in the acquisition of Akzo Nobel's refinery catalysts business, where he had served as president in Akzo’s Amersfoort, Netherlands, headquarters. He has responsibility for both Albemarle’s refinery and polyolefin catalysts. (Press release, September 23, 2004.) More.