My Journey of Excellence: Beginnings
I hate moving.
Period.
But sometimes in the move, we find opportunities to experience nostalgia from times that seemed less rushed and more simple.
We have been in the process of moving from Indiana to Denver over the last two years. That is not to say it has taken us two years to move, but rather, two years to get a house ready to sell, sell the house, buy a house, pack the stuff, get it moved across the country, store the stuff, remodel the house, learn about the wild west of contractors in Colorado, get a new contractor, and now we are almost finished with the “move.”
As part of that move, we went to Utah last weekend to pick up some stuff that had been in storage for nearly 30 years, and taking up space there. While there, we spent time with my in-laws who handed my wife a bubble package full of memorabilia, to which I gave not a thought.
Until today.
Laid out on the lovely mid-century modern cedar chest my wife had inherited over last weekend, was a company newsletter cum magazine, opened to an article entitled, “Gainshare” the following by-line encircled “by Doug Dawson” circa Quarter 4, 1996. Just shy of 30 years ago, when I was an operator for Schreiber Foods’ Logan, Utah plant.
I don’t remember writing the article, but being intrigued, I read it. And after having read it, I thought I might share it with you…
Gainshare
When I was a kid, living at home, my dad was always after me to turn off the lights and TV when I left the room. I never really paid much heed and lived with his admonitions until I moved out on my own. At that point a funny thing happened. I started seeing how much the electric bill was, and the money for it was coming out of my pocket. That meant I had less to spend on other things, so I started turning off the lights and TV when I left the room. Gainshare is much the same. When we are aware of the costs involved, we will be more proactive in reducing those costs.
I am currently working on an MBA at USU [Utah State University]. One of the requirements for the program is to complete a business related [sic] project. For some time, I was on the moisture CATeam [corrective action team] and during the first two full fiscal quarters on that committee, we saw an increase in Gainshare payout from an average of approximately $1.25/ [straight time equivalent] hour to $1.90/hour. The average has since dropped to $1.50/hour, which is still $0.25 more than before the moisture CAT.
The point is that I believe that through increased awareness of our costs and support from management in helping reduce those costs, that we can drive Gainshare up significantly.
I saw this as an opportunity to fulfill my requirements for a business related [ibid] project and help to improve partner [Schreiber nomenclature for non-exempt employees and exempt individual contributors] Gainshare payout. Initially, I went to [name redacted] and [name redacted] to get their reactions as Accounting and Casting Team Leaders, regarding the project. Support has since been provided from the Quality Awareness Committee and the management staff. As a result, a Gainshare Advisory Committee has been formed. This committee is made up of both management and production partners from all areas. The mission of the committee is:
“To facilitate maximum Gainshare payout per quarter per partner through improvement of quality and productivity and by actively driving down costs. To do so by reviewing areas of potential opportunity on a quarter-by-quarter basis and exploit those areas for maximum improvement and payout by improving partner awareness of costs and improving feedback to partners on Gainshare performance and providing management with feedback on leadership and support for meeting Gainshare objectives.”
As a guide, we plan to use as a framework, the Four Absolutes of Quality and as a means of improvement we plan to use as a framework the Five Step Method to Eliminate Non-Conformance.
Our goal for the next fiscal year is to reach a $2.00 an hour payout for at least two quarters. This will require feedback from all partners on what they expect [in order] to accomplish this goal. It is not unrealistic when you consider that a couple of years ago we nearly reached that goal with just a few people working on casting moistures. What would happen if we had everyone in the plant involved on working to reduce our target area of opportunity?
If skepticism is your nature and you grumble about the baselines being eventually raised, or if you are the opinion that Gainshare is “rigged” consider this: In part you are right. After our performance improves and that improvement is sustained, the baseline will be raised. Thank about why that is. We are considered to be a world class facility. As such we must rely on continuous improvement to maintain a competitive edge. If our baseline is raised in a target area, that means we have accomplished our objective. We look for another area to exploit. There are plenty of opportunities if we will just look for them. The people who will make it a success are the people involved with the process. The partners. The responsibililty is ours. We just need to know the direction we should go. Furthermore, if we do not voluntarily raise the baselines for our costs, eventually our competition will force us to do so. In a dynamic market it is critical to be the leader and let the others be forced to follow.
Finally, we need participation on the Gainshare Advisory Committee. If you are not interested in participating by attending the meetings, then use this as a spring board [sic] to air your frustrations, concerns and ideas. The minutes for each meeting will be posted nest to the period payout report. Let anybody listed in attendance know your thoughts, or inform your Team Advisor or Team Leader. It is important that we know how you feel and what you would like to see.
Le’s work together on this so that in the future we are not working as hard as we are now, but rather, working smarter.
Reading this article, reminded me of my origins both as an operator and an advocate, nay, catalyst for organizational excellence.
In truth, I got a bit sappy as I read the article and remembered those heady days of $1600 quarterly gainshare payouts. As a matter of fact, anyone in management had to make a choice between gainshare and profit-sharing. I remember when a good many managers started abandoning the quarterly profit-sharing check for gainshare because the payout was so much larger, and which was driven by partner efforts.
I still feel pretty much the same. However, not all organizations have gainshare or other employee incentive programs. There are other measurable ways the organization and its employees - both exempt and non-exempt - can benefit, such as lower turnover, which in turn reduces hiring and onboarding costs, a happier more engaged workforce. There’s also higher quality output, reducing the cost of quality in rework, scrap and customer complaints. There are several other measurable indicators on how elimination of waste makes a better work place for employees.
I do work for one company that has been focused - and I mean very focused - on its lean journey for a solid eight years. The employees of this organization, just this year, completed five different surveys for “best place to work,” for five different publications. It will be interesting to learn what the results are from the surveys, later this year.
When I was an operator, I worked in the same plant and on an upstream team from my father-in-law, also an operator. I’m grateful that my in-laws, who in their own recent move, found something that would reach so deep into my heart and mind so as to cause me to reflect and then share with you this article.
I very much appreciate you and the time you have taken to read this article. You can find more articles like this at https://www.legup.solutions/blog.
If you have thoughts on this or other topics regarding yours or your organization’s journey of excellence, feel free to continue the conversation on my Secret Sauce slack feed.
Originally published at https://www.legup.solutions 27 JUL 2026.
