Cardinal IG Reduces Employee Turnover and Learning Curve for New Employees
Cardinal Glass Industries
Founded in 1962, Cardinal Glass Industries is a management-owned S-Corporation leading the industry in development of residential glass for windows and doors. They have grown to more than 6,000 employees located at 37 manufacturing locations across the United States. At Cardinal, they try to maintain clear vision: design and fabricate the most advanced residential glass products in the industry. They start with heavy investment in research and development. Their twin R&D centers in Minnesota and Wisconsin provide the basis for new advances in glazing fenestration. They turn around those fresh ideas into useful products that regular home owners can use. They provide a turnkey solution to window manufacturers: whether it starts with insulating glass, coated, laminated, tempered or just plain float glass, it is all designed to provide the latest in applied glass science.
Their mission statement reads, “To make money by thrilling our customers with our product and our service and by taking care of the people that work here.”
Cardinal IG Fargo has a very culturally diverse workforce with 265 employees representing as many as 31 countries. Cardinal was experiencing long times to train and bring new employees up to speed as well as fairly high employee turnover. Cardinal IG decided to solicit help from Impact Dakota on several fronts. One being Lean Enterprise Certification for all people in a leadership roles and Training Within Industry's Job Relations and Job Instruction for all people in a leadership or training role. Cardinal sent an Engineer to TTT - JI and now continues to use those methods as part of their on-boarding and new hire orientation.
With the help of Impact Dakota, Cardinal IG certified over 27 people in LECP and over 125 in Job Relations and Job Instruction. Cardinal IG attended a TTT - JI class through Impact Dakota. Now Cardinal IG trains leaders internally who then are used as JI Master Trainers. These Master Trainers are paired up with new hires and with a two day on-boarding start they continue to coach the new hire for the beginning week or more.
Results of these projects reduced employee turnover in 2015 by 40% over the prior year. The learning curve reduced the training period for new people by 50%.
“We have enjoyed a good relationship with Impact Dakota. They have helped mold our Leaders and our culture and started us in our Lean and Continuous Improvement journey.”
—Scott Braun, Operational Excellence Engineer