Bandag, Inc.’s Chino, California, plant, like many manufacturing facilities, was experiencing difficulties related to the assembly-line process. People on different shifts did not regularly talk to one another and rarely communicated problems to their supervisors. People were getting hurt in the plant at a rate of one per month, product defects were high, and customer complaints were plentiful. If Bandag was to maintain its status as the world leader in the truck tire retread industry, something needed to change.
