Leadership Development for Whitby and Ajax Manufacturers: Sized for the 20 to 150 Person Plant
Most Whitby manufacturers and their Ajax neighbours are not large plants. They are 20 to 150 people in an industrial unit off the 401, with an owner who still walks the floor and one layer of leads between the owner and the crew.
Leadership development built for a 500-person plant does not fit that company. This page describes the leadership development that does, for Whitby manufacturers and Ajax manufacturers alike.
Direct answer: Leadership development for Whitby manufacturers and Ajax manufacturers of 20 to 150 people, as Gurley Leadership Solutions delivers it, is a 4 to 6 month on-site program for the owner and the three to eight leads and supervisors who run the floor. It is sized for one or two shifts, scheduled around production, and measured against the plant's own numbers: overtime, rework, late shipments and how many decisions still land on the owner. It is a proven program from Leadership Management International, customized to your organization.
Why Is Leadership Development Different for Whitby Manufacturers of This Size?
Whitby and Ajax have a real manufacturing base. Invest Durham lists advanced manufacturing as a Whitby priority cluster, with Atlantic Packaging, Gerdau, Lear Corp. and North American Steel among its major employers, and Ajax adds food and beverage processing, with Safran Landing Systems and Gordon Food Service among its major employers. Around those names are hundreds of smaller shops: fabricators, packagers, food processors, tool and die, and parts suppliers.
In a plant that size, three things are different. The owner is the plant manager. The leads were the best operators six months ago. And there is no HR department to run a leadership development program, so if it is going to happen, it has to fit the week the plant already has.
Who Should Whitby Manufacturers Develop First?
| If this is true in your plant | Start here |
|---|---|
| The owner answers every question on the floor | The owner plus the two or three leads who should be answering them |
| Good operators leave within a year | The leads and supervisors those operators report to |
| Late shipments and rework are rising with volume | The supervisor who owns scheduling and the lead on the bottleneck line |
| A second shift is being added | The person who will run it, three months before it starts |
| The owner wants to step back in two years | The future general manager and the supervisors under them |
Four to eight people is the right cohort for leadership development in a plant this size. In a small plant that usually means everyone with a lead or supervisor title, plus the owner, which is exactly the point: when the whole leadership layer learns the same habits at once, nobody slides back. For a larger plant with several management levels, see leadership development for Oshawa manufacturers.
What Does the Program Look Like on One or Two Shifts?
- Discovery and baseline. I meet the owner and each lead, agree on three to five goals, and record overtime, rework, late shipments and decisions escalated to the owner for the last 8 weeks.
- Short on-site sessions. About 90 minutes every one to two weeks, in the lunchroom or the office, at the start or end of a shift. A second cohort runs only if the plant has a night crew.
- One tool per session, applied that week. A five-minute start-of-shift huddle, one delegated decision, one feedback conversation, one written goal for the line.
- The owner in the room. The owner attends the same sessions, because the leads cannot keep a decision the owner keeps taking back.
- Measure and hand over. The baseline numbers are compared at the end of the program and again six months on. The plant keeps the huddle, the goals and the daily check.
Because it is a proven program from Leadership Management International, customized to your organization, the method is tested and the content is yours. You can see how the programs are structured on the LMI Canada page, and read what the supervisor training for manufacturers covers in detail.
What Changes for the Owner of a Whitby or Ajax Plant?
The owner gets hours back. In most small plants the owner is answering twenty questions a day that a trained lead could answer, and leadership development is the only thing that moves those questions down a level and keeps them there.
The crew's effort follows the lead, not the owner. Gallup found that managers account for at least 70 per cent of the variance in employee engagement across business units. On a small plant floor that manager is the lead on the line, which is why developing the leads changes the whole plant.
How Do Whitby Manufacturers Prove the Program Paid for Itself?
Whitby manufacturers prove leadership development paid with the four numbers recorded before the first session: overtime hours, rework or scrap, late shipments, and decisions escalated to the owner in two normal weeks. In a small plant those numbers are easy to collect and hard to argue with.
In my own senior operations roles at Honeywell, the operation I led saw a 20% productivity improvement in the first year and a 64% increase in throughput over four years by developing the people who ran the floor. I tell Whitby and Ajax owners to expect a return of 10:1 or better on leadership development measured that way, and in a small plant one resignation avoided can cover the program on its own. The process side pairs naturally with Lean Six Sigma in Whitby or Lean Six Sigma training in Ajax.
Record before the first session: 8 weeks of overtime hours, rework or scrap per week, late shipments per week, and the questions that reached the owner in two normal weeks.
How Does This Compare With National Leadership Programs?
National training organizations publish useful research. FranklinCovey reports that 58% of new managers receive no formal leadership training before starting to lead a team, and Korn Ferry found that the right leadership characteristics and team environment can lift engagement scores by up to 42 percentile points. Their leadership development programs are usually public courses that take one lead away for two days, which a 40-person plant cannot spare.
For Whitby and Ajax manufacturers, and the rest of Durham Region and the Greater Toronto Area, I offer a better fit: the whole leadership layer, on your floor, on your schedule, measured against your own numbers. I am based in Ajax and spent 35+ years in senior manufacturing operations before training leaders; you can read about my background, the Durham-wide guide for manufacturers, and why employers choose Gurley Leadership Solutions.
How Many Questions Reached You This Week?
A 15-minute call with Malcolm Gurley is enough to pick the first cohort and the four numbers to record.
416.669.7644 · Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM · Ask about government funding options when you book your call.
Book a 15-Minute CallWhat Do Whitby and Ajax Manufacturers Ask About Leadership Development?
Is a 25-person plant too small for leadership development?
No. With the owner and three or four leads, a 25-person plant is one cohort, and the results show faster because every lead in the building is in the room.
Does the owner really need to attend?
Yes. In a small plant the leads cannot keep a decision the owner keeps taking back. When the owner learns the same delegation habits, the change holds.
Can the program run during production hours?
Sessions run at the start or end of a shift, or over an extended lunch, so the line keeps running. Nobody leaves the site.
We are adding a second shift. When should we start?
About three months before the shift starts, so the person who will run it has practised huddles, delegation and feedback on the day shift first.
How soon will a small plant see a difference?
Fewer questions reaching the owner within the first month. Overtime, rework and late shipments usually move between months three and six, and turnover over the following year.
Malcolm Gurley brings 35+ years of senior executive experience with Honeywell, Johnson Controls and Armstrong Fluid Technology. He is LMI Canada licensed, Lean Certified and a Six Sigma Black Belt, and delivers Leadership Management International programs in person for organizations across Durham Region and the Greater Toronto Area from Ajax, Ontario. Frequently asked questions
