Worthington Industries Case Study
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Company Profile

Worthington Industries, founded in 1955, has grown from humble beginnings into a multibillion-dollar metal-processing company. Today, the firm employs 8,000 people in 67 facilities across 11 countries. The company credits its success to its customer-centered philosophy based on the Golden Rule, an unwavering commitment to the customer, and one of the most robust employee/employer partnerships in the American industry.

Challenge and Vision

With the continuing growth and diversification of Worthington Industries, inventories naturally grew, significantly impacting revenue and cash flow. Maintaining manufacturing inventories larger than necessary negatively impacts the bottom line. Thus, the firm sought to gain a better understanding of its inventories and processes and to enhance its supply chain information with greater detail.

The company envisioned further improving customer service while using less working capital and inventory. To achieve this goal, the organization evaluated every process that impacts supply chain management and inventory. It surfaced every issue that prevented the firm from providing better customer service—it identified and implemented new processes.

The goal of the company was to improve its overall bottom line by approximately $60 million over 6 years by focusing on the following areas:

  • Improving overall business processes
  • Improving inventory management
  • Reducing scrap
  • Increasing efficiency of operational processes from sales order to purchasing and logistics

The Solution

The technology chosen to support their goals was Oracle’s ERP solution. However, implementing the system across a large organization would require much more than a technology installation. To be successful, Worthington needed to implement organizational changes, adopt new processes, and modify its business practices.

“I hired Maureen Metcalf and the Innovative Leadership Institute as a consultant to help us migrate our organization from the existing environment to our vision for more efficient processes,” explained Ralph Spitzen, Director of Continuous Improvement, Worthington Steel. “We were looking for someone who was schooled in organizational change management and would bring a defined approach and methodology for managing the necessary changes.”

Consulting Approach

The Innovative Leadership Institute (ILI) took a holistic view of the challenges and made practical recommendations that could be implemented in a manufacturing environment. ILI quickly delivered tangible value and adapted to changes as they arose. Their contribution significantly improved Worthington Industries’ ability to execute successfully. Metcalf created much of the foundational material that facilitated successful implementation, including tools such as:

  • An end-to-end flowchart defining business processes impacted by the system—with color-coding indicating the impact of changes on people, customers, high-risk areas, and new processes. This process map was a foundational tool for leadership decision-making, impacting implementation success.
  • An online tool to explain and communicate the changes to the entire organization and each job function.
  • Job redefinition before the system launch helped minimize changes in high-impact positions.
  • Standard operating procedures for processes that would change significantly.

Results and Impact

The program achieved significant success:

  • The ERP was successfully implemented with minimal customer impact. The project yielded a range of benefits, including cost savings, cost avoidance, revenue protection, revenue growth, enhanced supply-chain performance, reduced waste, and improved customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

The Worthington Industries-ILI consulting project demonstrated the value of combining a comprehensive approach to organizational and transformation management using a structured approach, highlighting the impact of accelerated business case results. Worthington Industries achieved substantial business results: reduced friction during the ERP changeover, reduced time to final ERP implementation, enhanced performance and reputation, and reduced financial risk. 

“Maureen worked with us at a high level to develop a strategic plan to bring about change. The implementation of the Oracle system also required us to review a level of detail, such as evaluating positions, defining new roles, and determining what the new organization would look like,” noted Spitzen.

“Metcalf’s ‘start, stop guide’ was a useful tool for Worthington Industries. All the actions and processes the organization needed to stop, continue, and start doing were listed in a formal document that served as a plan for implementing change. The key was to communicate the plan thoroughly and repeatedly throughout the organization to everyone involved or affected in any way,” explained Spitzen. “Maureen was instrumental in helping to create a communications plan and to build training programs around the changes needed,” said Spitzen. “We’re committed to achieving a higher level of customer service with less working capital and inventory,” said Spitzen.