Executive leadership at Acuity Brands preach lean manufacturing as practiced by Ohno to evangelical, some would even say fanatical, heights. Living in a dream world in which the company is a perfectly vertical machine that produces top quality products on time and reasonably priced, they are ill-equipped to deal with real-world situations and manage outside influences on production.
Like Medusa, the company is a multi-headed beast through many years of acquiring lighting and controls companies. There are dozens of fiefdoms within the organization, each with their own feudal lord, and all are at war with the others. Communication is almost non-existent and, because of the physical size of this slow moving machine, when the communication finally comes down it is already old news due rampant rumors and gossip.
All direction is handed down from one person whose fickle tastes and violent temper make for very tense 2-day-long monthly project status meetings. Vicious verbal assault in front of peers is commonplace. Many people are thrown under busses. No one is trusted to know how to do their job nor is their work assumed correct. In fact there is zero trust anywhere in the organization.
Product development is driven by a complicated, ever evolving system of forms, checklists, and reports created to produce quality products but, in reality, only serve to delay projects substantially which forces compromises that turn a good idea into badly executed product.
The company uses the phrase “push down responsibility” to justify multiple layers of mid-level managers and micro departments. Responsibility is pushed down to the farthest level, to the actual people putting the products together (who are also the lowest paid employees) to magically produce silk purses from the product development system’s sow’s ears.
Turnover is high, by attrition and company-wide layoffs every October and April. If you are over 40 and don’t have a 4-year degree or higher you should consider your employment temporary. New hires, when they do actually hire, are usually fresh out of college, eager to work the long hours, and sometimes locked into a job they didn’t interview for, held hostage by a signing bonus that requires a 2-year commitment. The lowest paying jobs are often held by temps.
The HR department has some of the highest turnover – what does that say?
If your company is purchased by Acuity Brands expect to lose 30% of your original employees within the first year and 80% by year five. Expect to have your factory turned upside down and every method and operation evaluated during week-long kaizen events which will result in many changes just for change sake. If you are an engineer you should expect to travel to Georgia annually for a week at a time to learn how to do your job again. If you are a manager you have a good chance of being unemployed soon or worse, remain working for Acuity. You will be forced to reconcile the diminishing quality of your brand’s products, customer service and reputation with the fact that you have no ability to change anything because that power lies in the hands of the various fiefdoms and their lords. You will have all the responsibility and none of the power. A few of you will be offered a chance to move to Georgia. Some will get to work at the beautiful campus in Conyers. Others may get the pleasure of working in the bullet-riddled engineering center in Decatur surrounded by 12’ high razor wire fence with 24hr security guards.
