Manufacturing Golden Rules - Leadership Opportunities and Responsibilities of a Lafarge Eastern Canada Plant Manager
By Peter Sanguineti, VP of Aggregates, Eastern Canada
One of the key elements that made Rome one of the most successful and powerful empires in history, expanding across three continents was its clear military and administrative structure. The backbone of a Roman legion was the Centurion, a Roman officer in charge of a core unit of 100 legionaries. This critical role did not only have military responsibility over its unit but also had administrative duties and a clear influence over its culture. Centurions could be appointed by the senate, by election or promoted within the ranks, especially for those who displayed great leadership in battle.
At Lafarge Canada, the leadership team at each of our aggregates sites, together with their team of supervisors and foremen, play a similar cornerstone role within our organization.
Our plant managers have responsibility for active production site clusters in Eastern Canada with a combined asset value of over $1B and a force of about 900 employees. Their rigour and dedication to operational excellence provide us with the cost competitiveness that has allowed us to be the clear market leader, supplying around 35M metric Tons of material every year and playing a pivotal role in building Canada's infrastructure.
Professional growth opportunities
Similar to multiple stories of Centurions progressing into key roles within the empire, such as Maximinus Thrax's, a Centurion who became emperor, being a plant manager, for example, at Lafarge brings significant opportunities for professional growth. Very few other front-line management roles offer comparable conditions to develop leadership skills, having to deal with a sizeable team and budget, planning and delivering on production, maintenance and inventory commitments in addition to financial accountability, and managing labour, safety, environmental, and land obligations.
It is without a doubt a challenging position that polishes leadership competencies and provides a platform for the high performers to be recognized and promoted. It is no surprise that the majority of our Aggregates Senior Leadership team have had manufacturing operational experience, including myself, and have also been, at a point in time in their careers, Aggregates plant managers at Lafarge Canada.
Leadership Responsibilities
This significant opportunity comes with an equal level of responsibility. Our plant managers define the culture of the site and are responsible for the team's well-being and performance in addition to consistently applying our policies and processes as well as executing production plans and ensuring that our assets are kept in good order. They are not however, alone in this endeavour, as the key to the strength of our manufacturing team and the success of our plant managers has been the alignment of their actions under our ROCK Operating Model, our continuous and consistent focus on development programs, and the support of the Manufacturing Performance team. We are all in this together and recognize the importance of providing the support net required to ensure success and develop our front-line leaders.
Manufacturing Golden Rules development
Earlier this year, our Senior Leadership team reviewed and reflected on the careers of our most successful plant managers, aiming to identify the common elements present in their leadership style and approach to site management. While there is a common denominator of significant pride in their teams and sites with a solid base of operational competence, they all displayed high levels of consistency, fairness, and accountability in the way they lead their teams and execute on critical initiatives. The resulting product of this exercise, looking to continue supporting our teams and raising the focus on the elements that have proven to drive success, has been the development of our Manufacturing Golden Rules.
Our Aggregates Leadership Team is certainly building momentum in Eastern Canada as we apply the Golden Rules in our day-to-day operations striving for a positive impact on our sites’ culture and performance.
