Investing in our workforce
At Manitowoc, we invest in our workforce by offering programs that develop, grow, and draw on each employee's potential throughout their career. We regularly evaluate the impact of our training and career development programs and work to develop training and development goals for every team member. In 2022, we continued our Talent Development process, which improves engagement between managers and employees while prioritizing the development of our team members. We expect our employees and managers to meet frequently throughout the year to discuss goals, expectations, and career development. From a training perspective, in 2022, we leveraged both virtual and in-person trainings that totaled over 94,000 hours with a focus on safety, leadership, ethics, diversity, and cultural awareness. We also held succession planning meetings to ensure that critical gaps are identified, and key leaders are highlighted to continue meeting future business needs.
The Supervisor Leadership Program is an interactive 12-month training program launched globally to all front-line supervisors. The Program is designed to create awareness, introduce concepts, and build skills in key leadership areas that drive team performance while fostering continuous learning and improvement. Interactive training and blended learning approaches are used to help participants learn, practice, and apply the concepts. The program consists of 12 courses led by local or executive facilitators, focused on principles of The Manitowoc Way, Leadership Behavior, and our WorkSafe Program. In 2022, we delivered training on Quality, Lean, Business Applications and Leadership Behaviors. The program had a 97% attendance and completion rate for supervisors globally.
In 2023, we will launch our Customer Support Leadership Program. This Program will be focused on developing people leadership skills, managerial techniques, and business applications proficiency, while reinforcing a common customer support vision. Course topics will include: Empowerment & Accountability, DE&I, Financial Basics, and Effective Communication.
As stewards of our diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, our leadership team takes a proactive approach to build and develop a diverse pipeline of talent. The Manitowoc Mentorship Program is designed to partner our high-performing and diverse talent with senior leadership team members. The Program was established to develop talent and identify our future leaders from within the enterprise. The second wave of this program has been started and is designed to accelerate the development of female leaders in the organization, increase retention, and create a strong pool of talent to take on more prominent roles in the future.
Since its inception in 1989, The Manitowoc Company Scholarship Program has supported 975 students and has awarded more than $2.9 million in scholarships.
Applicants must meet the following criteria to qualify:
Previously, recipients had received a renewable $1,000 scholarship for up to four years of undergraduate study at a North American college or university. Beginning in 2023, the amount will be increased to $1,500.
In 2022, we were proud to award scholarships to 20 applicants.
At Manitowoc, we continuously look for the next generation of crane specialists – from engineers to accountants, and from project managers to welders. We offer meaningful intern and apprentice programs to support students seeking a path to fulfilling careers in the manufacturing industry. In 2022, we onboarded 155 interns and apprentices across the globe, allowing them to gain valuable experience and strengthen their ties to Manitowoc.
Another example of our drive towards the safety of our employees and continuous improvement is The Manitowoc Way CEO Annual Award.
This prestigious award is presented to recognize one or a group of employees who consistently demonstrate The Manitowoc Way values and best practices in their daily roles.
In 2022, four exemplary team members received this award:
Dan Guo, Engineering Project Manager Dan Guo joined Manitowoc in 2007 as the first female project manager at the China facility, responsible for new product development projects. Over the past four years, she has spearheaded the development of seven new products, all achieved “on time” and “on budget.” In 2023, nearly 70% of the volume produced by the China facility is from projects led by Dan.
Thanks to her project management and communication skills, she has built solid foundations with her counterparts overseas. By using lean techniques such as kaizen and value stream mapping, she recently reduced the processing time of Engineering Change Orders (component change requests on cranes) from three months to 35 days. This improvement proved a significant time savings in a potential bottleneck for our business.
Alessandro Dutto, Value Stream Manager for large weldment structures Alessandro Dutto joined Manitowoc in 2016 as Value Stream Manager of the jib welding cell in our Niella, Italy facility. Using lean tools, he led a major transformation which enabled the plant to significantly increase its production capacity of self-erecting tower cranes from six to eight cranes per day. Subsequently, Alessandro was promoted to Operations Manager and took responsibility for the entire fabrication area of the Niella facility. He continues to embody the spirit and culture of The Manitowoc Way with his team.
Diego Marabotto, The Manitowoc Way Manager Diego Marabotto joined Manitowoc in 2008 as Continuous Improvement Manager in our Niella, Italy facility. In this role, he strengthened his expertise on the shop floor by completing a Master’s Degree in Lean Manufacturing in graduate school. He is now The Manitowoc Way Manager supporting all the Value Streams at Niella in their respective kaizen initiatives. He now leads all kaizen activities in the plant and collaborates with The Manitowoc Way Global Team members. Diego was an integral member to lead the complete transformation of the assembly line and the flow of the components of the Niella facility.
Alessandro Macario, Operations Manager Alessandro Macario joined Manitowoc in 2015 at our Niella, Italy facility. Since joining the Company, he has quickly become the lean leader of the Niella Operations team. In 2022, under his leadership, all team members at the facility have been trained on continuous improvement tools such as mastery of value stream mapping. Thanks to his leadership, the facility can double its mobile cranes production capacity.
These 2022 winners of The Manitowoc Way CEO Annual Award are typical examples of the high-caliber employees within our global business. With leaders like these, our operations are well-positioned for future success.
Manitowoc is committed to employee safety and continuous improvement.
As part of our lean and safety journey, in late 2016, we launched a global initiative called Lessons Learned. The aim of Lessons Learned is to share best practices between all our global sites.
A portal on the Manitowoc intranet allows employees at every location to upload improvement ideas and allows their peers around the world to view and replicate each idea, as appropriate.
Each quarter, we recognize the best Lessons Learned entries in each region and at the end of each year, we award one of regional these winners The Manitowoc Way Cup. This prestigious award is coveted among all our global sites, promoting healthy competition and generating more than 5,000 Lessons Learned submissions from our employees since the Program's inception.
In recent years, we expanded our Lessons Learned program to include environmental improvements, labelled as WorkGreen Lessons Learned. This additional scope underscores our commitment to improving the sustainability of our business.
The Manitowoc Way & Safety Lessons Learned winning entry was submitted by the GMK Carrier Assembly team in our Wilhelmshaven, Germany facility. The team designed a low cost, automatic filling device for the water-cooling system on the GMK cranes. The vacuum-based concept pressurized the system to also test for leaks during the process. The concept also provided a time saving per crane and the idea was transferable to other Manitowoc sites. A super effort from a committed team!
The 2022 WorkGreen Lessons Learned winning entry was the Environmental, Health & Safety team in our Moulins, France facility. The team pioneered an Energy saving kaizen activity in our paint drying ovens that resulted in 160 MWh annual gas consumption savings, which is equivalent to 29 tons of CO2 emissions. This is another prime example of a Manitowoc team incubating an idea that is now operational in other Manitowoc facilities around the world.
