Word: nevins
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...moments, but the discussion leaped to life when Chemical Engineer Russell Phillips explained that the name refers not to some new foreign movie director but rather to thin layers of organic matter that might some day be used to convert solar energy to electricity. The explanation spurred another scientist, Nevin Hiester, to point out that Langmuir Blodgett films are still too expensive for widespread use in industry...
...Nevin moved swiftly. During 1980 he cut excess capacity by closing seven Firestone tire plants in the U.S. and Canada, leaving ten, and reduced employment from 107,000 to 83,000. He slashed plant capacity, in part because he believes that tire sales in the foreseeable future will not return to the levels set during the early 1970s. Reasons: radials wear much longer than bias tires, and auto production is unlikely to reach its prior peak levels...
This tough action was probably the only thing that saved the company. Says Nevin: "In the first year I had the image of a hatchet man. It was a damned unpleasant way to make a living." Production of so-called private-label tires, those sold at service stations under oil company names, for example, was cut drastically. "For too long," said Nevin, "Firestone's objective was to take any business just to fill idle capacity, even though the profits were marginal. Our productivity problem was self-inflicted...
Firestone's survival was also helped by some important concessions from the United Rubber Workers union. In Noblesville, Ind., Firestone workers took a pay cut to save jobs. In Memphis, employees agreed to reduce 20 work classifications to five. Says Nevin: "We now get 30% more production out of the same equipment and overhead costs...
...overhead further, Nevin sold the Firestone Plastics Co. to Occidental Petroleum for $200 million, omitted two dividends to shareholders, peddled two luxury corporate jets and put the Firestone Country Club up for sale. Says Nevin: "After cutting 24,000 jobs, we had no business running a country club for a thousand employees...