The Journey to Improved Business Performance

Todd Bradley has a problem. As maintenance manager for the eastern plant of ATPCo (the American Tractium Production Company, a mythical manufacturer), he works for a company that doesn't understand that the way they are managing their business is leading them down the path to ruin. As his frustration builds he takes matters into his own hands. This enrages his manager, who transfers him to another plant where conditions are even worse. As if Todd doesn't already have enough problems, ATPCo introduces a new product called Epsilon that ironically further jeopardizes its position in the market. It's not that they can't manufacture Epsilon; they just can't do it very well. Their problems are poor equipment reliability and equally poor work processes. With a major potential customer planning to visit the plant in just 90 days, Todd and ATPCo are faced with a serious set of problems. How Todd and his co-workers address the issues, how Todd learns about how to successfully manage the change process from his mysterious email mentor TAN, and ATPCo's ultimate fate are all revealed in The Journey.

The Journey is unique. It is a story about how ATPCo addresses the need for change in light of events that threaten its very existence. As such, it is a valuable learning tool that provides you with the essential concepts for successfully managing change within your own company. While the story line happens to involve plant maintenance, the concepts apply regardless of the type of work you do or the type of products or services your company provides.

About the author

Steven Thomas has 40 years of experience working in maintenance within the petrochemical industry. During this time, through personal involvement at all levels of the maintenance and reliability work process, he has gained vast experience in all phases of the business. Coupled with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Drexel University and M.S. degrees in both Systems Engineering and Organizational Dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania, this experience has enabled him to add significant value to the many projects on which he has worked. In addition, he has published seven books on change management and related subjects. A few of his titles: ‘The Journey to Improved Business Performance’, ‘Improving Maintenance & Reliability Through Cultural Change’, ‘Asset Data Integrity is Serious Business’, and ‘Successfully Managing Change in Organizations: A User's Guide’. He has presented training classes on his material in the US, Canada and South America.