'Failure is not an option' for Vestas, according to their Business Strategy. It's not an option for the campaign to save the Newport, Isle of Wight factory either. We have the 'Will to win' that Vestas' CEO claims Vestas' have. The factory will reopen. Wind Turbine Blades will be produced in the UK, for the UK. Workers will be unionised. You never know, the factory might even be a workers' coop.
Below are quotes from Vestas 'Business Excellence as the Next Step!' by Eize de Vries, Wind Technology Correspondent for Renewable Energy World. Original article available at 
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2009/10/vestas-business-excellence-as-the-next-step
Course, I've added some comments of my own...
"Amidst challenging times, the world's largest wind turbine supplier, Vestas Wind Systems of Denmark, has ambitious expansion plans, aiming to deliver both business excellence and the highest level of customer satisfaction... To achieve these ambitious goals, sustained and dedicated efforts at all company levels seem essential. The Vestas mission statement: ‘Failure is not an option’ underlines organizational commitment to remedy failures by optimizing internal work processes, to safety and products and to a structured follow-up on all errors."
'Failure is not an option'. No, siree. Whose Blades? Our Blades! Whose Factory? Our Factory! Whose Power? Our Power! We'll provide a "structured follow-up" on your error of closing the Newport factory...
"This April, due to reduced market demand in northern Europe, Vestas announced a major layoff plan involving 1900 of its employees, concentrated mainly in Denmark and the UK. The actual status is that approximately 1500 jobs will be lost as a number of employees have been repositioned in other jobs. A UK rotor blade facility at the Isle of Wight is now closing its doors with 425 job losses. Vestas says that the latter decision has been taken due to current unfavourable market conditions caused by the credit crunch, weak currencies and a lack of political support at a local level. A tower factory in Scotland was closed earlier."
ahem... profitable factories shut down... valuable workforces dumped... have any of the IOW workers been "repositioned" other than to unemployment? lack of political support? Miliband claims he's offered you all kinds of cash, and you've accepted plenty of it from UK Plc previously. 'The best?" "Hypocrits, opportunists, liars, and cheats" might be more accurate.
"‘Our long-term goal is to have an optimized supply chain and mainly supply: “North America from the USA”, “Europe from Europe”, and “Asia from Asia”."
How about suppling the "Isle of Wight from the Isle of Wight", "UK from UK"?
"During 2005 Vestas appointed a new CEO, Ditlev Engel, and the first corporate strategy was launched: ‘Will to win’. The latter reflects determination at improving business results and a return to profitability. Simultaneously Vestas aimed at maintaining a dominant long-term 1/3 world market share. In 2008 a new strategy with a new aim ‘No.1 in modern energy’ was launched, this time with a focus on achieving ‘Business Excellence and highest Customer Satisfaction’. According to Vestas, being No. 1 means being the best, not necessarily the biggest operator. Between 2004 and 2008 Vestas’ world market share, according to BTM Consult statistics, gradually declined from 34% in 2004, to 28.2% in 2006, 22.6% in 2007, and 19.8% in 2008."
Watch out Ditlev, we've got the 'Will to win' too. Pay the redundancy teo the 11 occupying workers, improve the redundancy package to all who lost jobs on Isle of Wight, or reopen the factory, or sell it to the workers to run as a coop. Aim for 'Highest customer satisfaction'... 'be the best'.
Vestas' "company image was affected negatively by often-heard complaints about poor functioning of the service organization... A partial explanation and major contributing factor to some of the difficulties encountered is that during 2004–2007 Vestas employee numbers increased from 9600 to nearly 21,000. During 2007–2008 alone over 5500 new employees entered our company. For our organization this rapid growth path in many ways represented a critical phase. In such a situation serious errors can occur more easily due to a combination of inexperience and high stress levels for the existing staff. But this has given us now world-class internal training programmes and the ability to upgrade competences fast.’"
The question being, why then fire some of your best staff, who you had used to train new staff in America? Image affected negatively eh? better watch out for complaints about worker rights and treatment...
"The first quarter 2009 interim financial report states: ‘Vestas should manufacture the best and most reliable turbines’ and ‘Vestas should maintain the best customer and supplier relations in the industry.’"
How about industrial relations? If you want the best turbines, you'll need the best staff, and you'll need to treat them as they deserve - allow unions, pay decent wages, hell, even allow some decision making to be made by the workers...
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2009/10/vestas-business-excellence-as-the-next-step Course, I've added some comments of my own...
"Amidst challenging times, the world's largest wind turbine supplier, Vestas Wind Systems of Denmark, has ambitious expansion plans, aiming to deliver both business excellence and the highest level of customer satisfaction... To achieve these ambitious goals, sustained and dedicated efforts at all company levels seem essential. The Vestas mission statement: ‘Failure is not an option’ underlines organizational commitment to remedy failures by optimizing internal work processes, to safety and products and to a structured follow-up on all errors."
'Failure is not an option'. No, siree. Whose Blades? Our Blades! Whose Factory? Our Factory! Whose Power? Our Power! We'll provide a "structured follow-up" on your error of closing the Newport factory...
"This April, due to reduced market demand in northern Europe, Vestas announced a major layoff plan involving 1900 of its employees, concentrated mainly in Denmark and the UK. The actual status is that approximately 1500 jobs will be lost as a number of employees have been repositioned in other jobs. A UK rotor blade facility at the Isle of Wight is now closing its doors with 425 job losses. Vestas says that the latter decision has been taken due to current unfavourable market conditions caused by the credit crunch, weak currencies and a lack of political support at a local level. A tower factory in Scotland was closed earlier."
ahem... profitable factories shut down... valuable workforces dumped... have any of the IOW workers been "repositioned" other than to unemployment? lack of political support? Miliband claims he's offered you all kinds of cash, and you've accepted plenty of it from UK Plc previously. 'The best?" "Hypocrits, opportunists, liars, and cheats" might be more accurate.
"‘Our long-term goal is to have an optimized supply chain and mainly supply: “North America from the USA”, “Europe from Europe”, and “Asia from Asia”."
How about suppling the "Isle of Wight from the Isle of Wight", "UK from UK"?
"During 2005 Vestas appointed a new CEO, Ditlev Engel, and the first corporate strategy was launched: ‘Will to win’. The latter reflects determination at improving business results and a return to profitability. Simultaneously Vestas aimed at maintaining a dominant long-term 1/3 world market share. In 2008 a new strategy with a new aim ‘No.1 in modern energy’ was launched, this time with a focus on achieving ‘Business Excellence and highest Customer Satisfaction’. According to Vestas, being No. 1 means being the best, not necessarily the biggest operator. Between 2004 and 2008 Vestas’ world market share, according to BTM Consult statistics, gradually declined from 34% in 2004, to 28.2% in 2006, 22.6% in 2007, and 19.8% in 2008."
Watch out Ditlev, we've got the 'Will to win' too. Pay the redundancy teo the 11 occupying workers, improve the redundancy package to all who lost jobs on Isle of Wight, or reopen the factory, or sell it to the workers to run as a coop. Aim for 'Highest customer satisfaction'... 'be the best'.
Vestas' "company image was affected negatively by often-heard complaints about poor functioning of the service organization... A partial explanation and major contributing factor to some of the difficulties encountered is that during 2004–2007 Vestas employee numbers increased from 9600 to nearly 21,000. During 2007–2008 alone over 5500 new employees entered our company. For our organization this rapid growth path in many ways represented a critical phase. In such a situation serious errors can occur more easily due to a combination of inexperience and high stress levels for the existing staff. But this has given us now world-class internal training programmes and the ability to upgrade competences fast.’"
The question being, why then fire some of your best staff, who you had used to train new staff in America? Image affected negatively eh? better watch out for complaints about worker rights and treatment...
"The first quarter 2009 interim financial report states: ‘Vestas should manufacture the best and most reliable turbines’ and ‘Vestas should maintain the best customer and supplier relations in the industry.’"
How about industrial relations? If you want the best turbines, you'll need the best staff, and you'll need to treat them as they deserve - allow unions, pay decent wages, hell, even allow some decision making to be made by the workers...
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