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Technology Stocks : JDS Uniphase (JDSU) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pat mudge who wrote (8008)	3/27/2000 12:30:00 AM
From: LBstocks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24042

JDS focuses on teamwork, communications New managers told to take cautious approach on changes, operations boss tells group Bert Hill The Ottawa Citizen Saturday 25 March 2000 Bruno Schlumberger, The Ottawa Citizen / Yves Tremblay, JDS vice-president of operations, told a business meeting yesterday 'you don't make a revolution in a place like JDS, you evolve.' Chris Mikula, The Ottawa Citizen / JDS Uniphase, which is expanding at the corner of Merivale Road and old Highway 16, has 7,000 employees in the Ottawa region. The executive responsible for JDS Uniphase manufacturing operations in Ottawa said yesterday he tells new managers to do nothing for at least three months. Yves Tremblay, senior vice-president of operations, told the Ottawa-Carleton Manufacturers' Network that it is important for new managers to fully understand the culture of an organization that has successfully doubled in size annually for several years. "Welcome to JDS, I tell them. You have 12 weeks to do nothing. I tell them to listen, to study and review and to learn how to move quickly in many directions." The cautious approach to running an organization riding the fibre-optic revolution appears incongruous at first glance. But Mr. Tremblay said "you don't make a revolution in a place like JDS, you evolve. You don't break things, but you make change through continuous improvements." Mr. Tremblay said that it is important for new managers to understand how to listen to customers' demands for more products at lower prices so they can plan effectively. And he said managers have to learn how to communicate with suppliers and employees. JDS Uniphase has emerged through internal growth and aggressive acquisition as the world's biggest maker of fibre-optic components. Annually it sells $1.6 billion of the parts that telecommunication companies need to keep pace with the growth of the Internet. In the Ottawa area, it has grown from less than 500 employees in 1995 to 1,600 in 1998 and 7,000 today -- the region's second biggest private-sector employer. Unlike most Ottawa-Carleton high-technology companies that employ predominately engineering and development staff, about 70 per cent of JDS employees are engaged in manufacturing operations. Mr. Tremblay said that JDS had to reorganize so that it could quickly ramp up production of the parts that drive and manage the tiny streams of light on fibre-optic cables. Until about two years ago, the company had grown quickly organically inside a centralized system that wasn't giving managers enough resources to meet goals. Then JDS started breaking down production operations into "focus manufacturing centres" that have much more autonomy to meet production targets set every three months. "We are still splitting operations down so they don't get bigger than 300 or 400 people. We also make sure there is at least one supervisor for each 15 employees." He said higher ratios of employees to supervisors hurt effective communication. "We try to keep the management close to the ground and with their eyes on the ball." But building the gear is complicated and labour intensive because fibre-optic manufacturing technology is still in its infancy. Unlike semiconductors, an industry that some fibre-optic experts think might be largely displaced, there is still only limited automation of parts and component production. Mr. Tremblay said the fibre-optic market has so far resisted widespread product standardization, which means JDS must tailor parts and connectors to differing specifications. The reason is that fibre-optic technology was only developed in the mid-1970s and moved into mass market acceptance in the mid-1980s. JDS is testing new machinery to try to automate product manufacturing and new Oracle-based software to manage operations around the world. It is also exploring the potential for shifting some production to Asia through recent acquisitions like E-TEK Dynamics that have plants there. ottawacitizen.com