Tyre giant Michelin has announced plans to significantly re-organise globally, resulting in significant job losses in France and the US most of which will be covered by natural attrition.
In the United States 450 jobs in central functions are to be cut between 2018 and 2021. According to Michelin, 1,500 employees would actually leave the company in the same period, suggesting a large majority will result from natural attrition and retirement.
In France, the transformation coincides with significant job creation. By 2021, 5,000 employees will leave the group in France, the majority due to retirement, and around 2,000 of these would be in Clermont-Ferrand.
However, at the same time Michelin says it wants to recruit more than 3,500 people externally in France by 2021, including 1,000 in Clermont-Ferrand. The company will also start new activities in Clermont-Ferrand and at other sites in France, creating 250 new jobs. The firm says it aims to “progressively reach the target size of the future organizations, without forced redundancies.”
The company would not replace 970 retirees, between now and 2021 in Clermont-Ferrand. And finally, in order to be closer to its customers and improve competitiveness, Michelin will locate 290 employee and manager positions in other countries where the group is operating.
Corporate reorganisation
On 16 March 2017 Michelin launched a global reorganisation project. The goal was to “boost growth by adapting…operations to meet the evolving demands of…customers and employees. ” Now, on 22 June, the company has released further details of what has been taking place. In short there will now be 10 new regions, 14 business lines and 8 operational divisions.
The 10 new regions will be given more operational responsibilities. These are Africa – India – Middle-East; South America; Central America; North America; Eastern Asia and Australia; China; Central Europe; Northern Europe, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe.
Tyres and accessories understand that UK and Eire operations will fit into the Northern European region. No details of who will be leading this region or were indeed this region will be physically based have yet been announced.
Likewise, no details of job consolidation within this region have yet been released, but while the official details clearly focus on the USA and France, it wouldn’t be surprising to learn of some job consolidation in other regions too.
In addition 14 “business lines” will develop offers for each customer category. The purpose of these Business Lines is to develop offers to satisfy global customer groups with similar needs around the world. They would have a key role in building the strategy of the group and would steer their business results in their respective customer segments.
At the same time eight operational divisions will provide expertise and support for the regions and business lines. These are research and development; service technology development; manufacturing; supply chain; marketing and sales support; purchasing; operations quality assurance; and corporate and business services (CBS).
In order to streamline the group’s central operations, the corporate divisions are to focus on their strategic missions. The group’s reporting would be based on consolidation of business lines and would be very similar to currently.