Siemens Monterrey Factory

Ambassador: Yavor Nikolov , Bulgaria

Yavor moved to North Mexico to become plant manager of one of Siemens’ largest North American factories, located in Monterrey. The factory employed 1,500 people, 70% of them female, many were single mothers, but the factory was losing money; production quality and customer relations were poor, partly because of high staff turnover. The management team were thinking of closing the factory down.

In the local community over half the families are raised by single mothers, school absenteeism and drop out rates are high; cancer and diabetes rates are amongst the highest in the world. Yavor and his young team of managers decided to turn the factory around by focusing on two critical needs in the local community – health and education. Health facilities were increased and employees were given annual health checks, plus health education seminars about cancer, diabetes, and improved nutrition. Mothers were taught the benefits of breastfeeding and provided with facilities to express and store their milk. In collaboration with the largest Mexican online University of Guanajuato, over 40 scholarships a year and a classroom of computers were provided to outstanding production workers, enabling them to complete high school diplomas or degrees. Also 50 factory workers’ children who achieved excellent school results were given school kits containing a computer tablet, other equipment and were invited to a special one day event. Siemens employees also volunteer at a local school, providing regular workshops on nutrition, energy or environmental issues to 100 children.

NB this SROI estimate excludes product quality issues/staff motivation/corporate development/lower performance/productivity of new employees. Nor does this calculation incorporate the wider societal benefits in Monterrey such as job security and continuous employment for the families, many of which are single parents.