STRICTLY BUSINESS: THUMBS UP TO DANA'S PARTICIPATION PROGRAM

From time to time, an item appears on my desk that is deserving of a special "Thumbs Up" recognition.

Here's "Thumbs Up" to Dana Corp. and its "employee participation and reward dinner" program.

Dana Corp. encourages its employees to suggest ways for the company to improve the workplace.

During a given year, more than 10,000 such suggestions may be received from the more than 350 workers at the plant along Southern Expressway.

During one recent year, when employment was slightly more than 200, 6,603 suggestions were received and 6,314 of them were implemented.

Those totals amounted to an average of 39 suggestions a person, a participation rate of 94.9 percent.

Dana is still receiving suggestions. One employee turned in 668 last year.

These suggestions are not lost to Dana officials.

Recently, more than 200 Dana Corp. employees attended the company's "excellence in participation" and "reward dinner," an event Dana workers look forward to twice a year.

Suggestions are a part of this, said Pam Johnson of Dana's human resource department. That translates into almost every worker.

Top 10 'participants'

The "Top 10" participants receive recognition at the dinner, and two lucky participants receive big "lotto" prizes.

Workers receive points for attendance at work, safety measures and implemented suggestions. Additionally, workers receive recognition for voluntarily participating in company-sponsored programs such as stock purchase, 401K and contributions to United Way.

"The employees look forward to the dinner," said Johnson. The dinner is held at the Dana facility. The latest dinner was catered by Mac's Smokehouse of Pocahontas.

The lotto prizes are the highlight of the dinner. Employee name tickets are placed in a barrel for each "participation event," and two winners are selected at each of the semiannual dinners. Each worker may have from one to as many as 700 tickets in the barrel.

Lotto winners have their choice of a number of prize options, including Browning shotgun, a $1,200 vacation for two, a Sears 19HP garden tractor, cam recorder/VCR or a Sony stereo system.

Winners of the recent lotto awards were Steve Leible and Bernard Kirn.

Special "Top 10" recognition went to;

Donnie Smith, Chuck Gass, Donald Long, Mary Williams, Emmanuel Santos, Brent Martin, Jeff Grim, Angela Maserang, Jeff Slinkard and Kevin Pulliam.

The events are organized by Dana's human resource department.

People important asset

"Dana people are definitely our most important asset," said Anne Poston, human resource manager. "We enjoy the opportunity to recognize and reward their accomplishments."

Other members of the human resource staff that plans the meeting are Johnson, Missy Jones, Tim Wheetley, Pat Hagan and Larry Koehler.

The next Dana participation dinner will be in July

When people are hired at Dana, they are introduced to the "project teams" of the company, whose goal is to come up with and implement suggestions to improve the workplace, the product and other aspects of working environment that may need fine-tuning.

The company needs the input of the workers on the floor on how to improve daily operations, said Dave Blanchard, plant manager. People who suggest the ideas are expected to follow through with the implementation of the suggestion.

Dana has been in Cape Girardeau since 1989. The company produces machine components for the center section of driving axles for two-wheel and four-wheel drive vehicles. The parts are then assembled and sent to other Dana plants in Columbia, Mo., Buena Vista, Va., Fort Wayne, Ind., and Syracuse, Ind., where the axles are completed.

The finished product is then shipped to the Original Equipment Manufacturers Co., which distributes the parts to automotive giants such as Ford, Jeep, Corvette, Isuzu and Viper.

It was in mid-January 1989 that Dana officials announced a $23 million, 140,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. Today, the firm employs more than 350 workers and is listed among the top 25 industries in the Southeast Missouri area.

The plant operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There is a "down time" three hours a day, four days a week for regular maintenance of machinery.

More 'Thumbs Up'

Also deserving "Thumbs Up" recognition are James W. Wente, new chairman of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, and Dennis Marchi, outgoing board chairman.

These two community leaders went beyond their expected chamber duties to provide an extra-interesting program at the recent chamber dinner-dance.

Marchi, manager of Schnucks Grocery, discovered in his research that the local chamber was founded before the Missouri State Chamber.

"The state chamber is 75 years old," Marchi told the crowd of more 800 at the Show Me Center for the annual event. "The Cape Girardeau Chamber this year is observing its 80th year."

Three of those years as the "Commercial Club," the group was officially founded in 1917, before becoming the chamber in 1920.

Wente also delved deep into chamber history to find that a group of interested businessmen first organized in 1888. Fewer than 40 communities in the United States had embraced a chamber concept at that point.

This small group eventually became the commercial club and then the chamber.

Industrial growth traced

Wente, administrator of Southeast Missouri Hospital, also traced the city's industrial growth, from its first big industry -- the International Shoe Co. -- to the 1920s when the city's industries included Portland Cement Co, International Shoe, a carriage manufacturer, three poultry firms, six lumber companies, three cigar manufacturers, a broommaker, two flour mills and three filling stations, to 1969 with the arrival of Procter & Gamble Paper Products. Schnucks arrived in 1976. In 1984, Biokwya opened, then Dana opened in 1989, followed by M&W Industries in 1990.

Today, he said, there are more than 130 industries in the city and county employing more than 7,000 people. Another 26,000 people are employed in the professions, government, construction and service retail.

During his research, Wente also unearthed a 1930s Cape Chamber slogan, "What Cape Girardeau Builds, Builds Cape Girardeau."

"I haven't heard that slogan in a while," he said, "but it certainly rings as true today as it did in 1934."

Cape Girardeau, said Wente, "is on the go and on the grow," thanks to a membership that has grown from about 100 in 1920 to more than 1,100 today.

Don't forget Friday

You don't have to say it with flowers.

You don't have to say it with candy.

In fact, you don't even have to say it -- those little sugar hearts can do it for you on Valentine Day (Feb. 14).

A certain New England confectionery company, Neeco, turns out more than 8 billion of these familiar little hearts a year. Your sentiments are bound to be among them, whether they're straight forward (You're so Cool, Love You, Kiss Me); romantically retro (You Send Me); insistent (How Soon?); plaintive (I Wish You Would) or petulant (It's Now or Never).

There are some new ones this year -- Fax Me, Awesome, E-Mail Me.

The little hearts of different colors are made of sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, water and flavoring. They count up to three calories each.

Hey, there's even one for the admirer who will never get your (real) heart, "Keep on Dreaming."

If you're married or have a serious heart throb, you'd also best invest in some flowers, chocolates or a night out, including dinner.

B. Ray Owen is business editor for the Southeast Missourian.