How Healthy Is Your #Manufacturing Workforce?

If you're a business owner, you want to have the "best workforce money can buy."

Whenever I talk to business owners about their operations, we invariably wind up talking about HR issues. The two most common are; 1) how to manage the employees I have and 2) how do I hire good people? It turns out these two apparently diverse concerns are closely related.

How you say? Well, if you hire good people, you don’t have as many HR issues day-to-day." But

David, how do we hire the “right” people that “fit” our company?"

Well, as with most things, it takes a bit of planning. You must take the time to put down on paper the skill set you are looking for along with a very introspective look at your company culture. Do you have a diverse workforce or not? Will it be affected by bringing in a trained individual at a higher wage or will a promotion from within be more accepted? These kinds of questions along with a good job description will give you a good base of check-off items that any candidate will have to meet.

Is Your #Manufacturing Company A Job Shop?

If you were to ask manufacturers if they are a “job shop," I’d guess a great percentage would say “Yes.” They’d say they work on “jobs” and of course a “shop” is just another name for a facility or factory.

In my mind, a true job shop is one that makes discrete quantities of parts on a purchase order and ships them all to a customer in one shipment. No long-term delivery or commitment requirements. On the other hand, a shop that does have longer term purchase orders with multiple releases and/or formal purchase agreements or contracts is not what I would describe as a job shop.

Let’s go through some of the pros and cons of each so you can clearly see what type of business mix you have and whether it works best for you.
                                   

“Job Shop” (as described above)
         
Pros:

• Lower volume- lower investment in outside processes
• Shorter time to payment as total process/invoice cycle is short
• Lower or no WIP (Work In Process) and finished inventory.

Making The Most Of Conference Attendance

Guest post by Robbi Hess

Is there a conference attendance in your future? If it's local, chances are you have only paid the price of admission. If, however, you have to travel to attend a conference you will likely be paying for airfare and the price of the hotel in addition to the conference attendance fee.

You need to reap the rewards of your time there and here are some tips for doing just that:

• Spend time with the conference brochure before you attend. Get to "know" the speakers and understand the topics they will be presenting at their sessions. Map out which sessions you will attend and what you hope to learn. You might even want to write down some questions to ask the speaker to gain a more thorough understanding of the topic. 
• If there are pre-conference events or post-conference get togethers, make time in your schedule to attend those. Don't hide away in your hotel room before or after the conference sessions. Mingling during the pre- and post- events is the best way to potentially forge a relationship with a speaker or a fellow conference attendee. 
• When you get home from the conference you should blog about your attendance. Share the information learned on your social media pages. Most importantly, you should follow up with those individuals you met -- strike while the iron is hot. 

What are your best conference attendance tips? 

Robbi Hess is The Written Marketing Expert at All Words Matter. She works with clients to take their words, put it into their message and distribute it in places that make sense! If you're struggling with your written marketing content, contact her at robbi@allwordsmatter.com 

Three Ways To Work More Efficiently

Guest post by Robbi Hess

The great equalizer is time: We all are only given 24-hours per day. It's what we do with those hours that can set us apart from the competition.

What can you do to make the most of your hours and work more efficiently and effectively? Here are

my three thoughts:

1. Plan your upcoming week. Whether you plan your upcoming week on Friday before you leave the office or if you sit down on Sunday and plan for the week ahead, planning is crucial to success. It's a cliche that "if you fail to plan you plan to fail" but it is true. Having a written plan means you can check items off when they're complete. 

Are You On The Verge Of #Manufacturing Business Growth?

It's a great problem to have -- your #manufacturing business is on the verge of growth. Are you ready? If so, what can you do to make certain you and your staff are truly ready for this forward momentum? 

If you believe that your business is teetering on the verge of a growth spurt, here are three questions you will

want to ponder before you take the leap into that growth:

1. Are you competitive with those in your niche market? Consider that if you've been operating "under the radar" and if this growth will propel you into the spotlight you need to be prepared to make certain your business stands out from the crowd. 
2. Will growth mean you will have to jettison some of your smaller (in most cases, the loyal customers who helped you get where you are today?) clients?  Is it your smaller clients that helped you get where you are today? Will your new business model mean you will now only work with clients on the XYZ level where in the beginning you worked with everyone from A to Z? Will growth mean you lose your loyal base? 

First Things First For Manufacturers

Doesn’t it seem like everybody is extremely busy these days?Do you find it impossible to get someone to call or email you back?

My belief is that there is an information overload going on and most people act upon the latest fire that is in front of them. People get so engrossed in their seemingly immediate needs that they lose sight of the things

that need to be done including things like:

• Strategic planning
• Business transition planning
• Reviewing your Balance sheet and P & L sheet
• Taking a vacation?

 So, you ask, what can you do?

As someone who has, at times, had difficulty focusing on “real” needs instead of dealing with the last phone call, I found that the surest way of keeping on track is to setup times in a calendar for working on essential tasks. You don’t have to schedule times for the entire list of tasks everyday. 

How Productive Are You At Work?

Guest post by Social Media Manager ~ Blogger, Robbi Hess

Whether you're in the #manufacturing industry or in any other industry, being productive at work is crucial to success. What can you do to be more productive at work? 

Here are my five tips: 

Does Your #Manufacturing Company Use 3D Printing?

I found this article on 3D printing intriguing. Do you use this technology in any of your manufacturing processes?

Gartner predicts that by 2018, at least seven of the world’s top 10 multichannel retailers will be using 3D printing technology to generate custom stock orders, at the same time as entirely new business models are built on the technology.

“Some retailers are already selling 3D printers to consumers, and as they become more readily available, consumers could use them to ‘manufacture’ their own custom-designed products,” said Miriam Burt, research vice president at Gartner. “We also expect to see 3D copying services and 3D printing bureaus emerge where customers bring 3D models to a retailer or provider and have increasingly high-end parts and designs printed, not just in plastics but in materials including ceramics, stainless steel, and cobalt and titanium alloys.”

You can read the entire article here. I'd love to know if you're using this technology.

Steps To Conquer The Overwhelm Of Your Mornings

Post by Social Media Strategist Robbi Hess

As a business owner how do you greet your mornings? Do you look at them as a way to jump into a new, fresh day and face exciting challenges ahead? Do you glare at the alarm clock, willing it to stop its noise and just let you continue to sleep?

There are steps I've found to help me conquer the overwhelm of mornings and I'd like to share them with you because as a #manufacturing professional you need to be at your best and greet the daily to-dos as a

way to really make your plant shine:

1. Plan your next day prior to leaving the office at the end of the day. This can prevent you being jolted awake in the middle of the night making a laundry list of things you didn't accomplish as compared to the things you have yet to accomplish. Action step: Write a to-do list for the following day before I close the door on my home office. If I wake up in the middle of the night and realize I left something off — even though it may not be earth shattering — I will jot it down on the sticky note I keep next to my bed; it helps quiet the gremlins.
2. When are you most creative/productive? Once you know that you can harness the power of that time of the day to tackle tasks that are daunting or those that simply drain your energy. I know that I am most productive first thing in the morning so that is when I write blog posts, plan social media updates and work on my book. I slow down, mentally, in the afternoon and that is when I do tasks that don’t require high levels of creativity. In the afternoons I, make follow up calls, work on editorial calendars, work on anything I have to do that is on a spreadsheet! Action step: Take a few days this week to see when you feel the most creative, inspired and mentally alert. Plan your most mind-challenging tasks for that time of the day and use your off-peak times to do repetitive tasks.

First Things First For Manufacturers

Most business people and #manufacturers in Scottsdale, Arizona and across the country face myriad issues every day just to keep the doors open. Human resources, customer matters, facilities, sales, collections and payroll are just a few of the daily “fun” things businesses deal with. In the process of getting through the day and putting out the fires that have popped up, some business owners lose sight of how to gain ground and move the business forward.

Opportunities and needs are handled like another fire drill and decisions are made without a plan in mind.

What you really need to do is make a prioritized list of long-term needs and work on them in that sequence instead of in a spur-of-the-moment order.

One thing that needs to be first is paying your employees. While this may seem simple, many businesses ignore this matter at their peril. Even if you don’t get paid, your employees must. Several matters become clear when this is a priority. You need to make a profit and collect money for your work. Again, in many businesses, these are not considered important.

Manufacturers: You Gotta Do Something!

Reading this title you might get the idea I think people don’t do anything. Not true. What I do mean, is that

many manufacturing companies, both in Arizona and across the country, get so caught up in the everyday hustle and bustle that they wind up putting out fires over and over without addressing the lingering and nagging problems that are draining their businesses of valuable time and money.

If you don’t start focusing ON your business, you will most likely need additional fire extinguishers to handle the increasing number and size of problems that will continue to rob you of your time and ultimately your satisfaction in owning a business.

Is Your Manufacturing Customer 'Always Right'?

Guest post by Robbi Hess

Anyone who is in the retail or honestly any kind of business that provides a good or service to the public is well aware of the phrase, "the customer is always right." As a sales person myself I understand that sometimes you need to bite your tongue and find out the true root cause of a client's unhappiness because on the surface it may not be what they are vocalizing about.

Regardless of whether they are right or wrong, they hold the power in that they feed your bank account. True, you don't need to keep working with a client that is impossible to satisfy or who is abusive, but for the most part our clients are reasonable even though they may tend to get up in arms at times.

Part 2: Lock It Up Or Lose It

In my December newsletter, I wrote about the need to secure your data and hardware. You can read the article here.

For manufacturers,securing data and hardware is only half the battle. You’ve still got quite a bit of valuable information in your shop that you are contractually bound to secure and protect.  In a recent conversation with a large aerospace manufacturer’s IT security professional, I was told that a new DFAR (Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation) will be issued and then “flowed down” to smaller suppliers that will require compliance in the cyber-security arena as well as the information you keep as part of the production process.

What Kind Of Marketing Efforts Have You Implemented?

Guest post by Content Strategist and Social Wordsmith, Robbi Hess 

As the owner of a #manufacturing business what does your organization need the most? A strategic marketing plan, tactical marketing or face-to-face interactions? The short answer, is all of them. You may be wondering how you will have the time to do all of these and even if you find the time, how exactly do you implement these strategies?

Get Involved or Die Trying

Most manufacturers I talk to these days are looking for skilled machinists. Also, I’m sure you’ve read elsewhere that this IS a problem and that the problem will only get worse before it gets better. While we wait for the education system to produce the number of skilled machinists that are needed, there is something a shop or company owner can do.

Networking To Grow Your #Consulting Business

Guest post by Robbi Hess 

As 2014 gets underway, what changes can you make to grow your #manufacturing or your #consulting clientele? Networking is an ideal way to do this, but you need to know how to do it "correctly." Chances are you have attended networking or industry events where you meet people, shake hands then walk away with a stack of business cards that end up in the bottom of your briefcase. This is a wasted opportunity for you and your business and for the individual who simply handed you a card without getting to know you and vice versa.

Resolutions And Musings On Business From A #Manufacturing Consultant

I’ve been giving a bit of thought what my business New Year’s resolutions will be in 2014 and I think I've figured them out.

My central themes in my consulting practice are costs and cost control. To be truly competitive and profitable, you’ve got to know what your costs are to accurately price quotations. Whenever I talk to a new/potential or existing client in 2014, I resolve to ask them three questions:

1. Do you have a system in place that accurately tracks direct costs?
2. Does this cost system have the ability to add indirect costs to give you a complete cost structure for a particular part, job or customer?
3. Do you review these costs for each job and customer to see how you are doing vis-à-vis the pricing of your products?

Is Your Management Style Conducive To Your #Manufacturing Firms' Success?

If you're the owner or operator of a manufacturing business, you likely have face to face contact with your employees and management staff on a daily basis. Because of this, have you ever wondered whether your management style was conducive to the productivity of the operation as a whole? It's something to think about as the new year has rolled in and you might be making changes in your plant to make it more profitable and productive.

A Great Topic to Talk About During the Holidays: Is College Right for Everyone?

I came across an article that specifically addressed the divide between those who think everybody should go to college and those that don’t. I’m not saying that college isn’t a great option for those who are thinking about a career in engineering, medicine and any other career that requires an advanced degree.

#Manufacturers Must Know Their Facility

Reading this title, I’m sure that you rolled your eyes and thought, “why the heck is this guy talking about these three boring topics; Facilities, Utilities and Acquisition. The simple answer is that these three items are the least thought of in everyday operation of your business even though they may be the very basis of the expansion of your plant.

Facilities: Concrete, steel beams and roofs.This topic covers your building, property and storage facilities you use. Since your business has to be housed somewhere, you must concern yourself with the building in terms of its construction and maintenance. Don’t know much about concrete or steel beams?