Looking Ahead To 2015: Make More Money

Every company owner wants to increase his profits. At the beginning of every year, many owners make plans to improve profitability but as the year progresses, they find it hard to follow through. On paper, the road to higher profits is pretty straightforward.

• Cut Costs and/or
• Increase sales

However, and as simple as they look, there are so many nuances to each that I’d have to write a book about each one. As with most things in life, there are a few ideas that can be put into place quickly and rather simply to really boost profits with a little effort on your part.

What could those be? You’ve probably heard about all the “system” type approaches such as Six Sigma, TQM, Toyota Production System and Lean Manufacturing. These are all sophisticated and thorough systems that define every aspect of a company and its processes and attempt to manage them. On the surface, these seem like the “right” thing to do. However, most of these systems are a bit of overkill for most small and medium sized shops. Perhaps some of the readers of this newsletter will disagree but with a few simple techniques and a little follow-through, much can be accomplished without these complex systems.

My approach is go back to the basics.

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.

Quality Counts In All Manufacturing Company Processes

Quality impacts on your manufacturing company's bottom line. Some of you may think that ensuring quality Six Sigma, Toyota Production Systems, SPC, et al.

means implementing a sophisticated system. Oh, boy here we go again talking about Lean,

As a manufacturing consultant, I'm here to tell you that, "YES!" you can have a successful company without doing any of these things. I can already feel that some of you are about ready to get out your Six Sigma Belts and break some heads! Before you do, I will also say that unless you can come up with programs that can duplicate some of the successes of these processes and systems, your quality will suffer. If your quality suffers so, too, will your profits.