David Marshall
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Why You Should Provide Cross-Training to Your Employees
- June 28, 2023
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Manufacturing, Productivity
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Cross-training is going to be a critical function of the work you do in your factory. Not only does it help your workforce and their mental health, it increases their skills and makes them more valuable to your organization. But more importantly, it also reduces the risk of injury. Years ago, when I was at
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When Should You Do Maintenance and Repairs On Your Machines? Why?
- June 21, 2023
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Manufacturing, Productivity, Safety
Your factory’s maintenance program should be ongoing, not as a repair-as-needed reactive process. You need to be as proactive and preventative as possible. Basically, there are two kinds of maintenance you should be doing: 1) Heavy maintenance and 2) Running maintenance. Heavy maintenance:Once a year when you check everything and do all the heavy stuff
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Increasing Productivity Doesn’t Always Mean Working Harder
- June 14, 2023
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Innovation, Management, Manufacturing, Productivity
As much as I hate to say it, the key to increased productivity really is “work smarter, not harder.” But it’s more than just finding little tricks and hacks that help people do their job much faster, or having people start working a little faster than they were before. If you really want to increase
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You’re Not Always Right: Why Leaders Should Not Be the Smartest People in the Room
- June 7, 2023
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Leadership
Being the smartest person in the room is not all it’s cracked up to be. And if you’re the leader of an organization or department, you absolutely should not be the smartest person in the room. You would think that was self-evident, but oftentimes it’s not. It’s a function of ego, although it’s understandable. We
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Your Associates Should Be Your Safety Experts, Not Your Managers
- May 31, 2023
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Manufacturing, Safety
Safety should be the number one priority in any manufacturing plant, but your managers should not be the ones establishing the safety rules. Your associates should be your safety experts, and they should be the ones making the rules and running the safety training program. After all, they’re the ones performing the tasks, and they’re
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Who Is Responsible for an Individual’s Safety?
- May 24, 2023
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Manufacturing, Safety
When it comes to deciding who’s responsible for an individual’s safety, there’s only one right answer. EVERYONE Anyone near them. Anyone on the other side of the room or the other side of the building. Anyone who happens to be walking by. It’s no one person’s job, it’s everyone’s job. Everyone is responsible for everyone
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How Much Does a Safety Lapse Cost Your Company?
- May 17, 2023
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Safety
I’ve said before that Safety is my number one non-negotiable. A safety lapse costs money, but most importantly, it can mean an injury to the people working for you. A safety lapse can be as benign as someone cutting their finger or as severe as being killed on the job. The range of costs can
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A Machine Isn’t Designed to Leak
- May 10, 2023
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Manufacturing, Safety
Go into any manufacturing space, and you’ll often see pits around pieces of equipment that are like retention ponds, soaking up leaks. It could be oil, water, or hydraulic fluid. In fact, in many manufacturing spaces, you’ll see leaks like this. They have to build those pits in place because there will invariably be leaks
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Marketing Tactics for Manufacturers
- August 24, 2022
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Manufacturing
Manufacturers have one of the easiest-but-most-difficult times marketing their products, especially in the B2B realm. They have a small, defined audience, which makes their buyers easy to identify and reach. On the downside, having a small, defined audience — generally, purchasing agents or directors of operation/COOs of other companies — means that traditional marketing methods
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Hire Older Workers on a Contract Basis
- August 17, 2022
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business
Even during the Great Resignation, there are certain groups of workers who are having trouble finding work: People 50 and older. People who have been in the workplace for two to three decades. People who are a few years away from retirement, but still have plenty to offer. I can’t tell you the number of