David Marshall
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How Do You Determine the Value of an Employee?
- October 4, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Measurement
No CommentsMany people don’t realize, but the left guard on an NFL team is often the second-highest paid player on the team, right after the quarterback. That’s because that player guards the back of a right-handed quarterback, his “blind” side. After Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann had his femur snapped by Lawrence Taylor during a 1985
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How the Right Materials Management Person Saved Us Millions of Dollars
- September 27, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Manufacturing
When you say materials management to a non-manufacturing person, they often have visions of moving boxes around or driving raw materials around the factory on a forklift. When you say materials management to a manufacturer, they often think of the most important person in the building. The Materials Manager is quite literally responsible for the
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Four Steps I Took to Lower Our Workers Comp Costs
- September 20, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Management, Safety
Workers Compensation is the bane of most employers, a much-hated tax they have to pay in order to support workers who get injured on the job. And the opportunities for fraud are so prevalent that just mentioning the phrase “Workers Comp” is enough to make any executive see red. But I managed to reduce our
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Workers Affected By Safety Rules Should be the Ones Creating Safety Rules
- September 13, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Safety
Last week, I talked about the importance of having a disaster recovery plan, including offsite data backup storage, while I was at Robroy. We updated our plan every year, exercised our tornado and fire drills at least twice a year (so the emergency lighting could be double-checked and replaced). We even had people certified in
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Do You Have a Disaster Plan for Your Manufacturing Company?
- September 6, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Management, Manufacturing, Safety
With Hurricane Harvey passing just a couple hours southeast of me, and Hurricane Irma hitting Florida, I have been wondering what businesses in the affected area have done to protect their data and information from disaster. I’ve heard stories of businesses that have had to shut down because they lost their financial and client data
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What a Collapsing Bridge Taught Us About Continuing Education
- August 30, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Manufacturing
Robroy specializes in anti-corrosion products, which generally are installed in applications that “have imperative.” Whether it’s corrosion resistant non-electrified electric systems, fiberglass liners that go inside oil field tubulars, or fiberglass enclosures that house electronic and electrical and data equipment, Robroy made it. When I say the products “have imperative,” it means that failure is
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Surround Yourself With People Smarter Than You, and Listen to Them
- August 23, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Management
In talking with other C-level executives, I’ve learned I was rather unusual in the manufacturing world, especially in the great state of Texas. When it came to our management structure, 60 percent of our managers were women. I always appreciated that, not only because the women I hired were amazingly competent, but they didn’t have
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The Knife Angel of Shrewsbury, England and Its Message of Peace
- August 16, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership
England is so much different from the United States in so many ways. For one thing, there aren’t as many guns per capita in England as there are in the United States — there are 6.6 guns owned per 100 Britons versus 112 guns per 100 Americans. No, our big problem is knives. British people
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Treat People Fairly, and They’ll Be Fair With You
- August 9, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Leadership
I’ve always tried to treat people fairly, even going above and beyond what’s expected of me. I’ve been in more than a few situations that I didn’t need to do this. I wouldn’t have done anything wrong, and I could have received a small benefit to myself in the end. But by treating the other
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If You’re Going to Do Something, Do It Right or Don’t Do It
- July 27, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Management
A few months ago, after I left Robroy and started my own consultancy, I received a very nice note from an old manufacturer’s rep named Jack, and it brought back a lot of memories. David, I keep up with you through Brian C. and John S.. I’ll never forget you calling me when you got