David Marshall

  • Understand Your Company’s Process to Set Goals and Objectives:

    • October 17, 2016
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Manufacturing, Measurement
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    nstead, we need to measure different aspects of a plant's work on a minute-by-minute basis, including parts produced, associate productivity, and so on. This is all part of the plant workflow.

    Previously, I discussed the importance of companies and their employees setting definite, measurable goals and objectives as a way to measure their productivity, progress, and improved skills. I said that basic goals like “improve sales” are too generic to actually be useful. A better goal would be to “Improve current sales revenue by 10 percent

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  • The Perils of Matrix Management

    • September 23, 2016
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Management
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    Annual performance evaluations can lead to a lot of stress and leave everyone feeling bad.

    As the business atmosphere moves away from the formal, button down environments I worked in, I’m seeing more companies adopt a matrix management philosophy, which may actually be harmful to a company’s success. Matrix management is where employees report to two or three managers. The management hierarchy is not only flat, but there are fewer

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  • Effective Safety Programs

    • September 3, 2016
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Safety
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    plant machine fabrication

    Too many times, associates don’t heed safety warnings and ignore their safety programs. They think it doesn’t apply to them or that they won’t be hurt, or that they know better “how things work,” and they’ll circumvent safety equipment and safety procedures to make things work. As the president of a large manufacturing company, I

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  • Improving Culture = Increased Productivity

    • August 25, 2016
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Business, Measurement
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    Fancy line graph on world map. Increased productivity doesn't always mean working faster, it means solving problems upstream.

    At one point I found out that 40% of all our invoices that were sent to customers came back as debit memos. That means there was something wrong with it, and it needed to be fixed on our end. If we wanted increased productivity in the back office, we had to figure out why this

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  • Need to upgrade your manufacturing facility?

    • August 8, 2016
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Manufacturing
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    This is what our original manufacturing facility looked like. Very dark and dirty.

    I oversaw the building of new ultra-modern 130,000 square foot manufacturing facility to better serve the company’s oilfield market, and provide better access to the Port of Houston. The new plant included: Unique, highly efficient fiberglass-reinforced plastics (FRP) manufacturing systems supported by advanced process controls. Robotics and automation for repeatability and precision. Full range of

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