David Marshall
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How Will 3D Printing Change Manufacturing and Warehousing?
- February 14, 2018
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Manufacturing
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I saw a funny tweet a couple years ago that said “I bought a 3D printer and printed out another 3D printer. Then I took the first one back.” We’ve come a long way from the beginnings of 3D printing, when you could pretty much only print out small plastic objects with a $2,000 “home”
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What Role is Automation Going to Play Over the Next 20 Years
- February 7, 2018
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Innovation, Manufacturing
Believe it or not, automation and robotics are going to improve our economy and our employment numbers, and can even help improve the education of our workers. U.S. unemployment is low, we have a vibrant economy, and we’re likely to have selective immigration, which means if we’re going to continue to grow, we need to
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A Successful Company Needs Intrapreneurs
- January 31, 2018
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Productivity
A friend once told me he thought the people who were troublemakers were the ones who made the best entrepreneurs. They were the ones who got in trouble because when they saw problems, they found ways around them, or they challenged the authority figures, rather than toeing the line and accepting the status quo. These
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The World Shouldn’t Change for Millennials, They’re Going to Have to Change for It
- January 24, 2018
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Management
Okay, I’m going to say something that’s going to upset 75.4 million people in this country: I don’t think the work world should change for Millennials, I think they’re going to have to change for it. Maybe I’m being a curmudgeon, and I’m sure there are many people who will tell me that the world
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How Do You Reduce Workers’ Idle Time?
- January 17, 2018
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Measurement
I read recently that workers’ idle time is costing the U.S. economy over $100 billion per year. And there’s no one reason it’s happening — employees may goof off, they may take longer on breaks and lunch, a machine may break down, their managers may inefficiently assign work, or it just may be the nature
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How Much is Worker Idle Time Costing You?
- January 10, 2018
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Measurement
I recently read in the Wall Street Journal that workers’ idle time — the time workers spend not being productive — is costing U.S. employers $100 billion per year. (This doesn’t include needless meetings, which I’d guess are costing another $100 billion, but that’s just me.) Some examples of idle time can include chatting around
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Make Smart Layoffs With Objective Measurement
- December 27, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Management, Measurement
While I never had to make any layoffs in my career, I’ve seen them happen, and often without any real plan to help the company further. I can say that while I’ve never done a layoff in my own career, I have reduced the workforce to help it run at peak efficiency, like firing third
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Leaders Can Lead More People Through Measurement
- December 20, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Management, Measurement
I sometimes think we have too many middle managers clogging up the business world. I look at companies that do big layoffs of their middle managers and wonder if they were actually that effective to begin with. If a company decides they can do away with 20 percent of their workforce, and the managers are
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The Power of Three: How We Owned Three Brands and Ran Three Sales Forces
- December 13, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business
When you’re a manufacturer with a national reach, you’ll often work with manufacturers reps as well as your own sales force. In fact, your sales force will often call on the manufacturers reps as part of their territory. Manufacturers reps often have access to projects and clients that you might not otherwise get because they
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The Cost of Environmental Infractions is High, Can Include Jail Time
- December 3, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Safety
Manufacturers who contaminate, pollute, and commit environmental infractions as part of their manufacturing process aren’t only risking a guilty conscience or the shouts and disparagement of environmental activists. If your manufacturing company is found to be committing environmental infractions, you run the risk of being sent to jail as well. For years, I worked closely