David Marshall
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How Do You Reduce Workers’ Idle Time?
- January 17, 2018
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Measurement
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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
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Headquarters and Second Offices Don’t Have to be in Expensive Cities
- November 29, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Management
The big expansion news over the last few weeks has been Amazon search for a second North American headquarters and the speculations about where they’ll actually place it. Dozens of cities are all clamoring for Amazon’s $5 billion investment and hoping to be the city to employ 50,000 employees, many with six-figure salaries. Many cities
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Industrial Engineering is a Lost Art
- November 22, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Management, Manufacturing
This month’s blog posts seem to be all about remote work. And this week isn’t any different because I was thinking about my friend, Bob Blair. Bob is a retired industrial engineer, who only ever came out of retirement to do some work for me and Robroy. Otherwise, he spends half the year in Canada
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I Don’t Believe in Remote Work for Employees
- November 15, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Management, Productivity
This one is going to make me unpopular, especially with today’s modern marvels of broadband technology, video conferencing, and our ability to multi-task and work anywhere in the world. I don’t believe in remote work for employees. (Not a big shocker, I’m sure, since you already read the headline.) But I believe that if you’re
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Having a Successful Business Means Having Successful Long Term Relationships
- November 8, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management
When your business is in a small rural area, like Gilmer, Texas (where Robroy Industries is located, nearer to Shreveport, Louisiana than Dallas), it can be pretty difficult to attract high-powered help, because they would have to relocate. It’s hard to get big city people to move to a small town. Then again, if you’re