David Marshall
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How Do You Manage a Disruptive Employee, Especially in a Union?
- November 10, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Leadership, Management, Safety
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One of the most difficult things to do in a manufacturing operation is to fire union employees. Unions have historically played an important role in establishing workers’ rights and guaranteeing their safety. But there are some workers who take advantage of the union and hide behind it when they’ve been doing poor quality work or
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How Do You Find Leaders In Your Organization?
- November 3, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Manufacturing
There’s no one best source for hiring leaders for your organization. Some will insist on only promoting from within, moving people up the corporate structure as the opportunities arise. Others believe you need a fresh pair of eyes in certain leadership roles, so they’ll hire outsiders to come in and lead the organization. I often
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How Do You Get Executives to Clean Toilets?
- October 27, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Management
Years ago, when I was at Robroy, I made it a condition that everyone had a turn cleaning the toilets. And that went for the executives, too; I even took a turn. So someone asked me, how do you get executives to clean toilets? Short answer? It’s a condition of employment. If you don’t do
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What are the First Steps a Manufacturer Should Take to Modernize?
- October 20, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Digital Transformation, Innovation, Manufacturing
Last week, I talked about how there’s still a need for old-school manufacturing, but that doesn’t mean that there will always be a need. Some of you old-school manufacturers need to modernize and update your systems. If you’re still running labor-intensive processes and you’re struggling to find labor just to meet your orders, then maybe
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Is There Still a Place for Old-School Manufacturing?
- October 13, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Innovation, Manufacturing, Productivity
In these days of digital manufacturing and additive manufacturing, there’s still a call for old-school manufacturing with hydraulic presses, forging and extruding metal products, stamping and punching, and so on. There’s still a call for old-school manufacturing because there are some things that you just can’t automate. One reason is that you don’t have scale,
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Do Floor Managers and Supervisors Need Leadership Training?
- October 6, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business
One of the great cockups that Corporate America makes is assuming people who are great at their jobs will be great leaders of their departments. They promote great salespeople to become sales managers or they promote great machine operators to become floor managers. This compounds two mistakes, one on top of the other. Not only
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Corporate Buyers Should Leave Acquired Companies Alone
- August 25, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Leadership
Every successful company that has a product or service has a culture of its own that developed around it. Successful companies have found the secret to making their culture function to become one of the leaders in their field, which made them an attractive target for acquisition or merger by corporate buyers. This is how
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Automation Makes Work (and Life) Better For Workers
- August 18, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Manufacturing, Productivity
Automation is changing the face of manufacturing. It may be taking away some of the low-paying jobs, but it’s also taking people away from the heavy, backbreaking work on the floor. It’s giving people new opportunities to do much easier work and to even learn new skills and gain new knowledge. That leads to higher-paying
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Don’t Overlook Older Workers In Your Hiring
- August 11, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Management
We’re in a hiring crunch in the United States, especially in the manufacturing industry. Yes, there are issues in the fast food and service-related industry, as people aren’t going back to work even as states end their unemployment support of $300 per week. Many people blame the low salaries fast-food workers are getting (which is
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Is Slow to Hire, Fast to Fire Still Important in a Slow Job Market?
- August 4, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Management
Slow to hire, fast to fire as a management philosophy still matters, even now, in today’s labor market. The job talent pool is pretty shallow these days, with worker shortages in manufacturing, and there’s a concern that if you hold out for the best possible talent, those candidates may be gone by the time you’re