Business

  • Treat People Fairly, and They’ll Be Fair With You

    • August 9, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Business, Leadership
    No Comments
    The Teatret Fair Play - Not a great representation about how to treat people fairly, but how would you represent it?

    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
    No Comments
    If you're going to do it right, make sure even your venue is a five-star one.

    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

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  • Hire Slow and Fire Fast to Avoid Workplace Toxicity

    • July 19, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Business, Management
    No Comments
    The question of sustainability versus remediation is an economic one as much as a humanitarian one. This is a photo of a toxic looking barrel laying on its side.

    Toxic employees can have a negative effect on company morale and production. Their bad behavior doesn’t just limit them and their accomplishments. It spreads like a sickness to the people who work around them, causing all kinds of internal strife and dissatisfaction. Even your star employees, who are probably pulling the weight of the toxic

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  • Learn From the Past So You Don’t Repeat It

    • May 31, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Business, Innovation
    No Comments
    Balmoral Castle - Understand the history of places and learn from the past to avoid repeating those mistakes

    The further backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see. I’ve always been a big fan of Winston Churchill, and as I was growing up, I adopted several of his quotes as philosophies to live by. This month, I’ll discuss four quotes that have guided me over my professional career. Being

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  • Move From Failure to Failure With a Smile

    • May 24, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Business, Manufacturing
    No Comments
    Our old Duoline factory before we tore it all down and started over.

    Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. I’ve always been a big fan of Winston Churchill, and as I was growing up, I adopted several of his quotes as philosophies to live by. This month, I’ll discuss four quotes that have guided me over my professional

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  • How to Be Perfect: Improve and Change Often

    • May 10, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Business, Measurement
    No Comments
    A stack of paperwork. This was one of the changes we had to make in order to improve.

    To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to change often. I’ve always been a big fan of Winston Churchill, and as I was growing up, I adopted several of his quotes as philosophies to live by. This month, I’ll discuss four quotes that have guided me over my professional career. I’m a

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  • Forever to Build, Lost in a Moment

    • May 3, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Business, Management
    No Comments
    Former Florida state senator Frank Artiles

    “To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.” I’ve always been a big fan of Winston Churchill, and as I was growing up, I adopted several of his quotes as philosophies to live by. This month, I’ll discuss four

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  • How We Managed a Factory Fire in Texas While I was in Dubai

    • April 5, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Business, Management, Safety
    No Comments

    Always hire good people. If there’s a problem, they’ll take care of it. Several years ago, I was in Dubai on a business trip, and I had just gone to bed. It was 10:30 pm local time, an 8 hour difference between me and our factory in Texas. The phone rang and jolted me awake.

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  • How I Doubled Output By Cutting Head Count by Nearly Half

    • March 15, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Business, Management, Manufacturing, Productivity
    No Comments
    A factory floor with storage rack. That's the sign of great materials management.

    When I first started with Robroy, we needed an awful lot of cleanup, not only because the facility was dirty, but because there was a lot of nepotism in the organization that resulted in an awful lot of unproductive people working for us. Nepotism is never a good idea in an organization, and we had

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  • Optimizing Productivity Through Plant Workflow Measurement

    • February 1, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Business, Manufacturing, Productivity
    No Comments
    A factory and machinery. This is where plant workflow measurement should happen.

    In a manufacturing operation that measures everything, it’s especially important to measure the operational time of your plant and its associates, to ensure they’re being as productive as possible. Some people call this measurement “time keeping,” but that term can also be confused with associates clocking in and out in the course of a normal

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