Innovation
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Be Humble Enough to Learn from Everyone
- July 7, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Innovation, Leadership, Management
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Managers and executives often suffer from the belief (the conceit?) that they should have all the answers, should know how to do everything, and should be the smartest person in the room. The problem is they become bottlenecks, assume they’re the only ones with all the answers, and will often require associates to carry out
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Should Manufacturers Use Blockchain
- January 27, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Digital Transformation, Innovation, Manufacturing
You’re no doubt hearing more and more about blockchain and how it’s being used in new and different applications. For one thing, you’re probably hearing more about Bitcoin, and you may even know that it operates on the blockchain principles. But what is blockchain? Is it important? Can manufacturers use it? Should we use it?
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5 Manufacturing Predictions for 2021
- January 6, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Digital Transformation, Innovation, Manufacturing
Sometimes we’re so close to the trees that we can’t see the forest. We’re so focused on this one tree, not realizing that the forest is growing and changing all around us. I feel that way when I think about all the manufacturing technology changes that have been going on around us in 2020 and
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Invest In Your Associates to Help Your Company Thrive
- October 21, 2020
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Innovation, Leadership, Productivity
A couple of weeks ago, I talked about how you can win your associates’ loyalty by involving them in the decision-making process when it comes to new technology and equipment. Another way you can invest in your associates is to give them an opportunity to participate in the business. For example, at Robroy, I instituted
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How Can Manufacturers Achieve Zero Waste? Does It Even Make Sense?
- September 23, 2020
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Innovation, Manufacturing
Have you heard about manufacturers that have achieved Zero Waste? That means they have absolutely zero garbage leaving their plants. For instance, the Subaru plant in Lafayette, Indiana is certified Zero Waste. They recycle everything they can, and they reuse many of their packing materials by sending them back to their Japanese suppliers for refills.
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How Can You Handle Rush Orders? (Small Batch Sizes)
- September 9, 2020
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Digital Transformation, Innovation
It doesn’t matter how well you plan, all it takes is one bad inventory count or runaway forklift for a customer to have a rush order for a small number of parts, say 250 brackets. It’s something you don’t make that often and you have to retool and set up for that order which makes
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Why You Should Keep Marketing in an Economic Downturn
- August 5, 2020
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Innovation, Management
One of the biggest mistakes executives make during an economic downturn is to make cuts to their sales and marketing staff. Those are the two departments that actually make the money that your company runs on, which means there are fewer people helping you make money, which means you make less money. Sales have to
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How Do You Recession-Proof Your Business?
- October 23, 2019
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Innovation, Productivity
Trying to recession-proof your business is like hurricane-proofing your house. Now, we don’t get many (actually, any) hurricanes in Central Texas, but I’ve got friends in Florida who tell me all about it. They tell me the hurricane-prep is almost comical to watch: Five days before a major hurricane will make landfall, all the people
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What a Tail-less Cheetah Can Teach Us About Partnerships
- June 26, 2019
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Innovation, Management
Take a look at this video. It’s of a mother cheetah and her cub that I took while I was on a safari in Natal, South Africa. I used to own a company in South Africa in the 70s, and I like to return to South Africa from time to time to visit old friends.
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How We Used Automation to Increase Productivity, Reduce Errors, and Reduce Waste
- March 6, 2019
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Digital Transformation, Innovation
Several years ago, when I was the president of Robroy, we were faced with a problem of how to deal with an old business that was run down, obsolete, and had an employee retention problem (we would lose 20% of our workforce every time we conducted a random drug test). This was my world without