Manufacturing
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Why You Should Provide Cross-Training to Your Employees
- June 28, 2023
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Manufacturing, Productivity
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Cross-training is going to be a critical function of the work you do in your factory. Not only does it help your workforce and their mental health, it increases their skills and makes them more valuable to your organization. But more importantly, it also reduces the risk of injury. Years ago, when I was at
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When Should You Do Maintenance and Repairs On Your Machines? Why?
- June 21, 2023
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Manufacturing, Productivity, Safety
Your factory’s maintenance program should be ongoing, not as a repair-as-needed reactive process. You need to be as proactive and preventative as possible. Basically, there are two kinds of maintenance you should be doing: 1) Heavy maintenance and 2) Running maintenance. Heavy maintenance:Once a year when you check everything and do all the heavy stuff
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Increasing Productivity Doesn’t Always Mean Working Harder
- June 14, 2023
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Innovation, Management, Manufacturing, Productivity
As much as I hate to say it, the key to increased productivity really is “work smarter, not harder.” But it’s more than just finding little tricks and hacks that help people do their job much faster, or having people start working a little faster than they were before. If you really want to increase
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Your Associates Should Be Your Safety Experts, Not Your Managers
- May 31, 2023
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Manufacturing, Safety
Safety should be the number one priority in any manufacturing plant, but your managers should not be the ones establishing the safety rules. Your associates should be your safety experts, and they should be the ones making the rules and running the safety training program. After all, they’re the ones performing the tasks, and they’re
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Who Is Responsible for an Individual’s Safety?
- May 24, 2023
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Manufacturing, Safety
When it comes to deciding who’s responsible for an individual’s safety, there’s only one right answer. EVERYONE Anyone near them. Anyone on the other side of the room or the other side of the building. Anyone who happens to be walking by. It’s no one person’s job, it’s everyone’s job. Everyone is responsible for everyone
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A Machine Isn’t Designed to Leak
- May 10, 2023
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Manufacturing, Safety
Go into any manufacturing space, and you’ll often see pits around pieces of equipment that are like retention ponds, soaking up leaks. It could be oil, water, or hydraulic fluid. In fact, in many manufacturing spaces, you’ll see leaks like this. They have to build those pits in place because there will invariably be leaks
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Marketing Tactics for Manufacturers
- August 24, 2022
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Manufacturing
Manufacturers have one of the easiest-but-most-difficult times marketing their products, especially in the B2B realm. They have a small, defined audience, which makes their buyers easy to identify and reach. On the downside, having a small, defined audience — generally, purchasing agents or directors of operation/COOs of other companies — means that traditional marketing methods
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How Would You Start a Manufacturing Business Now?
- November 24, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Manufacturing
Every new business needs an idea, or at least an opportunity, to get things rolling. And these days, during the supply chain crisis, there are plenty of opportunities that abound. Rather than trying to come up with a new product and convincing people that they want it, you could become wildly successful by giving people
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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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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