Measurement
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Performance Evaluations Waste Time and Money
- October 11, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Measurement
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Annual performance evaluations are generally useless. I actually did away with them because I found people would generally work extra hard two weeks before the evaluation, and counted on management not to remember all the things they screwed up along the way. But if you have an effective daily, weekly, and monthly measurement system, you
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How Do You Determine the Value of an Employee?
- October 4, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Measurement
Many people don’t realize, but the left guard on an NFL team is often the second-highest paid player on the team, right after the quarterback. That’s because that player guards the back of a right-handed quarterback, his “blind” side. After Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann had his femur snapped by Lawrence Taylor during a 1985
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The Importance of Measuring ROI in Manufacturing
- July 5, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Manufacturing, Measurement
For the last few weeks, I’ve been talking about important leadership qualities, and how being persistent and decisive was key in automating one of our oldest, dirtiest, and most hazardous manufacturing processes. (We were hand galvanizing certain pipes, and the galvanization chemical contained arsenic!) So we tore out all the hand-operated process and built up
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How to Be Perfect: Improve and Change Often
- May 10, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Measurement
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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Use Plant Workflow Measurement to Manage EPA Requirements and Reporting
- February 22, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Manufacturing, Measurement, Safety
In a previous article, I talked about the importance of plant workflow measurement to determine a plant’s productivity, such as a machine’s downtime or an associate’s total productivity. With a plant workflow system, associates can self-manage their own performance, and you can be alerted early to potential problems with machines, before a breakdown ever occurs.
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Improve Productivity and Morale by Reducing Interruptions
- February 15, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Innovation, Manufacturing, Measurement
There are a number of factors that go into improving productivity of your associates, and by extension, your plant workflow. Not only do you get more things done, but you can make your associates happier to boot. Keeping associates productive throughout their shift with as few interruptions as possible actually enhances morale, and makes their
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Good Customer Service Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry
- January 25, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Manufacturing, Measurement
An organization needs a good customer service department, but their job could be a whole lot easier if the organization itself focused on “never having to say they’re sorry” as well. I don’t mean adopt an uncaring attitude that ignores a customer’s issues. I mean deliver a quality product on time at a fair value
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What’s the ROI of Fixing Your Downtime?
- January 18, 2017
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Measurement
In previous articles, I’ve discussed the importance of measuring and monitoring your plant workflow, in order to find any problem areas, whether it’s an associate, a machine, or a process. When you’re measuring plant workflow, you’re not only looking for productivity numbers to make sure you’re meeting your projections, you’re also looking for problem areas,
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How Document Management Improves Productivity, Lowers Costs
- December 21, 2016
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Innovation, Measurement, Productivity
I remember during my career, years ago, when everything was done on paper. We saved all memos, letters, and faxes sent or received. Saving all that correspondence was a major undertaking, as was the paperwork we kept whenever we hired someone. Add in the normal paperwork of a manufacturing operation, and things really started to
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Cut Your Bottom 10%: Using an ABC Analysis to Find Your Lowest Performers
- November 13, 2016
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Measurement, Productivity
If you’re familiar with the Pareto principle, and use it in some of your business decision making, maybe you should be familiar with the ABC Analysis. The ABC Analysis is an offshoot of the Pareto principle, and is useful in identifying the successes in your business. Let me explain. The Pareto principle — also called