management
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How Managers Can Keep Unions on Their Side
- September 25, 2024
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Safety
No CommentsWhen I was the president of Robroy, I worked very hard to keep the union on my side. In fact, having them on my side made managing the associates a whole lot easier. It also made them more likely to agree with my decisions when other managers might have faced a lot of pushback and
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Five BAD Leadership Habits to Stop Doing Immediately
- September 18, 2024
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Management
There are plenty of articles out there on what good leaders should do, but I don’t see as many articles on bad leadership. Because there are plenty of bad leaders who, at the very least, are ineffective and make no impact. But at worst, they drag their organization down into the toilet because they lack
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Building a Winning Team by Hiring for Skills, Not Education
- September 11, 2024
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Manufacturing
When you’re building a winning team, it’s important that you hire people for their knowledge and smarts, not their education and degrees. Too often, businesses require certain educational experiences that either don’t make any sense or mean you miss out on some prime candidates. If I had to choose between hiring a 22-year-old with a
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The Benefits of a Lean Manufacturing System
- September 4, 2024
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Management, Manufacturing
Lean manufacturing is a buzzword that gets used a lot, but what does it really mean and why should you care? Lean manufacturing is about eliminating waste and removing superfluous processes. It means having the ideal number of associates, trimming the fat, and making sure that everyone can get the most amount of work done
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How Modern Leadership Creates a High-Performance Manufacturing Team
- June 19, 2024
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Manufacturing
Finding the ideal employees in any organization can be tough. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, the customers you serve, the work you do, or the jobs you’re hiring for. It’s tough finding quality employees. But too many employers try to find exactly the right employee who has all the right skills and can
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Your Company’s Management Style is Driving Off Employees
- June 12, 2024
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Management
Manufacturing does not have the reputation of being progressive or forward-thinking when it comes to management style, allowing their employees to grow and develop, or considering their employees’ mental health and feelings. Maybe you think it’s soft and you think, “We never had any of that nonsense when I was young! We just sucked it
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No More Company Cars
- June 5, 2024
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Management
I’ll admit, I hate the idea of company cars. They’re a royal pain in the ass and they cause a lot of problems and strife within a company. One thing I did whenever I started in any new leadership role at a company was to eliminate the company cars completely. After all, we were in
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How to Stay Competitive in a Global Market
- April 24, 2024
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Innovation, Management
We are truly in a global market these days, and the cost of production in the United States makes cheaper overseas production much more attractive to a lot of buyers. Despite the push to “Buy American” and other campaigns, overseas manufacturers are slashing costs and paying their workers a less-than-optimal wage. That makes it a
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The 5 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Every Manufacturer Should Measure
- April 17, 2024
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Manufacturing, Productivity
Every manufacturer keeps track of their output and how many units they’re making and selling each month. (At least I hope they are! I’ve seen some operations where that’s a valid question.) But not every manufacturer measures the same KPIs, but they’re absolutely critical to keep track of on a monthly, weekly, or even daily
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New Tech Doesn’t Always Solve Old Problems.
- April 10, 2024
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Management
Last week, I talked about how I made sure our organization had the right discipline when it came to adopting an inventory management system. My concern was that if we didn’t have the right processes in place and the discipline to stick with them, then a new piece of technology wasn’t going to solve the