performance

  • The 5 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Every Manufacturer Should Measure

    • April 17, 2024
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Management, Manufacturing, Productivity
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    If you're not measuring your KPIs, how will you ever know if you're succeeding or falling behind? Do you even know what your KPIs are?

    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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  • The Annual Performance Review Is a Terrible Waste of Time

    • July 21, 2021
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Leadership, Management
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    A calendar with a date circled on it. The annual performance review is a terrible waste of time and is totally useless.

    The Annual performance review is a terrible waste of time and a terribly inefficient method of creating improvements in your associates. For one thing, if you are measuring everything in your operation, from the associates working on the floor to the back-office staff, they know when there’s a problem almost immediately. They don’t need to

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  • The Secret to Managing Discipline in a Large Business Setting

    • October 10, 2018
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Manufacturing, Measurement, Productivity
    No Comments
    Highway management sign: The key to managing discipline in a large business setting is by establishing objective measurements, and letting associates manage their own performance.

    Managing discipline in a large company starts with the hiring process. I’ve always believed in hiring slow and firing fast. But I also had a rule that nobody could be fired without my permission. What that meant was any issue that looked like it could end in termination would elevate to me so a manager

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  • Performance Evaluations Waste Time and Money

    • October 11, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Management, Measurement
    No Comments
    Annual performance evaluations can lead to a lot of stress and leave everyone feeling bad.

    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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  • Does the Office Make the Person, or Does the Person Make the Office?

    • June 1, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Management, Manufacturing
    No Comments
    A good materials handling person can make all the difference in the world to your factory.

    There’s a leadership problem in this country that often has to do with people being promoted because of their technical expertise and not their leadership qualities or people skills. They assume they’re a leader simply because their job title says Manager or Director, only to find that no one respects them. I think of this

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