The heads-down nature of many resource-challenged manufacturers often makes it challenging to uncover problems related to their business, customers, and emerging markets. SMMs need a better process for discovering problems, delivering great solutions for their customers, and becoming irreplaceable. (Hint: If you are solving problems for customers, you are more sustainable and you can have …
Creating a positive workplace culture that successfully attracts and retains talent does not happen by chance. The best employers truly believe that employees ARE their number one asset – without exception. These companies have a reputation of being an employer of choice. The local workforce chooses to work there over other options.
Why is being …
The secret to surviving and thriving in the automation revolution is in what computers can’t replace: human creativity, empathy, and critical thinking. How often are your employees speaking up with creativity, empathy, and problem-solving? In too many manufacturing businesses, the answer is “not nearly enough.” The automation revolution continues to change the nature of manufacturing, …
Stress is an inevitable part of work, but when it gets out of hand, it is bad for both the business and employees. Increasingly, many workers are not only suffering from stress but a more severe and prolonged condition that experts formally define as “burnout.” Just last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized burnout …
The Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) defines people-centric leadership (PCL) as a culture in which every day, everyone goes home feeling fulfilled by pursuing excellence, and everybody flourishes. All too often, leadership is missing from lean, causing many manufacturers to struggle to sustain long-term continuous improvement. Lean only succeeds when tactical continuous improvement is combined …
Space explorers know a thing or two about teamwork in isolation and confinement.
What happens to teamwork during extended periods of isolation and confinement? While that sounds like a question tailored for much of today’s housebound workforce, it’s actually a research topic that professors Noshir Contractor and Leslie DeChurch have studied in an entirely different …
As the old adage goes, time is money. The more production you can squeeze out in a period of time, the more money you make, right? But if you’ve been struggling with improving production or even if everything is going fine, there are several things you can do to increase productivity without sacrificing quality from …
Small businesses that manufacture goods often have assembly line operations to increase productivity. Assembly lines are great at increasing output, but the work itself can be monotonous and physically taxing, which may lead to low worker morale and high turnover. Business owners can employ a variety of techniques to boost worker morale and help retain …
Business thinker Steve Denning says the practice of management is undergoing a “paradigm shift,” an allusion to Thomas Kuhn’s 1962 work on how scientific breakthroughs are born not of linear improvement but radical change. He has a point. Markets have gone topsy-turvy. Buyers have more options and therefore more power than sellers. Margins are lower. …