There is an air of excitement about the future in manufacturing! Last night, I talked with several executives of manufacturing companies and today I was the chair of the innovation awards at the Manufacturing Council of the Inland Empire (MCIE) Manufacturers’ Summit, and it is clear that profitable growth is in the air. Of course, it will not occur unless we focus on the customer, innovation and our people ….to name a few priorities. What are you focused on?
One tip to implement this week:
Just because many manufacturers are seeing a positive outlook to the future doesn’t mean it will turn into a reality unless we back up the talk with action. The speaker at last night’s executive roundtable was amazingly organized and structured about continuous improvement and cost reduction strategies which have been ultra successful year after year in delivering bottom line results; however, he freely admits that it didn’t start out that way. Start with what you have and improve on it over time.
He said one of the keys to success was to involve and ask the people for improvement ideas. You can certainly gather a small group of colleagues over lunch and ask for ideas. If they think you are serious, they just might give you a few. Write them down. Stop worrying about variance tracking which can spiral into a lot of nonsense that doesn’t tell you whether you are truly improving. Instead, track reality and trend it over time. Go see it. No matter how unimaginative you think you are, keep pressing forward, be curious and ideas will start to emerge.
February 4, 2017