August 2009
I was talking to a company the other day that had been in business since 1870. The company president told me that “it doesn’t hurt”, in a competitive bidding situation, that the company has built up a solid reputation for making quality products for over 130 years. It isn’t always about price alone: This Company is successfully competing against Chinese manufacturers in high-volume, physically-small parts — an area where China often blows away every domestic competitor.
The company owns a roomful of top-notch CNC machines, but any other company could buy those same machines. One customer, in fact, closed its machining department and sold off its equipment because it was so pleased with their experience in outsourcing machined parts to this supplier. Domestic U.S suppliers have a built-in advantage in quick delivery, smaller required quantities, better customer service, and reliability. Every one of these factors can be attributed, in large part, to the people in the company – production workers, supervisors, office staff, and management.
Of all the resources a manufacturing company has, the human resource is at least as important as any of the others – and perhaps the hardest to duplicate. That’s why it is especially important to preserve and nurture that resource, particularly during trying times. Now that the worst of the recession is behind us, retaining that human talent and experience will be fundamental to building the business back up as demand increases.
Don’t forget the ‘nurture’ part either. Leading companies – those that rank highest in virtually all comparative measurements – share one common characteristic; they invest in their people, allocating funds for skill enhancement training for learning new skills, and for keeping up with developments in technology and management theory and practices. Providing training and education, opportunities every year is essential to employee growth, satisfaction, and value to the company.
Professional societies are good sources of this kind of training – APICS, SME, PMA, PMI, and many more offer certification programs and general education in their respective areas of interest. Also look to local community colleges, universities, consultants, and MEPs (each state has a manufacturing extension program affiliated with one or more universities) as additional sources.
