Guest Bloggers Archives - Page 24 of 41

Training Is a Waste of Time and Money!

In this week’s issue of “Lifelong Learners,” guest writer Mick Vaught takes a strong approach to employee development with his blog post entitled “Training Is a Waste of Time and Money!”

That is, unless it is applied correctly within the scope of the company’s core values. I said this before and I’ll say it again…. training should be used as one of the last disciplines in developing a competitive organization. Herb Kellerher, founder of Southwest Airlines, built his success by hiring “Attitude” first, followed by putting the right people in the right position, and lastly, training the heck out of them.

Here’s an example of how most employers misuse training in their dealer organization.

“A very successful dealer organization has seen a continuous decline in revenue over the past year. What’s the first thing upper management does? Bring in corporate sales product specialists to launch a “sales” (Selling Process) training event.”

Opportunity number one: There is a huge disconnect between most manufacturers and their dealer organizations. When I was a product specialist with some of the top equipment manufactures in the U.S., all too often I would get a call from a frantic dealer sales manager requesting “Sales” training for his/her team. In reality, our understanding of “Sales” training and “Product” training did not align with each other. Yes, product knowledge was certainly vital and understanding the “Selling” process was equally important. However, I quickly realized the gap between an understanding of what the dealer wanted and what I delivered was not the same. As a corporate product specialist, I was not equipped with the knowledge nor expertise of the retail selling process.

Opportunity number two: (and this is a big one) The root cause in the decline of revenue is typically misdiagnosed in the first place. Typically, the first area most dealers focus their attention towards is sales, when in reality the deficiency is caused by a communication/collaboration issue between both the dealer sales and product support teams. While sales are a critical component of the revenue stream, the backbone of just about any organization is their Service Department. Sales can sell that first machine to a new client, but from that moment on, future sales will depend on how well the customer will receive superior service! Some of the most effective training I have done was when we coordinated an overlapping session with both sales and service, bridging that communication and collaboration gap.

That brings me to the next point that must be addressed. Training is a waste of time if top management does not offer buy in. Checking off an item on the “To-Do” list just doesn’t cut it. If management thinks behavioral change can be accomplished in a one- or two-day session, they are totally not in touch with reality. A comprehensive perpetual training plan (to include follow-up, measuring, accountability and targeting the various levels of learning) must be executed if that organization will be successful.

Today more than ever, I see a tremendous deficiency in young people going out into our work force. Most problematic is their ability to communicate, collaborate, and the ability to solve real problems. One of the biggest reasons for this deficiency is our national public-school systems. Educators have morphed into paperwork administrators, dealing with a lack of student discipline, myopic support from administrators, and a lack of involvement with parent’s participation. This now leads us to take a totally new perspective on how we assimilate new hires.

Opportunity number three: Initiate a new philosophy on how and when to apply effective training. I think Jim Collins hit the mark with his book titled “Good to Great”. Mr. Collins examined a number of good companies over a period of time and compared them to those companies that became not only good, but great! And what he found out was (important stuff here) the great companies:

hired the right people (they fit the company culture)
put them in the right position (set them up for success)
training the heck out of them.

Notice, training was the last initiative in the process!

In conclusion, those organizations who hire the right people in the very beginning, place them in the right position and are willing to invest the time and capital in offering effective and continuing training platforms will ultimately achieve greatness!

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The Wonderful World of Disney – Customer Service on the Front Line

Guest writer Floyd Jerkins tackles how customer service looks when it is done with exceptional skill in this week’s guest post “The Wonderful World of Disney – Customer Service on the Front Line.”

Disney has been in the news recently. Some would say for the wrong reasons. One thing that has been true for decades is they deliver outstanding customer service. Disney provides millions of people every year with an experience of a lifetime that keeps customers coming back generation after generation. You can’t fake that level of excellence and customer service.

A good friend of mine just returned from taking his family to Disneyland for the fourth time. Of course, I love to hear his stories about their family experience, but it also piqued my interest in “how are they doing”; with their customer service.

Customer retention is more important than ever in all businesses as we find ourselves in an increasingly competitive world fighting for a piece of market share and the customers’ wallets.

Disney is an excellent model to consider because of the high loyalty level among its guests. They serve as a guideline for anyone who wants to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The Red Zone

Walt Disney said, “Just when everyone is saying how great you are is when you’re the most vulnerable.” At Disney, it’s known as the Red Zone. Every business that gets positive feedback from customers regularly can quickly become complacent. Something changes when you get all the right people in the right positions and things go smoothly. Many businesses feel like they are unstoppable. That’s the reality of running any business.

The problem is that in any short two-month period, you can have a lot of things go wrong that probably set you back six months or even a year of growth. It could be just a few little things, but it still causes plans to slow down or stall completely. This shows that being prepared all the time for the unexpected is the only way to stay ahead of the competition. Arrogance and complacency can cause a lack of attention to detail. Keeping your front-line people focused isn’t always easy, even in the best of times.

Who is Your Competition?

According to Disney’s philosophy, anyone that raises your customers’ expectations is a competitor. That is really true and something many think little about. If someone likes how they get treated buying a car or new home or getting their dry cleaning done, how can your team help the customer feel even better when dealing with your business?

The customer compares you with all other businesses they deal with. We are all competitors when it comes to customer satisfaction. Every front-line person must realize that every interaction they have with a customer forms an impression at that point of contact, or touch point as I call it. Not every other one, but everyone. The customer leaves that interaction with being, in the simplest terms, mad, glad, sad, or scared.

The customer doesn’t just look at the product when making a purchase. They rate the way they are treated on the phone, the invoice accuracy, the follow-up when they inquire with a question, the warranty claims procedures, and the list goes on and on.

Some internal customers look for and expect the same attention and focus as external customers. This is an important point to remember in any business. How often do we take a customer for granted and just think he will buy from us again? How often are you surprised that one of your front-line people suddenly quits?

Conduct the “How Are You Doing?” Test With Internal Customers

Disney isn’t unlike many other retail businesses; they make every effort to implement common sense practices. It’s always easy to say any business could adopt these practices, but that’s not true. As I’ve often said, common sense isn’t always common practice.

Leadership and cultural components impact the ability to implement these practices, and consistent communications are needed to sustain them. When it comes together, it’s like magic and full of possibilities. A major essential item is to take the time and effort to look at things from your customer’s perspective. Creating purposeful internal communications and setting the correct behavioral expectations doesn’t just happen by chance.

When in your weekly department meetings, ask the question, “How are we doing?” I know that is a pretty broad question but start the conversation about what people are hearing about your organization during their business transactions with customers. Also, ask what they overhear in a conversation between two customers or a group of customers. Begin asking for feedback from each team member; what in their opinion can we improve or what are we doing right? Create the entire list of items, then pick the top two or three that you could improve on and discuss how you can improve as a team. Give yourselves some timelines to see these issues resolved. Gather the successes and discuss the achievements at the same time. Never let the number of flaws outweigh your accomplishments.

Personal Development is the Key to Organizational Development

I contend that when you hire good people in a growing organization, you can generally find a role for them. Hiring front line people who want to learn is easily identifiable. Remember, personal development is the key to organizational development. If they don’t want to learn, how valuable is that person on the team?

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Ed Gordon, Guest Bloggers

Why Job Vacancies Are Surging & Likely to Continue

Guest writer Ed Gordon continues to explore the aftermath of the great disruption with this week’s blog post “Why Job Vacancies Are Surging & Likely to Continue.”

As the labor market starts recovering from the severe disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, there are some reasons for hope and many reasons for concern. The labor participation rate which continues to remain 1.1 percent lower than before the pandemic’s start, may rise somewhat as normal schooling enables more women to return to the workforce and the fear of contracting COVID subsides. On the other hand, reports are showing that students at all levels have lost a year or more of learning and community college enrollments have declined at a time when job skill requirements are growing.

The biggest and most persistent negative factor is the shrinkage of the U.S. working age population in this decade. The baby boomers who caused a huge surge in the working age population are retiring in droves and this will continue until 2030. As the U.S. birthrate declined precipitously starting in the 1970s, a much smaller cohort is now entering the workforce. Also, since 2017 fewer immigrants have been admitted to the United States.

Current Job Vacancies Soar

The rebound from the pandemic and the shrinking labor pool has caused the unemployment rate to plummet and job vacancies to soar. An estimated 10.7 to 12.5 million jobs are now unfilled. The Bureau of Labor Statistics June JOLTS Report showed high rates of job vacancies in many major businesses sectors: information 7.9 percent, health care 9.1 percent, education 8.4 percent, professional/business services 8.3 percent.

The National Federation of Independent Business reported an all-time high of small businesses that cannot find qualified applicants for skilled positions. A January 2022 Fortune/Deloitte survey reported that 71 percent of CEOs expected that labor and skills shortages will significantly disrupt their business strategies over the course of this year.

U.S. defense contractors have major staffing shortages. Their aging pool of high-skill specialized employees – particularly engineers with security clearances – is rapidly shrinking as they reach retirement age. These are also tough times for military recruiters. As of late June, only 40 percent of the 57,000 new recruits that the U.S. Army wants by September 30 had been enlisted. The Navy, Marine Corps, and even the Air Force are also having trouble finding personnel that meet their fitness and educational requirements.

To retain workers and recruit new ones, many employers are raising salaries or offering special hiring bonuses. So far in 2022 the average increase in base pay in the United States is 4.8 percent. As there currently is a shortage of one million registered nurses in the United States, hospitals are offering an up to $40,000 signing bonus to nurses who sign a two-year contract. Walgreens Boots Alliance is offering signing bonuses of up to $75,000 to pharmacists who agree to stay in their jobs for a specified period.

The Society for Human Resource Management reports that projections for 2023 indicate that salaries will increase from 4 to 5 percent driven by continuing shortages of skilled workers.

Can We Enlarge the Labor Pool?

As we cited earlier, the labor participation rate remains below pre-pandemic levels. As of June 2022, there were about 100 million American of working age that are currently not employed or looking for work. We estimate that about 21 million are deterred from seeking employment because they lack the skill requirements for vacant jobs but could gain them if provided with entry-level training. Many of the 5.6 million Americans currently listed as unemployed also are in the same position. Yet only 20 to 25 percent of American businesses have training and education programs. This includes both entry-level job training and upgrading the skills or knowledge of current employees. For every dollar our chief foreign competition invests in worker training, U.S. business contributes just 20 cents!

Can Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Fill the Gap?

Many industry analysts are saying robots will largely solve current worker shortages. Businesses are investing billions in robotics and AI. A Material Handling Institute survey found that their members plan to increase robotics in warehouses by 50 percent over the next five years. However, as nations such as Singapore that have successfully automated industrial facilities illustrate, this approach relies heavily on having a high-skill labor pool and providing retraining to workers whose jobs now require programing, monitoring, or repairing automated equipment.

While AI software can now generate text and field telephone inquiries, it can’t go beyond the set of data with which it is programmed. It can’t solve cause-and-effect problems or learn about the world like a child. Advancements in AI and robotics will require HI (human intelligence), i.e., more knowledge workers.

How to Expand the Knowledge Pool

Raising salaries will not generate more qualified employees, it will only increase job churn and fuel inflation. The Fourth Industrial Revolution requires a higher proportion of workers to be high-skilled, and their skills and knowledge need to be continually updated to keep pace with rapid technological change. Surveys indicate that most American workers want to work for employers that provide workers with opportunities to upgrade their capabilities.

Cooperative options for providing training and education need far more support. Small businesses particularly can profit from participating in regional associations in which businesses, educational institutions, and training providers work together in developing programs that develop and retrain workers with in-demand job and career skills.

Edward Gordon is available to provide customized presentations on talent and the current and future U.S. and global labor market. Please visit our website www.imperialcorp.com for more information or contact us by email at imperialcorp@juno.com or by calling 312.664.5196.

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Caroline Slee-Poulos, Guest Bloggers

You Should Not Be Planning to Fail

In this week’s blog on education, curriculum designer and writer Caroline Slee-Poulos walks us through all of the reasons you should not be planning to fail.

There is an old adage that tells us “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” When it comes to phrases like this, I believe that sometimes we hear them so often they can become meaningless. In business, we always create plans and projections. We have processes in our departments, and systems that keep things running smoothly.

When it comes to employee development, we have spent many years without a solid plan. I think it is simple to say that this leaves us without a way forward – a path – for your staff and for the future of the business. Employee turnover is an expensive proposition for any business, and this can leave us reluctant when it comes to our training budgets.

When you invest in the future of your business, you should also have a plan for investing in the development of your employees. Just as a course is planned out with each segment, from content through assessments, your employees need to have a plan to map out their future with your business.

It’s time to make a shift towards the future: don’t you want to be planning for success at every single level?

As Ron would tell you, the time is now.

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Guest Bloggers, Sara Hanks

Process Mapping Blog

Guest writer Sara Hanks helps us with a key detail for continuous improvement in her “Process Mapping Blog” today.

Continuous improvement in an organization requires implementing projects. Projects also mean change, which is often met with resistance. In the early stages of a project, I recommend using process mapping to facilitate effective change management.

In one of my first IT projects, I was creating an inspection software for manufacturing quality. The project was significantly delayed, and the former project manager had left the company. To create something quickly, I deployed an off-the-shelf software. Completing the inspection plan turned out to be a giant pain and added significant cycle time. A year later, we ended up redesigning the entire inspection software after so many complaints from the users. It was not worth trading off an understanding the current state process for the speed of implementation. I should have known better, after many years of training and practicing lean at GE.

When lean was a corporate initiative at GE, the business planned large transactional lean events to conduct process maps in a session that was sponsored by senior leadership. Attending these events was a privilege and a great way to network with senior leaders. These sessions, often led by a trained facilitator, were highly interactive with post it notes and giant sheets of paper. Over time, the initiatives shifted, and the leaders were no longer engaged at that level. However, I require my teams to conduct process maps 100% of the time.

Process mapping is a necessary step towards implementing change as it helps to understand the current state. A process map is a detailed diagram that articulates each step of a process. While these can be created by interviewing people, they are best conducted in a conference room environment, with representation from each function involved in the process. With enough prework, the session can be completed in 4-8 hours, depending on the complexity of the process.

Prework to the Process Mapping Session

Create a RASCI chart. A RASCI chart identifies the process steps, as well as the roles or people who need to participate in each step. RASCI stands for:

Responsible – the person who completes the step
Approver – the person who needs to approve the work conducted by the responsible person
Supporter – roles that provide inputs to the process step
Consultant – an expert who provides expertise
Informed – the people who need to know about a process step being completed

It’s important to note that every step needs a responsible person or role, but the other categories are not required*. At minimum, one person from each function that owns a step should participate in the session.

The output of the prework is to schedule time with the team, as well as a report out session with the relevant leaders.

Conducting the Process Mapping Session

Review the RASCI chart with the team. It is important to obtain consensus that the process steps are complete, as well as who is involved in them.
For each step in the process, the team will identify the following details:
1. Inputs to the process step, as well as who provides the inputs. Sometimes the inputs are not part of the process itself but are used to make a decision or to harmonize information. For example, a purchasing specialist may refer to quality data before choosing who to buy parts from.
2. The details about what happens during the process step. If the process is a decision, what criteria is used to make the decision should be included.
3. The time it takes to complete the step, as well as how long people are waiting for information.
4. The system of record for the process step – whether it is an email, an IT software system, or even paper records.
5. The outputs of the process step
Review the process map one final time and ensure that the times noted are reasonable.
Evaluate the process for waste. Waste identification should be brainstormed silently first, then shared with the group. Waste in a process could include:
1. Rework of a process step, or returning to an earlier step in the process
2. Waiting for inputs
3. Excess processing such as creating reports that are not used
4. Manual efforts that could be automated

Once the waste is identified, the team will see themes of similar waste. These can be grouped into categories and should be quantified in terms of time or cost.

At this point the team and the project manager has a thorough understanding of the process, as well as the opportunities to drive improvement through waste elimination that can be considered in the project plan. Some process mapping events use the team to design a future process collectively, but that’s a blog for another day.

Report Out

When people are asked to take time out of their day to support process mapping, a report out is helpful to justify the time with their managers. In addition to the management team and the participants, any people who are approvers in the RASCI should review the outcome of the process mapping session. The report out can be summarized as a Value Stream Map, which is a high-level representation of the process and includes the cycle times. It is helpful to include the waste impact in the Value Stream Map as well.

Conclusion

Process mapping helps project managers understand the current state thoroughly which helps prevent issues when implementing the project. The biggest benefit of conducting the process mapping session is that it engages the stakeholders and subject matter experts. Process mapping exposes frustrations about the current state, so the subject matter experts are more likely to understand why a project is happening. Additionally, it highlights what works about the current state, so the project manager can consider keeping these best practices. When the stakeholders are understood, they are more likely to accept or even embrace the change.

NOTE: Some sources say that the A means accountable, but I prefer approver because if a person is responsible for completing a step, by default the person is accountable.

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Alex Kraft, Guest Bloggers

What Makes a Great Customer Experience?

Guest writer Alex Kraft asks a question that matters deeply when you are in customer service: What Makes a Great Customer Experience?

I recently had an awful customer experience with a large retailer. I’ll spare the long-winded details because we’ve all been there. From the 30,000 ft. level, what’s incredible is how everything falls on the customer to make things right. All I did was purchase something and now I’m the one who has to exert a ton of effort to get the refund or a resolution? How is it my problem? The experience made me appreciate what makes a great customer experience and/or great customer service. I’ve started to pay more attention to this in everyday life.

For this blog post, I don’t want to necessarily discuss equipment related themes as Ron has other contributors who’ve spent 40+ years in heavy equipment service departments. I’d rather delve into what factors into a positive customer interaction. What makes customers want to come back to your business?

Two major components that we all appreciate as consumers are competence and a ‘give a damn’ factor. Competence is something that you can recognize very quickly and puts a customer at ease. I think of a restaurant. We’ve all had a server that within 60 seconds you know will be attentive, knows the menu, and has a great demeanor. It makes your entire experience better knowing that the person waiting on you is competent. It doesn’t have to be a five-star restaurant either, this can be your local chain or even a coffee shop. We’ve all had the opposite as well: where the server is overwhelmed, isn’t able to answer questions concerning the menu, blames the kitchen, and has a poor attitude. Many times, we wonder, ‘why is that person a server if they don’t like interacting with people?’

I’ve had ongoing shoulder pain for a few months. Upon returning from vacation, I decided that I had to do something, so I booked a massage. When I arrived, I told the therapist about my shoulder. Just by looking at me, the therapist says, “your hips are out of alignment, your right shoulder is higher than your left, and it looks like your right leg is a tad shorter than your left. All of these things contribute to your shoulder pain”. Before the massage began, I knew that I came to the right place. Afterwards, I’ve made a couple adjustments to my daily routine, and voila! My shoulder feels a lot better. Apply that to your teams. You don’t necessarily need a customer survey to have an idea of how your people represent your company. Does your sales team exude competence when dealing with customers? When you speak with your sales team, do they speak in generalities or do they have a command of your products and their customers? Do your parts and service representatives embody competence when customers need help?

My personal favorite is the ‘give a damn’ factor. I don’t know of any formal ‘give a damn’ training classes, but maybe Ron will add one to his curriculum. What I’ve seen happening at more companies than I can ever remember, are employees that are quick to tell you that they can’t help you. This manifests itself as ‘I’m sorry, that’s not my job’, or ‘sorry, I can’t help with that’, or “you’ll need to speak to ______”. While I was waiting at this large box retailer, the person in customer service answered the phone with ‘How may I direct your call?’ They couldn’t pass the customer off fast enough. Yet every single company touts their “customer service”. What customers want is to feel like their issue is YOUR issue as a company. They want someone to take ownership of their problem and see it through to resolution.

You don’t have to be an expert to give a damn. Those employees that understand this concept personally see to it that the customer ends up with the appropriate person who can solve their problem. They don’t make the customer start all over from the beginning, try to find someone else, and retell their story. Companies that are great customer service companies make sure to drill these points home to everyone. This isn’t ‘going the extra mile’, it should be what’s expected on a daily basis.

We find reminders every day of great customer experiences. I encourage you when you’re at lunch, at the doctor, Whole Foods/Publix, wherever you visit, compare those visits with how you believe customers feel when dealing with your company. Like I mentioned above, we don’t need surveys to tell us certain things. If you’ve been at your company for a while and know your people, I’m sure you have a good idea. Trust your instincts, maybe it’s time for some refreshers.

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Bill Pyles, Guest Bloggers

Safety First! But, Why?!

Guest writer Bill Pyles tackles OSHA regulations in his guest blog entitled “Safety First! But, Why?!”

Summer is here and this time of year I’d put some notes together for the next team meeting to give a safety update; specifically, how to recognize heat stroke. I cannot say enough about OSHA’s excellent heat index ap. Go to your app store and download OSHA/NIOSH Heat Safety Tool. Do it today, now!!!

Heat stroke is a killer that does not need to darken your doorway. As I write this the outside temp in central Florida is 89oF. The heat index is 102oF and into the “danger zone”. Another day in sunny Florida!

Here are some symptoms of heat stroke.

Confused, blurred speech
Loss of consciousness
Red, hot, dry skin or profuse sweating
Very high body temperature
Seizures

If you suspect a person has heat stroke, call 911.

Stay with the person until medical help arrives
Move the person to a shady, cooler area
Remove the person’s outer clothing
Cool quickly with cold water or ice bath if possible; wet the skin, please cold, wet towels on the skin, or soak clothing in cool water
Fan air around the person
Place cold, wet towels or ice on the person’s head, neck, armpits, and groin.

Through my 48-year career, the one constant is safety. Let your guard down for a moment and you may get an unpleasant safety reminder. The other constant throughout the last 48 years is the barrage of safety memo’s, fact & figures, testimonies, yellow lines on floors and more. What was missing is the “why”. Too many times a safety inspection will reveal some infractions such as garbage in front of the electrical panel, spray paint left out on work benches, spray containers on tech’s toolboxes not marked or labeled, bench grinder “out of adjustment” or no lid on the shop trash cans. The shop manager will get the safety write up, make the necessary corrections and life (pun intended) goes on. But has the shop manager or the people working in the shop learned from the experience? My guess is no; other than forming opinions that the safety guy’s job is to make everyone else miserable, slow down production and nit-pick. He needs to get a “real” job and leave us alone!

Let’s look at some common safety infractions and discuss the “why.”

Please note that some of the items noted may have different or more safety regulations than noted below.

Full oxygen bottles are required to be stored with the bottle caps on and the bottle secured in a standing position.
1. Why? A full oxygen bottle is charged with approximately 2,200 psi of oxygen. If the bottle should fall over and break off the off-on valve, the bottle becomes a rocket which will be capable of going thru cinder block walls, smashing anything in its way. Google “Oxygen Tank Rocket” and it should make you a believer!
Electrical panels require a clear zone 36 inches to either side and 36 inches to the front of the panel. No clutter or nothing leaning against the electrical panel.
1. Why? I was working in a contractor’s shop, pulling the steering clutches out of a Cat 977L. The contractor had installed electric overhead hoists in his shop. I had the Cat setting on stands with the tracks and roller frames removed (also doing the undercarriage at the time) and the bucket was raised and supported by a safety bar on the lift cylinder. The stands were at the four corners of the machine. As I was trying to feather one of the clutches out of the case, I noticed it was hung up on the steering clutch flanges and the back of the machine came off the stands. I quickly let go of the hoist button, but the machine kept going up. The up button was stuck! I had no idea where the electrical panel was that supplied the power to the hoist. One of the customer’s techs working with me quickly ran over to the electrical panel, opened the door, and switched off the breaker just before the Cat was about to fall off the stands. You can only imagine the alternate outcome if there had been something blocking access the electrical panel. Fortunately, the only casualty this time was some soiled underwear!
All secondary containers must be properly labeled.
1. Why? We have all seen techs work benched or toolbox will have spray containers on their work bench or toolbox. These secondary (secondary means the spray bottle was filed from another container) spray containers could have glass cleaner for cleaning cabs, solvent for rusted hardware, or plain water and soap mixture for tight seals. If tech sprayed a flammable near a heat source, there could be an explosion and or fire. If a tech was accidentally sprayed in the face, not knowing what the liquid was in the container could delay the proper remediation.
All flammables must be stored in a flammable safety cabinet.
1. Why? Most shops also do welding (get those welding shields up) and cutting which create a fair amount of sparks. Most paint cans, PB Blaster cans are very thin metal and most oil containers in one gallon or less containers are plastic. Welding and or grinding sparks can ignite one of the containers mentioned above. And if it’s a pressurized can, you’ll have another bottle rocket to deal with.
Bench grinder is out of adjustment.
1. Why? I’m not sure why, maybe because this is a tool everyone uses but no one is responsible for. The shop bench grinder is almost always out of adjustment, but everyone keeps on using it. The correct gap of the tool rest should be 1/8 inch from the tool rest to the grinding wheel. Any larger gap and you’ll run the risk of pulling a finger or a tool in between the tool rest and the grinding wheel.
2. At one OSHA inspection, I was asked for the proper steps to change a grinding wheel. Piece of cake I thought then proceeded to go thru the simple process of changing a grinding wheel. I thought I nailed it, but the OSHA person just stood there and looked at me, informing me I’d missed one of the most important steps. The “Ring Test”. What??
3. Before mounting a grinding wheel, inspect it visually for any cracks or chips. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which regulates worker safety in commercial and educational facilities, recommends testing the integrity of a grinding wheel by performing a ring test prior to mounting.
4. Support the wheel in a horizontal position on your fingertips and tap the wheel using the plastic handle of a screwdriver about 1″ from the edge in each of the wheel’s four quadrants. The sound of an undamaged wheel will give a clear ringing tone. If cracked, there will be a dead sound, and the wheel should not be used. Make sure the wheel is dry and clean before applying this test. After you test one side, turn the wheel over and repeat on the other side.

On a side note, I’ve seen the results of a grinding wheel exploding. It can cause serious operator injury. Usually, the wheel explodes due to being cracked or becoming unbalanced. There is no warning.

I’ve visited hundreds of shops during my career and usually the shop knew I was coming to visit. It did truly bother me that at times, the shop would shut down a day before my visit or a high-level OEM visit, to get the shop presentable. This was an indication to me that safety was more show then go. I’d spend more time with the shop manager to help him understand safety is what ensures we all go home at the end of the shift in just as good of shape as when we came to work. I’d take the shop manager and the techs around the shop for a quick look-see safety inspection. When I’d find a safety violation, I’d point it out, explain what the hazard could be and why a safety rule was in place to prevent the hazard. I wanted them to know the “why.” Equipment, shop tooling, facilities have no concern for your safety. You are responsible for your safety and the safety of those working round you.

Your family is depending on you!

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Bonnie Feigenbaum, Guest Bloggers

The Basics of Marketing, how to avoid the “What were they thinking” Moments

The Basics of Marketing, How to Avoid the “What were they thinking” Moments

Guest writer Bonnie Feigenbaum introduces her lecture series with this debut blog post: The Basics of Marketing, how to avoid the “What were they thinking” Moments.

Marketing is all about creating a connection between your company and your customer, a permanent place in their lives for your product and a permanent place in their heart for your brand. In 1971, as a very young child I remember belting “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony, I’d like to buy the world a coke and keep them company… “learning the iconic Coca-Cola Hillside singers’ ad by heart. The ad was so popular that Coca Cola had Hilltop Reunion in 1990 and brought back the singers to recreate the commercial.

There are many times I watch marketing campaigns roll out and wondered who was the marketing genius who came up with that! For example, McDonald’s does so many customer connection points right and really raised the bar on creativity in my mind when they launched their pizza line in 1989. The traditional golden arches were angled to make the Zs in pizza to communicate with one picture and one word that this is McDonald’s Pizza, a logo within a logo.

In 2018, I was intrigued by Nike’s decision to use Colin Kaepernick as their brand ambassador. I read the article by the Montreal Gazette columnist Scott Stinson, “Nike stands with a bet that outcry from Trump and his allies won’t cost them business.” Kaepernick choose to “take a knee” using the moment of the U.S. national anthem to protest racial injustice and lost his football career in the process. The US was sharply divided on whether Kaepernick protesting during the anthem was disrespecting the flag. Nike, it would seem, was placing a large bet on the support their target market has for the issue and on Kaepernick’s sacrifice connecting with them. Would the tagline, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything” resonate?

Nike’s choice did create a social media fervor as some more ardent opponents of their choice of influencer created a boycott hashtag and posted videos of them burning their own Nike shoes, socks and carving the Nike swoosh out of their garments. I would like you to remember one thing these people already paid for the products. Nike already had their money. The only person who was losing was them, as they had to spend money to replace the martyred items. Ironically, putting in practice the Nike/Kaepernick tagline. Nike did their research right, sales increased in the wake of the controversial advertising campaign, with online sales growing by 31% in the holiday weekend after the ad launched, according to researcher Edison Trends.

However, there are other times where I wonder to myself, what were they thinking and how did nobody throughout the whole creative and control process clue into the customer disconnect.

Let us go through some of my favorite fails

Urbn Outfitter was founded in Philadelphia in 1970 and is an international clothing corporation that has retail stores located in Montreal. My fashion marketing students were trying to determine why there was a significant decrease in sales over the past year. The Urbn Outfitter store brand sales were declining while the parent corporation’s other brands Anthropologie and Free People’s net sales had increased by 2% and 5% respectively at the same time. Through research the students were able to prove that in general the retail sales for the target demographic had been enjoying a continuous increase in revenue. So, what was the problem?

They investigated further and discovered that the year earlier Urbn Outfitter had launched controversial clothing lines featuring edgy and questionable mental health and body shaming crop tops with messaging like “depressed” and “eat less” while their direct competitor, Forever 21 T-shirts proclaimed positivity with “eat more” and “love yourself” on their tops.

We also discovered that some of their product line choices left a lot to be desired. There was a Kent State University sweatshirt with blood spatters on it, a black and white horizontal striped T shirt with a 6-point yellow star on it reminiscent of the Holocaust and T-shirts in a colour Urban Outfitter identified as “Obama black”. For the life of me I cannot understand how these items got through the approval process.

Another example of product fails because the company did not even think to take the customer reaction into account is Simons, a Quebec retailer. In September 2018, Simons launched a line of bralettes, a type of women’s lingerie. The story goes that when the Simons team was looking for a vision for their new lingerie line, they looked at inspiring Canadian women that were respected and admired. The line was meant to honour women who made historic contributions to Canada. The bralettes were called the Elsie, the Clara, the Nellie and the Beverley. So, while the last names were never used, the ad copy made it clear that the designs were inspired by aeronautical engineer Elsie MacGill, trailblazing lawyer Clara Brett Martin, suffragette and politician Nellie McClung and jurist Beverley McLachlin, the first woman to be appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Now Simon’s never sought permission from the estates of the first three women to use their names or even to ask if they wanted to be bralette brand ambassadors. Nor did they ask the sole living “honoree,” the Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin who had just retired in December after spending 28 years at the Supreme Court including almost eighteen as Chief Justice.

After receiving a call from McLachlin, the president Peter Simons, immediately gave in to her demands for her a public apology and a request to get involved with fund raising campaign for the Cornerstone Housing for women emergency shelter organization in Ottawa.

In his apology, he stated that he sincerely regretted the naming mishap citing the lack of judgment on his part and that they decided to discontinue and destroy all materials related to the line following the call. During the media storm, I wondered where were the women in the room? I noticed a line in one article, “Simons apologizes for bra named after former chief justice Beverley McLachlin,” by Tara Deschamps of the Canadian Press where Simons acknowledges that there is a deficiency in their corporate culture, a lack a comfort of the staff to stand up and express concerns.

That is what my basics of marketing series is all about. I will give every employee the tools to spot the potential problems and recognize the opportunities to improve the customer experience. But it is up to the management in the company to embed that into the corporate culture, empowering their employees to put customer connections above corporate politics.

We will start by reviewing the marketing process which is a good opportunity to show a relationship between several concepts we will be discussing, during the lecture series. During the first half of the series, I will focus on introducing marketing, the marketing environment and then market research. I will explain how we use the secondary data to develop marketing information systems. We will then delve into Consumer Buying Behaviour, comparing it with Business and Institutional Buyers’ Behaviour. We will then discuss the segmentation and positioning process that work in conjunction with the company’s marketing strategy. We will also cover the marketing mix, where we implement our strategy using our 4 Ps-Product, Price, Place & Promotion. In our final lecture, we will put it all together and discuss how to prepare the full marketing plan.

I look forward to helping you discover the full potential and powers of a full formed marketing process for your company.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me by e-mail at bfeigenbaum@sympatico.ca.

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Caroline Slee-Poulos, Guest Bloggers, Uncategorized

Lifelong Learners

In this week’s blog on education, curriculum designer and writer Caroline Slee-Poulos shares the big picture of why we do what we do: lifelong learners.

In education, we like to express the most important goal of any classroom as creating lifelong learners. This takes shape in different ways at different ages. At the younger ages, it is obviously the standard reading, writing, and arithmetic. As adults, it becomes a bit more complex,

We have to ask about goals and the big picture when it comes to adults. As adults, we want to move forward: we want promotions; pay bumps; increases in job title.

I would posit that what we really seek is GROWTH.

Realistically, growth is what we all seek.

As employers, we want hires who know the business. We are noticing that students are not graduating school with the necessary skills for the business. Trade skills are in short supply and require more education than the standard K-12 that is available to students today. Funding at the high school level for the trades has been reduced to a point where students are graduating high school without the necessary skills for our industry.

Take our industry out of the equation.

What does it say about us that our graduates are not prepared for the world of technical work?

I think it says that we are in a situation of catching up. Academics are not quite at the point we need them to be when it comes to “work ready” employees. We can’t expect high school graduates to know everything they need to know when they graduate high school. The reality is, if you invest in your people, they will invest in you.

What we want to see at every level are people committed to learning. This doesn’t mean the stereotypes of the ivory tower. This means having people who consistently strive to better themselves, who push for higher levels of understanding and accomplishment.

At the end of the day, education is all about creating the foundation that leads to lifelong learning. Lifelong learners are known for consistently striving to better their performance and their results.

Aren’t lifelong learners what you want to see in your business?

As Ron would tell you, the time is now. When it comes to your commitment to learning, I would posit that the time is always.

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Guest Bloggers, Mets Kramer

The Importance of Service

Guest writer Mets Kramer is back with a new blog post for us. Read on to learn about The Importance of Service.

Over the past few months, I’ve been travelling to visit numerous dealers all over the US and Canada. During my visits we tend to have long conversations on the state of the equipment market. Everyone agrees it’s been a challenging time and wild ride. Many have never seen such lofty heights, prices and volumes. Machines were both in demand and hard to get and many have had some of the best years. Rental has been strong and many have preferred to rent than sell or buy. One other thing that everyone has in common is a concern about when the music will slow down or stop.

It’s this unknown future and concern about slowing machine sales that reminded me of my experiences in 2008. In April 2008 I had just joined Terex to help develop the service operations of the new construction equipment group. I was excited to work with my new colleagues and change the organization into a full operating manufacturer.

Yet, no sooner had I started, then the recession (read collapse) happened in the market. Over a few short months some of the group companies saw a drop of up to 85% in sales. At the same time, I kept in contact with past colleagues at other dealers. There I heard the same, machine sales, regardless of make were down significantly. “But”, they said “The shop is really busy”. It turned out that even with a clifflike drop in sales, people were still out working their equipment. Furthermore, as the recession continued, more machines came in for major work in place of replacement.

So here we are again, this time more able to see the economy changing and many dealers are in the same place. Many have not focused over the past years on developing their service business. This could mean activities including, understanding their currently market share, developing service products or changing the type of work their shop is engaged in. It’s understandable why many dealers have not done this. It’s been a busy time of turning around rental machines or prepping sales machines. Plus, technicians are hard to find and not cheap.

Yet there is one statement that we have all heard: “Sales sells the first, Service sells the rest”.

With a slow down likely or imminent, now is a great time to start planning what you can do to develop your service business, support your existing customers and deepen your relationships with customers.

First, understand where you are now. This can be looked at through several traditional metrics but requires some analysis of your business data. Try and find parts and service sales data both by customer and by machine serial number. Group them into behaviors that define your customers. Consider parts sold through parts, and parts through service. Measure the balance of your labor sales, internal, customer pay or other. You can look at sales vs inventory and so many more. By analyzing this data, you should be able to group your customers, understand what machines generate the most revenue and what percentage of the product support market you’re capturing.

Second, consider service and parts volume as a measure of engagement. Just like we talk about digital engagement, after sales volumes are a measure of how involved you are with your customers. If you’re not supporting them who is? If someone else is supporting them, are they in a better position to get equipment rentals or sales when customers have more choice during an economic slowdown?

Third, when you understand the situation, develop parts and service products to match the opportunities you’re seeing. Many of these strategies are tried and true and we all know them, like PM filter kits. Personally, I think one of the best programs is a PM program. Why? Because no one really likes doing them, yet they must be done. PMs also bring value and get you a touch point with customers every 250 or 500 hours. A good PM program also lets you measure how much your customers are using their fleets. Are they continuing to work? Are they busy? Parked? A PM program will give you insight and opportunity to talk to your customer, even when they don’t have any need to buy equipment. During a downturn your sales reps are equipment and fleet managers!

When you do start a PM program here are some rules

Don’t leave it to your customer to call you! Find a method to monitor all the equipment. Many machines have telematics from factory, others can be retrofit with hardware for minimal cost. Include it in the cost. Leaving it to the customer increases the likelihood they never call. You are providing a service, make it full service
If possible, set up hourly based PM programs that charge the customer a per hour rate. Yes, it’s a little more work to run invoices monthly for customers, BUT it builds up a pool of money that will encourage your customer to make sure you do the work. If they pay per service completed, they also have incentive to stop. It also fits their usage, if it’s parked, the PM program costs them no money.
Follow up! Make sure you use inspection software on every service, take pictures, make notes and come back to your customer with what you found. This shows you’re a great business partner and gets you extra work.

Finally, developing your service business has one other really important benefit, it keeps your techs working. One of the worst outcomes of a downturn is losing (through layoffs) the people you need to count on when you get busy again in sales. Developing a service program lets you retain your talent and possibly even pick up some new talent.