May 19, 2008 

Hi MBBP Subscribers, 

Have you ever heard that story about the ocean-going ship engine that failed?

In the version I heard, it was the Queen Elizabeth luxury liner.  

The vessel's owners brought in all their on-staff engineers to fix it, but none of them could get the engine running.  

Finally, they brought in an expert who had been fixing ships all his life.  

The old expert hauled in his bag of tools and looked around a bit.  

He crawled all over that engine room, looking, touching, thinking.  

Finally, he went to his bag, pulled out a small hammer, and tapped a few times on a valve.  

The engine roared to life.  

A week later, the owners of the ship received a bill for ten thousand dollars.  

They were outraged. After all, the man had only tapped on a valve with a hammer!  

They immediately demanded he send them an itemized bill explaining his charges. He sent them a bill that read:  

"Tapping with a hammer.....................$2

Knowing where to tap..................$9,998"  

Knowing where to tap is important to your career, too.  

A little competitive knowledge can make the most profound difference in your performance and your career advancement. If you're interested in advancing your career, be sure to read this week's article, "A Career Wake-up Call."

Have a nice day, and stay connected.

  

Bill Gaw

Business Basics, LLC
6003 Dassia Way
Oceanside, CA 92056
bg@bbasicsllc.com 
760-945-5596

Your Manufacturing Career
A Wakeup Call

In the past, you all knew the formula for career stability and success, if you worked smart your career would be pretty much guaranteed in your company. The rules have changed significantly in business and some of you have not adjusted. You are often abandoning your jobs at a rate that is alarmingly too high. In an effort to justify your lack of career planning, you use excuses such as lack of upward mobility or philosophical differences with management. What is often happening is a self fulfilling prophecy and you are making it too easy for your companies not to include you in their plans.  

Your Career

Your careers should be a planned series of focused positions to achieve a goal that you control. The operative words are planned and control. If you allow your career destiny to pass from your hands to your companies, you are taking an inordinate amount of unnecessary risk.  

You must acknowledge that you are completely on your own when it comes to your career plan. I think you know by now that most companies can no longer offer you a career plan just based on you doing a good job. Most companies are not the villains in this career plot. It's just the economic uncertainties that cause them to focus on their bottom line. Companies tend to view you as similar to any asset on their balance sheet. If that asset (you) ceases to give them a R.O.I, they will dispose of it.  

Career Paralysis

It's vital that you avoid career paralysis. If you occupy one position in your firm for too many years, watch out. Your superiors may have raved about you in the past, however, that asset is depreciating every day, and your career could be in severe jeopardy. Be interested and learn about important change initiatives so that you can continue to broaden rather than deepen your background. When it comes to the issue of who stays and who goes, the employees that really power the engine (change initiative champions and supporters) will stay.      

If you do follow all the steps for proper career management, will it guarantee you stability in one firm? Of course not, companies are in a war today. However, at least you will be increasing your odds of staying with your company and you will be increasing your career net worth if you must move to another firm. 

Taking Control of Your Career

How do you really take control of your career? You first realize that the paradigm of the past, get a good education, work hard, be competent and get along with others isn't your ticket to career fulfillment. What's left? The issue of career management is something that you must do alone. It is crucial that you add to your professional expertise. It is up to you and you alone for your career's well being. 

Your job focus often keeps you isolated from your peers and other external sources. As a result of this internalizing, you are limiting your chances for career growth. One of the most critical elements in career growth is the issue of who you know, rather than what you know. It is important to build strong interpersonal relationships throughout your company. Joining a group or clique would be a gamble, especially if certain individuals were not seen in a positive light and you might become guilty by association.  

It is better to encourage communication on a genuine basis with all levels of management. It can be as simple as a five minute telephone call where you might share some company information or an article that you recently read. Or you might have breakfast with someone in marketing to discuss a production issue. The key is if you build a relationship first, you will have their trust and will often be able to work out delicate issues with them should the need arise. In addition and more important, you will ask for their opinions on projects that you are working on and probably broaden your knowledge base.  

Am I doing my best to reduce my lead times? How can I reduce my shop floor bottlenecks? Is lean manufacturing for my company? Who can I talk with who has launched a supplier certification program? Every day each of you should add to your body of knowledge on these and many other manufacturing subjects. You must constantly be searching for methods to improve your company's performance. But where do you get the answers? Most of you try to figure it out yourselves, but the winners use their external sources to constantly share their ideas with and act as coach and mentors for one another.  

Your Professional Reputation

To further your professional reputation, you should be willing to share your knowledge and ideas with others in your field. Whether through speaking or writing you will meet with many people quickly and you will continue to enhance your career network. The concept is to broaden your circle, learn and share new concepts and develop a broad support structure. If you’re a member of APICS, you are involved with one of the most effective educational organizations in the world. Use the power. Join a few more organizations and serve on boards and committees—you will add immeasurably to you career net worth. 

A Noble and Demanding Career

You all have chosen a most noble and demanding career. You are the last ones to touch the ball in your firm. R&D can take years to develop a product, engineering months to bring it to drawings, marketing can ponder and do their test studies to determine acceptability. Then you finally get the product and what does management say? Well, to the purchasing department "get those raw materials delivered" in an impossible time frame. And the manufacturing and material's departments have to deliver it to the customer yesterday. I rest my case.  

A career is further defined as a path or course. You often don't give your path much thought. You have picked a profession that is often described as a state of constant volatility and almost impossible to please more than a few people at a time. This condition underscores the importance of developing strategies to take control of your career. If you do, you will win your career battle. And finally, post this in your computer and look at it every day: 

•     Take charge of your career

•     Life is a series of revisions

•     Be positive

•     Stay in control

 Win-Win training for your career and company success!

If your company needs help in increasing speed, improving quality, eliminating non-vale-added cost, and creating a fun work environment, may I suggest my “8-Basics of Kaizen Based Lean Manufacturing” Training Package. As a MBBP subscriber you can purchase it at a 56% discount. To review the details, take 5-minutes and simply click on the below link

Kaizen Based Lean Manufacturing

The World class Manufacturing Training Library 

Manufacturing leaders have a responsibility to educate and train their team members. To preview 7-cost-effective, e-learning modules that will help you get to where you need to go. simply click on the below link: 

WCM Training Library

Sharing the Knowledge

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