You’ve “Leaned ” Out Your Operations

Producers large and small, local, regional and multi-national who are still operating today are much different than they were before the economy tanked and construction followed suit.  Every plant in your organization (those that have not been mothballed) is staffed by your core group of employees.  These are the individuals that represent the best your company has to offer it’s customers.  They are the “cream of the crop” at customer service, professional delivery of products, sales, maintenance, production and quality control.  With few exceptions, these people are efficient, effective and know how to squeeze a minute and safely get two minutes of profitable productivity!

An unexpected result of your efforts to survive by leaning is that, you have managed to provide several value added benefits to every one of your customers :

• Predictable performance
• Knowledgeable and professional personnel at every point of contact
• A commitment to doing whatever it takes to meet the customers needs

These are just a few of the unanticipated benefits.  I’m sure that you can identify many more. My point is, your intention was to cut overhead and hopefully be competitive in pricing while still eking out a small profit.  The external result is you really raised the bar in terms of customer expectations.  TODAY that is a GREAT thing!

Tomorrow, What Does That Mean?

It could mean that your volume will increase beyond your historic market share as the economy and construction rebound.  OR, it could mean that your volume won’t increase and in fact your market share may be reduced!  Why? The former is more likely to happen if you have a “system” and “process” in place to make your new hires functionally competent from day one.  The latter is the more likely outcome if you simply increase the size of your workforce and attempt to “train” them on the fly.  This approach will not only result in bad interactions between your customers and new employees, but also dilute the performance of your “core” group.

The Key To Thriving During A Recovery ?

Effective Knowledge Transfer as you increase staff size.  Now is the time to develop the tools, processes and systems that will make your new hires “professionally functional” from day one, filling the knowledge gap while your training programs build their in depth understanding and increase their skill levels.  Designed and used correctly, these tools can provide new employees with step by step operational procedures that protect the quality of your products, the efficiency of your operations, and preserve the level of professionalism your customers have come to expect.

Ask Us

If your organization doesn’t have a proven system to transfer knowledge, give us a call.  We can help you Thrive During A Recovery.