During these unprecedented times, one group stood out for their contributions to society. Those at the frontlines! Nurses, doctors, grocery store clerks, and manufacturing associates. “Production” associates, as this recent article points out, deserve our appreciation for providing us with the goods and services we need. Arguably risking themselves in the process!
The CDC has defined general guidelines that will help prevent the spread of COVID-19. To help share these with a larger audience, our friends at Argo Translation created an infographic that demonstrates the guidelines in 14 languages:
As Illinois manufacturers settle back into a “new normal” there is no shortage of responsibilities weighing on our minds. One area that can easily get overlooked as we move through this uncertain time is your Quality Management Systems (QMS). With our focus elsewhere, new procedures or training can get implemented without proper documentation. We can get behind on our internal auditing schedule. Or we lose sight of action items from prior meetings and audits.
Written by Larry Bouvier, Vice President of Fuss & O'Neill Manufacturing Solutions.
As businesses and facilities begin to reopen, employee health and safety are paramount. Cleaning, proper distancing, and personal protective equipment have always been important safety precautions, but are now more important than ever. But it is important to remember that while employees are returning to work, facilities’ support equipment itself also needs to be brought back to work in a safe and thoughtful manner. An unused sink drain may weep noxious odors, cooling fans may have burnt out, and security gates might balk at opening easily. The health and safety of your building, and the systems that make it habitable, is important to the health and safety, not to mention comfort, of your employees. Prior to opening a facility, managers need to create checklists and inspect and test all machinery.
If you could do one thing to prevent someone from contracting COVID-19, would you? If you could do one thing to help put the economy back on the path to recovery, would you? Well, you can! And, it’s a simple thing to do. Anyone can do it. But a lot of people aren’t.
If it is that easy, why isn’t everyone doing it? Good question. But here is all you have to do – wear a mask. It’s that simple. It doesn’t have to be fancy – a simple cloth face covering can make a big difference.
As businesses open back up everyone’s attention is on keeping their employees & coworkers safe. While CDC guidelines regarding face coverings, frequent hand washing, and disinfecting protocols are the best way to slow the spread of COVID-19, there are other ways for organizations to slow the spread. The ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) formed a task force to provide guidelines on how a building’s HVAC systems can help slow the spread.
Coauthored by Rick Wrinkler and Greg Thompson.
Standard work means determining and documenting the ideal process to produce correct and consistent results. It represents the best sequence and the most efficient methods to perform a process. It is considered a way to achieve the highest possible degree of consistency in any process. The purpose is to ensure that everything is done by everyone in a similar manner and carry out the work that achieves the highest quality, best service, and lowest cost possible.
In the world of Lean Manufacturing, this definition and adherence to Standard Work has resulted in positive, repeatable results in a variety of industries. In today’s Covid-19 environment, practitioners with years of experience in industry strongly believe that Standard Work will and should be one of the foundational tools to develop, implement, and maintain strategies to combat the Coronavirus in a manufacturing environment.
While it's impossible to pinpoint the timing of an economic pullback or recession, it is possible to take steps to help protect your business during such an event, as well as create ongoing resilience and prepare for the upswing!
Part 6 of "The New Supply Chain" blog series by Mike Loquercio, Vice President of Supply Chain at Greenleaf Foods.
We are starting to see some signs of the economy opening up and supply chains getting some “swings in the cage” before the full season begins. In many industries, COVID19 demand has stretched the supply chain beyond any reasonable expectations and yet we have found creative ways to make it work. In other industries, we have been operating with diminished needs and looking for ways to repurpose and pivot to support the health care industry.
No, I am not referring to the classic Johnny Cash song that I often heard my father play in my youth. Although perhaps a few lines of the lyrics are fitting.
No doubt the pandemic crisis and social unrest have shaken many of our companies, our work colleagues, and ourselves to the core. We have had our hands full trying to address challenges amid massive uncertainty. A friend and I were recently lamenting how customer service appears to be at an all-time low. We could cite several examples of carefree and lacking customer service. Seemingly, it is OK to explain away poor service and quality “because of COVID”. Understandably, our companies are challenged to perform. As leaders, we have likely taken our eye off the basics while dealing with the onslaught of uncertainty.
This article is co-authored by Ashley Beaudoin and Lisa Kenney.
COVID-19 continues to disrupt organizations worldwide and uncertainty remains at an all-time high as leaders and members of the workforce begin to rebuild the new normal.
As companies transition back to normalcy, it is important for leaders to gain insight from employees to make sure the workplace and company culture return to a place of stability as quickly as possible.
Spoiler Alert: This blog will not be about which web-based platform is the best investment or the best digital products in the marketplace. This blog will be about LEARNING, and how, even though today it may be delivered in different ways than we are accustomed to, learning should not take a back seat in the workplace. In fact, how workers are trained and upskilled today will require great leaps in creativity, innovation, and change management along with strong practices of human interfacing that you may have left to chance before. So read on …
This is an original article, written by Trim Tex.
The story of every successful manufacturer is one of nonstop self-improvement. What may have been an effective process five or 10 or 20 years ago — or, for a manufacturer with a history as long as Trim-Tex’s, 50-plus years ago — may no longer be the best road forward. To provide customers with the best possible products and services, sometimes it can take a manufacturer shattering its own status quo. And sometimes that may take a little extra education. This is exactly what some folks here at Trim-Tex are doing, by enlisting in Six Sigma “Green Belt” certification training.
The Coronavirus gave businesses two choices when it interrupted life as we knew it: wait and see if the storm passes or lead the charge through the storm. Gold Eagle, among many manufacturers, chose the latter. This 4th generation family business, built on the manufacturing and marketing of engine additives and surface cleaners, treatments and protectants, has put a whole new spin on the term “hero.”
From time to time, events occur which shine a light on weaknesses as to the flow of data within our existing information systems. Looking back at my year with IMEC, several of these types of events readily come to mind which to a varying degree affected nearly everyone including Y2K, 9/11 and the Great/Global Recession, while many other events affected certain sectors of the populace, such as regional power or widespread internet outages. In each of these instances, system shortcomings were exposed and inconveniences were experienced.
When COVID-19 knocked us all off our feet a couple of months ago, Illinois manufacturers quickly pivoted to meet the demands to battle this growing pandemic. It is no surprise that companies like Mighty Hook are going above and beyond their normal operations and procedures to ensure their part in helping our state respond to the crisis effectively.
