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Uncovering Unseen Savings in Manufacturing

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SUMMARY

Lew Weiss

Good afternoon, everyone. This is Lou Weiss from Manufacturing Talk Radio. I’m here today with Dan Burgos, who’s the president of Alphanova Consulting. And, you know, we know there’s a lot of consultants out there, but I think that Dan’s got kind of a special story to tell. So Dan, why don’t we give you a little elevator pitch time to tell us a little bit about Alphanova, and then we’ll get into what it is that you really do for money?

Dan

Sure. First of all, Lou, thanks for having me. I appreciate the opportunity. So, Alphanova Consulting, we are a consulting firm that basically works with manufacturers, helping them through operational improvements to bring up their operational execution and think about on time deliveries quality, their quality rate up to 99% plus. And typically what they see from our services is a reduction in cost and an increase in profit margins by 25% plus.

And in a nutshell, that’s what we do for manufacturers. That’s the end result.

Lew Weiss

Well, that’s pretty good. And that’s what a lot of consultants and marketing companies and social media companies will talk about. But let’s give our people a little bit more taste about what it is that you’re doing. So you have a certain number of principles that you’ve developed that will give manufacturers the ability to increase their profits.
Correct.

Dan

So everything starts with we have a formula. And that formula, it’s I believe it’s a deep rooted belief in our company. And that is, you know, for you to get the ideal result you’re looking for, you need two elements. You need ideal processes, but you also need ideal behaviors. And when I say ideal behaviors, I’m talking about leadership behavior.

And so what you’ll find is that most people out there that do what we do, the people you just mentioned a minute ago, the focus is heavily towards the processes helping manufacturers improve their efficiency, create flow, things like that. But what we do that’s different is that we complement that by having or sharing with manufacturers the right principles so that whatever changes, whatever the future state is, it’s something that’s sustainable.

and they have a culture that really embraces the new principles and they can move forward and be successful without our involvement in the long term.

Lew Weiss

One of the things, of course, all of us have unfortunately experienced is the covid pandemic and companies weren’t prepared for it. They didn’t know what was coming, what was happening, and so on and so forth. Fortunately, my company, All Metals and Forge Group, which is my primary business, we didn’t have a business continuity plan in place. So when the governor of New Jersey said March 23rd, 2020 were shutting the state down on March 24th, we were up and operational and we had no problem.

But there’s not a lot of people that had the benefit of understanding that and knowing that. So to that point, what is it that you’re suggesting people do today going forward in terms of business continuity?

Dan

Well, right now the main challenges that I’m seeing in the market are supply chain interruptions. And so what I suggest for manufacturers is that they adopt a practice of doing a supply chain evaluation and particularly looking for risk opportunities within their supply chain. You know, in my work with manufacturers, I highly recommend this where you take all of your suppliers and you put them, you have to develop a set of criteria that basically will expose risk and the risk will come from…

It’ll be different for every manufacturer location. It could be performance for, or reliability for that supplier and so on and so forth. Typically it’s five or six of them. And once you complete that evaluation, what you’re going to find is you’re going to reveal, you know, areas for improvement in your supply chain. And in order for you to prevent that interruption and achieve that continuity, you have to address those. That could be sourcing strategies or inventory management strategies or even purchasing strategies that you would have to improve.

So that’s where I would start and then create a plan for that. So in other words, if there’s some disruption in our supply chain that will interrupt our business, we have a plan for it so that, that interruption affects us as little as possible.

Lew Weiss

So when you are out there hunting for customers or if they’re coming to you or whatever, how do you bring them into the fold and tell them that they’ve got a real problem or they may know they have a problem and that you’re going to give them advice on how to fix the problem, evolve through the problem, and come up with solutions.

Dan

That’s right. So typically, you know, we strive to talk to people that are at least open, if not aware, that they have a problem. We find that it’s quite uphill when someone’s closed or to the possibility that they have areas to improve. And so we focus on people that are either open or aware. And, you know, our, I guess, our messaging is very self-explanatory, right?

We’re going to help you improve your profit margins and we’re going to do it. We’re not going to do it out of thin air. We’re going to go and improve your operational execution. That’s what it boils down to in your execution. Could be because your setups or your processes are not set up correctly, or maybe you don’t have the right people to execute them correctly.

And I’ll give you an example. We were recently working with this manufacturer and we were working actually have problems both ways, people problems and process problems. And so we started working on the processes and the processes started to improve, but they had improved marginally. Unfortunately, we ended up having to replace some of the leaders and as soon as we put the right person, imagine what happened, the efficiency, the profitability took off because now we had the full formula.

We had the right person. We had the right process.

Lew Weiss

But when you have a situation we have going on right now about skilled labor and labor shortage and lower birthrate and so on and so forth, so you have an issue with people now? Yeah, I have a theory about that and that is that we need to have a better or we need to have a immigration program so we don’t have a bad immigration program.

We don’t have one, but that’s a whole other issue. So the point is, what do you do when you don’t have the people?

Dan

Well, the talent pool is for sure a very competitive right now. And I’ll give you a stat I just recently read that said that between now and 2030, the workforce for the manufacturing sector will grow 0.31%.

Lew Weiss

It’s minuscule.

Dan

It’s minuscule. Right. And all these companies are growing and expanding. And so the competition is going it’s going to get harder. So here’s what I would say. Here’s what I would say your listeners could do, what manufacturing companies can do. There’s going to be a combination of things. One, you’ll have to compete with… preventing people from leaving your company.

And you know what a lot of companies fail to realize is that the talent may be sitting in your backyard. You may have the people in there. And so what I’ve seen most or quite a few companies do successfully. They find what talent do we have internally that we could maybe elevate and bridge that gap.

And you mentioned immigration, right. As you know, if you go into manufacturing, there’s a lot of ESL type of workers right. But they’re good. They have a good work ethic and you talk to them, you can even have a good laugh with them. But but there’s a barrier and that’s the language. Well, what if you invest in language skills or training for these workers and all of a sudden you have somebody that’s already in tune, that’s within your culture and you like them.

And you know, they have a good work ethic. There’s also, you know, the work environments that are out there. A lot of times, you know, we walk through manufacturing companies and it’s not an environment where people feel good, People feel like it’s toxic. And I know that’s a word that’s being thrown around, but it’s unhealthy. You don’t feel like when you know, it’s Sunday afternoon and you’re thinking, I got to get to work tomorrow.

And that’s not a good feeling that that something’s not right. And so that’s another area where manufacturers can compete if you create the right culture. And the funny thing, Lou, is that you don’t need capital investment for this. You have full control of it. And if you do it, it goes so far and in keeping your employees.

I recently was talking to two with a group of workers at this client, and they said some people left and they were saying, you know, the pasture is not always green. I’ll left for more money. And and now I miss you guys and I miss our environment, and I’m not really liking what I’m doing. So you give people a second thought or give them a reason to think twice about moving.

And that puts you in a better position to retain the talent. And then I’ll mention a couple last ones. Automation is an option we’re seeing it more and more technology’s evolving. So there’s one. And then the last one would be you can become more efficient, right? If you become more efficient, you can reduce the amount of labor through attrition.

You may not absorb additional labor. What I don’t advocate, though, is to purposely trying to cut down on labor so you can displace people and cut jobs. That’s of course, not a strategy that’s very employee friendly.

Lew Weiss

But not only not employee friendly, but it really hurts you in the long run. It’s strange that you mention this. I was talking with our CFO today and yesterday about our employees. You know, it’s the end of the year. What are we doing to help them out and so on and so forth. And I started looking at the list of employees and how many years and not only years but decades.

Some of the people are working for my company. And in one it says a lot about your company. If you have people who are with you five, ten, 15, 20 years, 30 years. I got a 28 year. He’s still a young sort of you need to have you can’t replace that. And a robot won’t replace that.

Even though robotics is the the new thing sort of. But the Japanese who invented robotics because they lost a whole generation of people in the second World War, so they created robotics. We have robotics, but we still need to have people. There are clues to the job that a person knows to do this, that or the other thing.

But the robot won’t. So it’s really important to help and focus on your employees. And if they’re good employees, treat them well, talk to them, be involved Be involved with their issues and their families and so on, which is what we have done over these last three years of Covid, you know, we’ve all had our share of employees who’ve been sick, they’ve had families that have been sick.

You got to give them a break.

Dan

Yeah, you got to be you got to empathize.

Lew Weiss

That’s right. That’s exactly right.

Dan

And I’ll tell you a few things that we look for to see where companies are with when it comes to that. You know, we look at tenure, like you said. Right. If you have people the more people you have with that long tenure, you know, you have a good environment. We also look at internal promotions, like, are you people moving up or are they staying flat?

And then you just bring new people at the top every day all the time. We also look at turnover. Of course, if your turnover is above the industry average, again, that that could be a signal that either the leaders are not creating a right environment or there’s something that people are not, you know, satisfied with the work environment.

Lew Weiss

It’s it’s a tough time that we’re living through, but the way to live through it is to work through it and help your employees, help your processes and so on, to can give you a good continuity of business going forward.

Dan

That’s exactly right. I actually was having a conversation earlier today with the client and we were talking about specifically what you just mentioned, succession planning. Right. You should always be looking at and speaking about continuity. Right. Who what’s your bench strength like? And are you looking beyond the person that’s holding that key role today and developing grooming, if you will, the people that are already in the know your organization, that know your culture so that they can assume the next level of responsibility.

Lew Weiss

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Dan

That’s how you compete. That’s how I feel you compete. There’s no fancy solution. It’s good ole people management.

Lew Weiss

So what is your and I think you already said it, so I’m going to ask you anyway. So in terms of operational improvement and so on, what is it that you do, number one? And do you get much pushback from the companies that you go and visit and see and sit down and do assessments of their issues, problems and so on?

How does that work out for you?

Dan

Well, yeah. So the question do I get pushback? Yeah, we eat for breakfast. I will say any change manager or change agent, I should say, will always have pushback no matter if it’s in manufacturing or anywhere else. So to answer your first question about what is it we do, we work in four areas. We work and operational improvements. The methodology we use in that is the lean principles that come derived from the Toyota production system, trying to create flow, reducing defects and going after waste, all the things that create inefficiency in a factory.

So if you have poor flow, if you’re wasting time, if you’re scrapping parts, all that, all of that, we go after all that. The second thing we do is focus on your people. And what we do is we focus on developing your talent internally so that when we disengage, you have the foundation there to be successful. And so we look at it in two ways.

You’re going to have people management skills. For example, knowing how do we a good leader that holds people accountable, that delegates well, that knows how to do real coaching as opposed to just managing people through authority and power. The other aspect of people that we look at is just basic operations management, right? Functioning through data as opposed to opinion or whatever happened 20 years ago.

Let’s let’s get the facts and let’s solve the problems. Third area is giving you a framework to cascade your strategy. So a lot of manufacturers, they have a plan. They want to get from point A to point B, but they don’t always know how to articulate that. And furthermore, they don’t always know how to engage the entire organization that so that everybody has the same priorities and everybody’s pulling in the same direction.

And then lastly, the last area that we work on its own culture and this is we were just talking about that a second ago, right? We culture always say this culture seems like this buzzword that’s out there and we try to make it very, very tangible. I have a lot of passion for this because in my work in corporate America, I experience good and really bad cultures.

And to that to the point that it affected my physical health because it was so stressful. And so we work to help leaders, leadership teams be intentional about the type of culture that they want to create. I help. I tell them, basically we’re going to imprint your collective DNA on this culture, and then you’re going to put it out into your entire organization, and we’re going to put filters throughout your entire human systems so that you attract the right people that fit your culture.

You onboard them, right? So it’s very clear what the culture is and the people that are already in here that don’t fit that culture get the message so that they either shape up or get out. And I know that sounds harsh, but unfortunately, I find that that’s how that’s the best way to do it. Because if you allow those bad apples to linger, you’re just doing a disservice to yourself and all the people in the organization.

Lew Weiss

So I’m going to ask a very simplistic question which you partially answered and responded to. Explain to me and our audience about culture, what is culture?

Dan

So culture, the simplest definition I can give you, is the overlap on everyone’s beliefs. So picture a Venn diagram and you have your beliefs that are influenced by your background, your upbringing, your experiences, and so on and so forth. And I have the same wherever that overlap happens with the collective thinking of your leaders, that that small area where there’s overlap, that’s your culture because we all believe it, we’re all going to live it, we’re all going to defend it and go to war for it.

And every day we’re going to display that. And so what I ask leaders is come together. Let’s find that overlap and let’s make that very visible and tangible so that whenever anyone steps in and they don’t subscribe to that, it’ll all it’ll almost sting you like you’re saying, Oh wow, I don’t fit well here. I don’t like this like I don’t like people here are highly accountable.

I’m deflector. Okay. I’m not going to sit well here because they’re going to bring it to me and they’re going to hold me accountable. I got to get out of here. That’s what culture is to me, and that’s the the power that a lot of companies fail to leverage. And it’s very inexpensive. All you have to do is work through your your differences with your leaders, with your peers, and then hone that message in and then put it to work.

So that’s what we do for culture. Hopefully that answers your question.

Lew Weiss

I think, yeah, it does. And I think to some degree and I don’t want to overstate this, I don’t know if manufacturing management fully understands culture.

Dan

I that’s what I said. It’s a fuzzy word that’s out there. But go ask somebody, okay, And how do you put it in place and how do you bring it to bring it to life? It’s not it’s not that easy. And we try to make it very tangible very quickly.

Lew Weiss

You know, when if you’re a manager and you run a company, I think one of the best things that you could do is interact with your employees, whether you have five or ten or 50 or 100.

Dan

Or 100%.

Lew Weiss

Interact with your employees, take their ideas, bring them in to meetings, strategy meetings. What do you think your how do you think that your job or your section or your group can do something either better, different, smarter, more efficient than you’re doing? Bring them into the fold. They’re the ones who know how to improve things within the culture.

Dan

Yeah, I like to say always that as leaders we provide the whats and then we just let our the people that work for us provide the hows. So as we get to the right what, they’re going to grow through the process and, and we’re all going to get the result we want. It’s one thing for me to tell you, here’s what I want you to do and do it this way.

But if you go and do it, you grow, you learn, you own it, you’re proud of it, and we both win.

Lew Weiss

But another point to what your you just made is that, you know, our world is changing almost on a daily basis. So when management says do it this way, because that’s the way my father did it, my grandfather did it, I want you to do it that way. But that’s not the efficient way. Maybe maybe you need to maybe use the manager owner of a company need to understand that, well, you have new technology within your manufacturing place, you have new equipment.

You may need to listen to your employees because they’re the ones on the floor.

Dan

That’s exactly right. You know, I feel that a lot of times we failed to leverage the the power of the people that are on the floor. They they live the problems. They’re not set out to fail. They they want to succeed. And they’ve seen the problem a thousand times, while you’ve only seen it a fraction of that, they thought about a solution a thousand times.

So they know they I’ve seen I’ve interacted with clients where the people are saying, finally we’re seeing some change. We’ve been asking for this for forever. And and you just, you know, empower them and they’ll come up with solutions you’ll never think about. It’s it’s that’s part of why I enjoy the work we do because I know that consultants have can have a negative stigma in some people’s eyes, but when you get to collaborate with people and if you see up here it’s effective solutions lasting results, effective solutions, it’s our belief, don’t come from us.

It comes from the collaboration of the client and us. And the lasting results come from the client ownership and buy in and then they sustain it. And that comes from from internal.

Lew Weiss

Exactly. And, you know, it was well said, and I appreciate the points that you’re bringing out, and I know that a lot of our listeners will tune into that and understanding that whether they own a company or they work for a company, that everything that you and I just spoke about is 110% true.

Dan

And yes, I wanted to mention you mentioned your listeners. I actually I want to ask if we have a performance assessment that visitors can come in to our website and take it. It gives them feedback and it talks about all the things we’re talking about, you know, operational, your leaders, your culture. So if it be possible.

If we could leave a link on the notes for the show so listeners feel.

Lew Weiss

Why don’t you bring it up on share screen.

Dan

Okay, Let me hold on a second. Let me bring.

Lew Weiss

It up here. I don’t mean to put you on the spot, but yeah, I’ve brought you brought it up.

Dan

Okay. So let me share my screen here. I’m pulling it up.

Lew Weiss

All right. So we’re going to see how it’s done in real life action.

Dan

Yeah. So if you can see my screen, let me know

Lew Weiss

Okay

Dan

So this is our our our website. You can find this on our on our home page. There’s a link there. And basically this is performance assessment. Actually, I’ll take you there. So people see the whole picture. If you go to our home page and you scroll down, see it saying complete our self-assessment to see if you’re fair, good or excellent, and you click here, it’ll take you to this page where you can take the assessment.

We have it for other industries as well, but basically once you click here in manufacturing, it’ll ask you several questions, ten questions to be exact. It will ask you about your customer retention. You basically pick one, then it will ask you about your scrap, your delivery rate and so on and so forth. And then at the end, once you put your email, it’ll give you a report that basically shares benchmarks.

It gives you feedback as to where you stand. And this is something that you can start sharing with your people to get buy in, to actually drive change, because sometimes that’s what we need to give people. We need to give people actual tangible feedback so they can start opening their eyes to the reality that they may need to change.

Lew Weiss

And this assessment, of course, is free online.

Dan

Absolutely. It’s free, it’s online. And people get a report. They get a report that’s emailed to them and they get an instant copy that they can read or print or whatever they want to do with it.

Lew Weiss

And then, of course, reach out to get your input or your key people input so that they can get the benefit of your collective knowledge.

Dan

Sure, we tell people if you if you want to reach out, we can walk you through it or give you some some thoughts. And then of course, you can do it yourself. Or if you want to talk about possibly engaging us, then we can have a separate discussion. But no obligation whatsoever.

Lew Weiss

Dan this was this was great. I appreciate your being here. I’m sure that there are people listening to us who are in the place that you know and feel there are a lot of manufacturing companies, especially small to medium sized companies, who are struggling through all of the things that we’ve been struggling through for the last three years.

Pandemic politics, the economy, this, that and the other thing. I strongly recommend that if you feel that you have these issues to give Alphanova Consulting a buzz and your email.

Dan

Dan is… If they they can reach out, D as in Dan, my first initial DBurgos@alphanovaconsulting.com or they can check us out at alphanovaconsulting.com as well.

Lew Weiss

Very good Dan thank you very much for being here. I hope that we’ve helped some people. I hope that and I want to mention to you that as you progress going down the road, if you come up with new ideas, new concepts, give us a buzz. We’d love to have you on the show again to talk about it, or some of your success stories, whether they’re small or medium or large, we’d love to get your message out to the people who have problems and within their own sphere.

So thank you very much and I appreciate that.

Dan

Sounds good, Lou. I appreciate it very much. Enjoyed the conversation there. I’m sure we’ll talk soon.

Lew Weiss

Enjoy the Thanksgiving. And I just want to give a word or two to our listeners about Manufacturing Talk Radio and our umbrella company called Jacket Media Co, where we have not only Manufacturing Talk Radio, but we have four or five other video podcasts that are all about manufacturing women in manufacturing, economists that are involved in manufacturing. And so tune in to jacketmediaco.com or manufacturingtalkradio.com.

And we hope to hear from you. We see you if you have ideas, suggestions or if you’d like to be a guest on the show. If you have a particular idea or thought or a concept, we want to hear about it because we want to get it out to our audience, which we’ve been doing now for ten years as of five days ago and ten, haven’t made a

nickle but we’re doing this out of passion. So thank you, everybody. Thank you, Dan, and we’ll talk to you next time.

Dan

Thanks. Good. Thank you.
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