Building a Showcase Culture: Powerful and Practical Keys for Manufacturing

This book is for those who want to become factory showcase leaders. Readers learn various tools and techniques along a structured path and will be able to apply them or evaluate their company’s effectiveness. The information is useful for: • Manufacturing Operation leaders • Department and functional staff, supervisors, and team leaders • Students studying engineering, operations, supply chain, production planning, finance, human resources, quality, and business administration • Entrepreneurs starting new manufacturing enterprises The focus is on the necessary elements for individuals to develop leadership capabilities in manufacturing. The elements address the requirements to make it possible for employees to add greater value. In addition, the approach builds knowledge, factory strength, and collectively establishes a factory showcase culture. The elements presented apply to raw material processing through to advanced technologies such as: 3-D printing and nano-technology. The 4th industrial revolution will introduce more innovation, more digital technology, and a less labor-intensive environment, but the lessons in this book will stand the test of time for any manufacturing facility. If the destination is having a factory showcase culture, then the steps of the journey are: • Orientation • Foundation • Conditioning • Competitiveness Part 1 - Orientation is how the company introduces itself to New Hires and to other external people, such as customers, suppliers, contractors, etc. Orientation is visual, mindset, behavioral, and training based. It represents the company’s standard operating practices for managing data using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which have to be learned, practiced, and honed for improvement. Part 2 - Foundation is the core of a company’s processes. It is a collection of various systems and practices that are the basis for the company’s success. Foundation is purely operational in nature and builds upon the Orientation section. The Foundation section does not stand-alone — it must be used along with the other main elements. Part 3 - Conditioning builds upon Orientation and Foundation. It's the culture of motivating people, using daily routines, data collection and analysis, auditing to ensure compliance, coordinating resources to take actions, and responding to various inputs using analytics. Part 4 - Competitiveness is the way in which a company demonstrates its advantages by implementing short-term plans with long-term investments, strategies, and vision. Reviews: Is a must-read, step-by-step tutorial for those working in a factory. Whether you are just beginning a career in manufacturing or have spent many years in the plant, the principles in this book lay out a solid foundation for understanding and driving manufacturing excellence. This is a well done, comprehensive review of the many elements needed to establish a well-functioning manufacturing facility. It outlines the foundational elements needed to establish a successful operation through technical details required to support a continuously improving plant, showing the full comprehensive road map for operational excellence. The book talks about all the milestones and deliverables by each function with a clear checklist and ownership that needs to be well understood by all levels in the organization. Change Management risk reduction is emphasized, and is an important aspect that works well with design reviews by failure modes. A very comprehensive analysis that when applied will undoubtedly improve any organization overall, and the bottom line! By reading the book you feel very close to the experience of the author — sometimes it is like you are on the shop-floor during the shift hand-over.

Mark Lado is a consultant, advisor, writer, entrepreneur, world business leader, master CrossFitter, master Olympic weightlifter, husband, father of 2 boys, former CrossFit gym owner, former PADI scuba divemaster, and US Navy veteran. He was born in Utica, New York, and currently lives in Baldwinsville, New York. Mark earned a BS in Industrial Engineering from SUNY Polytechnic and an MBA from University of North Florida. Mark has lived and worked in several Asian countries for over 13 years, including Thailand, Malaysia, China, South Korea, and Australia. Also, he has lived in the UK and Germany and several US states. He loves living and visiting many different places seeing and experiencing the sites, cultures, foods, drinks, languages, and making friends. He has friends in more than 30 countries and is always looking to make more friends, especially ones that like healthy living. His work experiences and job titles were also quite broad and has held nearly every job title in a manufacturing facility. He probably did not meet the minimum experience requirements for some positions he has held, but the company leaders believed he had the right positive mindset, work-hard ethic, personal confidence, desire to achieve goals, and they knew he had a keen interest to make the business successful. He thrives on being put into a high-risk business situation with little to no knowledge of that situation and just the belief that he can manage that challenge and make improvements. After many years of honing that trait, he decided to start his own consulting company and that is when his life opened up to even more opportunities. He considers himself very lucky to have spent several years with his wife raising their kids, as that time is so precious. He admires people with similar interests, such as Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs, Marcus Lemonis from The Profit, Andrew Zimmern from Bizzare Foods, Bear Grylls from Man vs. Wild, and Joe Teti and the other experts from Dual Survivor. He is sure there are many others too, as they all have a similar trait, and one he shares - they all seem to experience great satisfaction from getting into a new situation, learning about it, adapting to it, and overcoming or accomplishing a challenge. Mark enjoys several TV shows, including How It's Made, Extreme Engineering, Top Gear, Fast N' Loud, Through the Wormhole, Wonders of the Universe, Physics of the Impossible, and Star Talk. For him, these shows provide a forum to think, be creative, explore the unknown, and fantasize about it.