GA Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP) Georgia Tech

Spotlight – On the GaMEP Team

By

Spotlight on the GaMEP team

Sean Madhavaraman

Welcome to the GaMEP! Sean is one of our newest team members, starting in December of 2020 as a project manager on the Strategy and Leadership Development team, leading our Industry 4.0 efforts. He has 17 years of process engineering and advanced manufacturing experience with a passion for technology and Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT). He has both a Bachelors and Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Madurai Kamaraj and Louisiana Tech Universities (respectively), as well being Six Sigma Green Belt Certified.

Sean’s favorite quote is, “In God we trust, all others must bring data.” – Dr. W. Edwards Deming.

This is a cornerstone of his thinking that has helped him to create a proven track record of utilizing data, communication, and organization skills to influence team members in delivering key business objectives through alignment of self-actualization and leveraging next generation technology.

One of Sean’s first automation projects, that he led on a vision grading system, ignited his passion for technology. As this grew, so did his desire to reduce a common fear amongst company employees – that technology is going to replace jobs in the plant. He works with team members to showcase that machines are accurate, with the right software, but people are still needed to manage the process, analyze the data output, and take action on what to do with that data. Sean’s experience in reliability and maintenance, continuous improvement, process control, and manufacturing execution systems have allowed him to hone his technology skills and led him down the path to his Industry 4.0 specialty.

In his spare time Sean likes spending time with his wife and kids, experimenting with the latest technology gadgets, and eating Mexican food.

Need some help identifying or implementing technology solutions that will lead to productivity gains for your company and help you make the quantum leap by leveraging data and technology? Contact Sean at sean.madhavaraman@ gatech.edu for any questions related to Artificial Intelligence (AI), Industry 4.0, automation, and other technology needs.

By: Raine Hyde, Marketing Strategist, Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership

Tips for Implementing Technology Solutions to Help Offset Productivity Issues

By

Tips for implementing technology solutions to help offset productivity issues

Change is hard. If this pandemic year has taught us anything, it’s how to adapt and adjust our way of thinking and doing business. The same goes for technology. It is always changing. Whether it is the latest upgrade for your smart device or the newest gadget to simplify your life, technology touches every facet of our personal and professional lives. The choices out there can be daunting and sometimes overwhelming, especially if you are a small to medium manufacturer. Do I really need technology to grow my business and thrive? Is technology safe for my company? What about my personnel, how will they be affected? The answer is not the same for everyone, but using these tips below can help guide you to the right solution for yourself and your company:

  • One size does not fit all: The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) is the use of technologies to form an interconnected and autonomous manufacturing environment. You do not have to implement all of these technologies at once. First, identify the pain points in your business such as operational inefficiencies, quality issues, or asset reliability. Then, let that business case help you decide the technology to pursue first and the depth of that technology that is needed to solve the issue on hand.
  • Start small: A complete overhaul is not necessary and unfeasible in most cases. You do not have to start over and connect your entire production line to the cloud all at once. There are affordable, easy to implement options available. Examples include adding a sensor or two to a machine center to track performance data in real time to better understand missed opportunities, or integrating one standalone machine to the network to facilitate smart decision making. These types of solutions allow you to ease your business into Industry 4.0 and simultaneously use technology to positively impact your business. Adding up a few of these technology implementation wins over time will help build confidence in your team and lead to a long-term Industry 4.0 strategy that becomes an integral part of your core business.
  • Don’t be afraid: Implementing technology does not necessarily lead to a reduction in employment. In fact, in many cases it will lead to workforce development. Even though machines are accurate and repeatable, people are still needed to manage the process, analyze the data output, and act on what to do with that data. Also, by adding a technology solution (like a sensor), you can capture that employee’s tribal knowledge and machine data, then create a recipe to automate the process of how to run that machine in the future. This helps create a culture that emphasizes learning, which leads to an increase in team members feeling more comfortable working with technology.
  • Data, data, data: If you have a choice, do you want to know when a machine will fail? Most will answer “yes” to this question but are still doing maintenance the old-fashioned way and guessing when it will fail (preventative maintenance). But by using the right technology you can tell exactly when a machine is going to stop working and do the corrective action just before it happens (predictive maintenance). Over time, using a conditioning monitoring device will give you the data to know when a failure will occur, and time to prepare for maintenance issues to avoid a catastrophic problem. This will lead to less unscheduled downtime and increased productivity, which impacts your bottom line and revenue. This is just one example of how a technology solution can help capture data and use it to solve real problems in your business.
  • Safety and security: As your organization progresses through implementing technology solutions and leveraging the power of data, there is an inherent risk of cyberthreat that must be carefully managed and mitigated. It is not a matter of if, it is matter of when your data could be compromised. The same principle of starting small and following basic data hygiene such as controlling when and who has access to your data and managing how data moves in your organization would go a long way. If you are planning on doing any work for the Department of Defense, the need to establish and demonstrate your organization’s maturity level on the cybersecurity front is key to your success. Working with professionals who can assess and guide you through each step in Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) is paramount as this certification will be a requirement for all vendors in the very near future to be able to be awarded contracts from the Department of Defense.

By keeping these tips in mind, your path to implementing Industry 4.0 solutions can be less intimidating, more manageable, and allow you to leverage technological innovation to grow your competitiveness and gain new business.

If you are a small to medium manufacturer who needs help identifying or implementing technology solutions, contact your GaMEP Region Manager and they can connect you to one of our experts on questions related to Artificial Intelligence (AI), Industry 4.0, automation, and other technology needs that will lead to productivity gains for your company.

By: Raine Hyde, Marketing Strategist, Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership

How to Avoid the 10 Biggest Quality Mistakes

By

How to Avoid the 10 Biggest Quality Mistakes

Learning from other people’s mistakes is one of the most effective ways to improve. There are plenty of mistakes out there to learn from, but the trick is to recognize them and understand what to do instead. Let’s examine the 10 most common quality mistakes and see how they can be corrected.

1. Limiting quality objectives to traditional quality topics

Quality is reflected in everything your organization does, and a quality objective can be anything measurable that relates to your organization’s success. A quality objective might relate to finances, customer feedback, safety, efficiency, speed or innovation. All these attributes relate to quality in one way or another. When selecting quality objectives, it’s important that your organization examines what matters most to its success. Whether the resulting measure is tied to traditional quality control or quality assurance is irrelevant.

2. Holding infrequent management reviews

Management review is the process by which top management analyzes data, makes decisions and takes action. Ideally, it’s a preventive process because data should indicate developing threats before they blossom into full-blown problems. Top managers should be able to analyze data proactively to prevent problems. Holding management reviews frequently allows you to review real-time data so that actions can be preventive. If these meetings are held only once or twice a year, however, you will not get the information that is necessary to make important decisions for your company’s success.

3. Sending out long, complex customer surveys

Instead of a survey, why not simply ask your customers what they like and dislike? Don’t limit their responses to survey topics. Let your customers dictate the content of their feedback in response to open-ended questions. Few questions are more powerful than the following: What do you like? What don’t you like? What would you like to see different in the future? Open-ended feedback is also much easier to understand and take action on. A customer-satisfaction index of 3.8 is hard to interpret. On the other hand, seven out of 10 customers telling you that your Web site is confusing and pinpointing what makes it confusing provides a clearer path to improvement.

4. Assuming everyone knows what “nonconforming” looks like

When I visit organizations, one of my favorite questions is, “Where do you put the nonconforming products?” Control of nonconforming products is one of the most basic kinds of controls, and it speaks volumes about the rest of the controls embraced by the organization. Smart organizations positively identify all nonconforming products, and really smart organizations segregate them to remove all chance of accidental use. Error-proof your control of the nonconforming product process so that assumptions don’t have to be made.

5. Failing to use the corrective action process

Corrective action is the systematic way to investigate problems, identify their causes and keep the problems from happening again. Nobody wants problems, but it’s essential to have a way to deal with them when they come up. The more the corrective action process is used, the better the organization gets at addressing its risks and problems. An effective corrective action process is typically seamless, simple and intuitive. Actions developed correctly add a little structure to problem solving and don’t create additional bureaucracy.

6. Applying document control only to official documents

Most organizations do a decent job of controlling “official” documents: the procedures and work instructions that form the core of the quality management system (QMS). These are often written, approved and issued according to very specific guidelines. What organizations don’t do very well is control unofficial documents, many of which are more important than the official ones. These may be memos that include procedural steps, Post-it Notes with special requirements, emails with customer specifications, and many others. These informal resources become documents when they’re shared for people to use, and they’re some of the most important documents within an organization. Apply document control to all documents, and scrutinize your document control process to keep it streamlined and effective.

7. Focusing audits on petty, nonstrategic details

Auditing is the process of comparing actual operations against commitments the organization has made. It’s a simple, fact-driven process that can generate huge improvements. However, these improvements happen only if auditors focus on the right things. Too often, internal auditors become preoccupied with petty details and neglect the big issues. They’re uncomfortable examining the big, strategic issues. It’s important for your organization to provide training and skill-building to your internal auditors to avoid these common pitfalls.

8. Training some personnel, but not all

Most organizations provide significant training to hourly production personnel. Salaried and managerial personnel are often neglected, however. Why? Because there’s a perception that salaried workers don’t affect product conformity. This is a serious error. All personnel must be included in the training process. Salaried and managerial personnel need more—not less—training because their decisions and actions have larger and more lasting effects. When an hourly employee makes a mistake, it could cost money. When a top manager makes a mistake, it could put you out of business. Train your employees early and often.

9. Doing anything just because an external auditor told you to

In my travels to companies, I often ask people why they’re carrying out a process the way they are. I always raise this question when the process seems unwieldy or illogical. In a surprising number of cases, the answer will be, “Because the external auditor said we should do it that way.” Before you jump into any recommendation, conduct a reality check to make sure it makes sense for your organization.

10. Employing someone who only oversees the QMS

Having a person who does nothing but oversee the ISO 9001 (or any other) QMS is not a good
idea as it guarantees two things:

  • First, the QMS coordinator will become isolated from the rest of the organization.
    Because the person does nothing but serve the QMS, he or she loses touch with why
    the organization exists and what the organization’s objectives are. The system becomes
    paramount over the organization’s business concerns.
  • Second, the QMS will become bloated and bureaucratic because it must expand to
    completely fill someone’s time. Procedures become more complicated, methods more
    cumbersome and the benefits more ambiguous.

A quality management system needs to be a streamlined and simple engine for success. Instead of being an adjunct to the way an organization conducts business, it needs to be The Way business is conducted. Weave the system into the day-to-day flow of activities and watch it produce results.

And by all means learn from the mistakes of others.

By: Craig Cochran, Project Manager, Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership

Own the Skills Gap: Workforce Readiness Starts with You

By

Own the Skills Gap: Workforce Readiness Starts with You

Hiring and retaining talent is a continuous concern and investment for every manufacturer, large or small, rural or multinational. It is hard to find and keep people with the right skills. It’s also expensive. According to The Society for Human Resource Management, in 2016 it cost over $4,000 and took 40 days to complete each new hire. Those 40 days spent looking for the right person impact productivity—and then there’s the time it takes to train each new employee and get them up to speed.

Even as the unemployment rate has skyrocketed during the pandemic, manufacturers continue reporting difficulty filling open positions. It’s not a problem that will go away by itself. Coming out of the pandemic, U.S. manufacturing is expected to increase at 3.6% annually. Manufacturers are smart to be planning now to meet future business needs — finding and hiring the right people and upgrading training to retain top talent once they have been hired.

Recently, the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP) at Georgia Tech, part of the MEP National Network, interviewed three of their manufacturing clients, all different-sized companies, about strategies they have found successful for hiring and retaining talent.

Workforce Solution: Hire for soft skills and the right fit

Mohawk Industries is a flooring manufacturer based in Calhoun, Georgia. Founded in 1878, the company employs 10,000 people in Georgia and 40,000 worldwide. Mohawk’s leadership values technical expertise, but they also look for soft skills, which are much harder to teach.

Leadership skills, discipline and motivation can signal great potential. This was Nathan Bennett’s skill set when he applied for a job at Mohawk with no manufacturing experience. A two-time NASKA World Martial Arts Champion, he demonstrated strong discipline and leadership skills. Although he didn’t get the job he applied for, a Mohawk hiring manager saw his potential and offered him a job in chemical compounding ­– something Bennett had never even heard of and had to look online to understand. The hiring manager told Bennett that Mohawk wanted him for his leadership skills and they could teach him the rest.

The company’s focus on finding the right fit for their team paid off. Bennett is now the safety manager of two plants, leading more than 650 people and looking for others who are adaptable, motivated, and willing to learn new skills in order to cultivate new leaders in the organization. As a leader, Bennett feels it’s all about making personal connections with employees to cultivate their inner confidence and nurture a culture of working toward a common goal. “I’m boots-on-the-ground every day and address each person as a professional,” he said. “We are one of the biggest companies in a small town in northwest Georgia, so it’s important to have our team’s loyalty.”

Bennett is one of many leaders at Mohawk who are investing in their employees. The company fosters leadership at all levels by attracting, motivating, educating, and—just as importantly—promoting employees from within. This keeps the team loyal to each other, to the processes they’ve created, and to the company.

Mohawk runs its own internal training program, putting each person through a one-week safety course every four years. The company is also invested in their employees’ well-being. Monitors located in employee gathering places at Mohawk promote monthly health and wellness topics such as stress management that are also discussed in pre-shift employee meetings, and list training opportunities and supervisory openings. The company also encourages employee advancement through a 100% tuition reimbursement program for degree programs, certifications, and other professional development related to the employee’s field.

Workforce Solution: Create talent through apprenticeship programs

Corrugated Replacements is a 140-person, family-owned manufacturer in Blairsville, Georgia, that makes replacement parts for corrugated machinery. President Jenny Chandler spent much of her childhood observing on the shop floor of her family’s business. She knew how to run the machines by age 7 and could program them by age 11. As a child, she also observed management styles and how workers responded to them, which helped shape her management approach—leading by example.

A few years ago, Chandler worried about the company’s aging workforce—the average employee age was 53—and the institutional knowledge that could be lost as they retired. The company knew they needed to get ahead of this problem and began researching recruitment strategies to attract younger employees. Corrugated Replacements determined that an apprenticeship program would create a pipeline of skilled, younger workers and improve collaboration throughout the company — resulting in knowledge transfer through a structured, systematic training approach.

Corrugated Replacements created a 36-month apprenticeship program with the local high school. The company pays student apprentices as full-time employees and assesses them throughout the program—looking for leadership traits, initiative, assertiveness, punctuality and maturity. This program’s success led the company to create a shorter, 28-month, apprenticeship program for existing and new employees. Apprentices start in the company’s shipping department and work in each area of the plant, meeting skills requirements in each department before moving onto the next.

Chandler said, “I’ve had 25 apprenticeship program graduates and each person is still with us. When they join the team, I’m looking at how they interact with people and take initiative. That way we can groom them for supervisory and leadership positions.” A special benefit of Corrugated Replacements’ high school apprenticeship program is a fully paid college education — wherever participants want to study and whatever degree they want to pursue — as long as it’s applicable to the business. Students enrolled in nearby colleges schedule work hours into their week, and those studying farther away work during breaks. In return, the company requires a three-year commitment after graduation. In addition to the apprenticeship program participants, Corrugated Replacements pays for any employee’s higher education, as long as the degree is relevant to the business.

Workforce Solution: Invest in your employees to keep them happy

Once you find skilled employees, how do you keep them? Many manufacturers are looking for creative solutions that give their company a competitive edge in recruiting and retaining employees.

A 75-person manufacturer in central Georgia combined flexibility, performance incentives and training to help retain employees.

According to the 2018 Mercer Talent Trends Study, 51% of manufacturing employees want more flexible work options, but only 9% of manufacturers in the study report offering flexibility. While many manufacturing jobs can’t be done from home, this company found a solution that provides its employees the flexibility they desire. The location runs four 10-hour shifts per week, allowing employees to pick up shifts on the fifth day each week for overtime if available or to make up for time taken off earlier in the week for personal activities—a win for employees and for the company.

The company credits their ability to retain employees not only to their flexibility, but to their transparent, competitive pay, and their investment in employees. They offer competitive pay with team-based performance incentives. Their pay structure is transparent and employees are told exactly how they can progress in the company. Sets of requirements are tracked and tied to salary as employee’s progress through steps in their pay levels. On top of base pay, all employees receive monthly bonuses, based on the facility’s previous month’s performance—an incentive offered for more than 30 years. The team-based incentive promotes teamwork and continuous improvement, and empowers team members to impact their environment and their income.

This company uses standard work instructions at every piece of equipment and within assembly so every person who is trained on a process gains knowledge from those who have done the job in the past. They encourage their employees to cross-train in numerous jobs in order to improve team flexibility and increase individual skills. The company uses visual tools and videos for safety training and assigns a trainer in each group. The company also offers 90% tuition reimbursement for continuing education and allows employees to choose undergraduate or graduate degrees, technical college degrees, or online training as options to progress. Additionally, the company plans staffing levels to support cross-training and encourages continuous improvement in safety and quality programs as well as process improvements.

They keep their employees happy, and their employees stay and grow within the company. The average tenure of employees at this location is over 15 years. This enables the company to primarily promote from within—over 90% of the current leadership team has been promoted from within. To accomplish this, the team scouts potential leadership talent within their employees and encourages team members to get their degrees so they are ready for management positions when they open.

Find a solution that works for you

While there is no one-size-fits-all solution to workforce challenges, there are many ways to proactively tackle the problem. Finding the right mix of strategies for your company and employees is key. Your efforts can result in lower turnover, higher employee morale, and a culture where employees are invested in the long-term success of your company.

This story was originally published in IndustryWeek – view it here.

By: Katie Takacs, Industry Services Marketing Manager, Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership

Leaders: Are they Built or Born?

By

Have you heard someone say, “He or she is a born leader”? I don’t believe leadership is a quality that one is born with but rather a learned and practiced skill that develops over time. John Maxwell, in his book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, supports my beliefs and says “Leadership develops daily, not in a day. Successful leaders are learners.”

Everyone has the ability to be an effective leader no matter their background or positional equity. Leaders influence, persuade, inspire, motivate, and spearhead change in an organization. Here are a few simple tips to enhance your role as a leader in your organization.

  1. It’s important to accomplish your organizations’ goals through your team
    With three generations represented in the workforce, you must be emotionally self-aware of your behavior and the behaviors of those you lead. According to Daniel Goleman (2002), Co-Author of the book Primal Leadership, emotional self-awareness involves a leader’s ability to be in tune with their inner signals, as well as their respective counterparts. Various personality/behavioral style assessments are readily available to assist with this. Identifying your own personal style will help you to identify with others, thus, assess an individuals’ “fit” on the team or within the organization. Through this approach, (Bolman and Deal, 2008) your team will recognize how feelings, emotions, and behaviors affect their reactions and job performance.
  2. To be a successful leader, you must lead by example
    You cannot separate character from leadership. Character communicates consistency, potential, and
    respect. People buy into a leader before they buy into a vision. Trust is the foundation for success. Who you are is who you attract. One must be transparent in his or her actions and intentions. This can be demonstrated through open lines of communication and displayed through emotion, passion, and enthusiasm towards individual and group success.
  3. A leader touches a heart before he or she asks for a hand
    You can’t move your team to action unless you first move them with emotion. Get out on the floor and walk around and talk to your associates. Be empathetic towards what is going on in their lives. Practice open and frequent communication so they are aware of what’s going on in the organization. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. To lead yourself use your head…to lead others it’s important to use your heart.

Remember…“you can compete through technology but you win with people.” As a leader, everything you do sends a message to all those around you. I challenge you to ask yourself this question, “If I no longer had my title/position, would people still want to follow me?” Make an effort to identify your own individual strengths, your own behavioral style as well those around you, and develop an action plan to improve your effectiveness as a leader – by doing so youmake great strides in your organization.

By: Hank Hobbs, Project Manager, Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership