Helpful versus obvious

I have done a lot of volunteer work, mostly focused on women and children. From mentoring to mental health services, I’ve been in schools, communities and organizations helping others. I grew up with a firm belief in giving back or lifting as we rise (note – I did not know that the phrase was first coined by Mary Church Terrell). It centers on the responsibility for people with resources to assist those in need. And, until I just wrote that, I don’t suppose I directly connected that with our company mission, but more on that in a bit.

Two projects come to mind, with their success directly related to whether the volunteers working on them listened to their customers or not. The one that failed was in my hometown. It raised money to put washers and dryers into inner city schools for families to use at no charge. In these communities, it was reasoned, families didn’t have regular access to these in their homes. Where many of us toss our clothes into the machine and go about our business without worrying about it or needing to watch it, others must make their way to the local laundromat. Some even wash by hand at home and use the oven to dry their clothes.

It was a project with a lot of heart. It had its heart in the right place, as well. People were trying to understand the needs of others and help them. To help someone, you need to see the need, and this was a clever connection between the need and where you might find the people. Or so we thought.

The project was a complete failure.

What we didn’t think about (later, we would learn that we didn’t ask about it) was that kids were not going to bring their dirty laundry to school. And they didn’t want their parents there, either. It was too embarrassing to admit that you couldn’t clean your own clothes and, when we asked them after the project, they would rather wear dirty clothes than clean them at school in front of others.

I’ll talk more about the project that worked next week. The lesson here was that we hadn’t captured the Voice of the Customer. We identified who the project would serve, we knew exactly what neighborhoods it would be in (by identifying the school, we knew the customer base), and so we had direct access to the customer. We sat in a planning meeting, brainstorming ideas for how to help the identified group and never thought to ask them if it was the right idea for them. The idea was good. The execution went as planned and was poor.

Production Operations

What does this have to do with your shop (or business, for that matter)? We sell tools that make the work that your people do easier, more reliable, and more productive. But without the buy-in of your team, there is little you can do to influence them to use it.

We are “operator-centric.” If you do business with us, we will have a conversation with you about your team. We want to (need to, I would argue) understand them and their work environment to make sure that the work we do for you will be positive. As I mentioned at the top of the piece, we feel a responsibility to help those in need – small to mid-tier manufacturers that cannot spend 6-figures on a system or the consulting work to get there. In some cases, we work closely with the team on the shop floor. In others, the in-house management team does the heavy lifting.

Your production operations are specific to you. They flex in some areas and are rigid in others, and this is very particular to you and how your team does their work. Even in talking with two companies that produce the exact same product(s), we see vast differences in what they track, how they work, and even how they use our system. I don’t believe this is specific to us. Every single manufacturer we have ever worked with in our 28 years has had unique requirements based on the products they make, the environment they live in and even the characteristics of their workforce.

Paperless Operations

Think you know your team? I’m going to ask you to reflect hard here on who represents the direct voice of your work force in your planning meetings. A supervisor might be effective on the shop floor, but they may not see the actual day-to-day challenges of that team. During those meetings, do you think about going out and asking the people who will be most affected by your choices whether they make sense? That’s the voice of the customer.

Engage your team in what you’re doing. For example, if you believe (like we do) that paperless manufacturing is better and easier than a paper-based production environment, engage your team in the discussion. What would make the tool most helpful for them? What do they need to see? How? Listen—really listen—to what they tell you. Ask why. Maybe more than once.

Once you understand what their voices are telling you, you can start to make decisions about what would work. Of course, you have your own needs. Perhaps you need to track work. Maybe you need to verify quality (of course you do). Your team has direct needs as well, and they should be considered.

Start to build a shortlist of the items you need and want. Then compare that to the offerings that are out there. We will always ask you for that list. We need to know that to help you.

Listening to your customer is not going to be enough, as you can tell. You need to do something about it. That may be explaining why you can or can’t meet their needs. It may involve changing what you think and believe is required. Collaboration will go far here. Confused about where to start? Engage with us and we’ll help you through the process.