I recently had a conversation with an industry executive regarding some hiring decisions her company had made. In a surprise move, the owners created a new position and added a new operations manager to resolve some perceived problems with the company’s production workflow. Her feeling was that the owners didn’t have a good grasp of their own business model, and that the challenges they wanted to correct didn’t actually stem from the production operations. She thought they were, in fact, rooted in using outdated and broken equipment, as well as the unrealistic financial nature of the orders the company was accepting.
This is a perfect example of a company whose primary leadership lacks the fundamental traits of honesty and self-awareness. The problem apparently had existed for years, and my frustrated friend was tuning up her resume because she wants to leave the company before it implodes.
However, it doesn’t have to be this way. If more companies had the courage to be brutally honest and analyze the data in front of them, they could make better decisions. If more leaders had the courage to state their honest expectations for the company and “paint the picture” of the results they would like to achieve, the workforce they employ would have a better understanding of the direction they need and work toward concrete goals. It doesn’t have to be a secret, folks.
To that end, here are some ideas that you can use to help build a stronger company. However, you’ll have to ask some hard questions and be willing to actually work on improvement.
1. Measure your progress. Throughout the company, you should measure and keep track of each department’s daily output. What is the norm for your company? This should include shirts printed, orders entered, screens burned, art created, jobs invoiced, jackets sewn, logos digitized, boxes received, orders shipped, etc. What does an average day or shift look like? Sure, there are orders where production proceeds a little slower due to the complicated nature of that job. Or maybe the order is amazingly simple and you breeze through it. Either way, establish the total amount that you are capable of producing for each task on any given day.
Think of it as a baseline. When you are scheduling work, this is the amount that could be performed in the time given. If you book an order that exceeds this amount, to ship in less time than it should take, then you may be setting yourself up for failure. Salespeople are notorious for doing this.
2. Establish standards and goals. At my company, our rule is that an order has to be entered into our system on the same day the purchase order arrives. That’s the standard, and it’s set because we want to give enough time for all the other departments to carry out their tasks associated with the order. If we wait a day or two to enter the order, we shortchange the process. An example of a goal to have is that all orders need to be completely produced one business day before the job is to ship. We don’t hit that goal all the time, but it allows some flex time to schedule those pesky rush jobs, or a job that takes a little longer to finish for one reason or another. Every department and company is different. It’s up to you to be completely honest with your capabilities and understanding of your typical orders to establish your own standards and goals. Get everyone involved and ask their opinions on what’s challenging, but fair. Once you’ve set the standards, everyone should be trained to comprehend them and use them to make better decisions.
3. Paint the Picture. It also is critical for leadership to paint a picture of what success at the company should look like. Are you interested in just getting a huge quantity of orders out the door? What if your labor expenditures increase because of the amount of overtime required to achieve that goal? Is there enough margin for the orders to sustain an increase in that cost? What if your quality suffers because everyone is pressured to get the orders shipped? Effective leaders know they have to constantly communicate their expectations to the staff. Having a moving performance target or judging performance by some hidden metric only hurts your workforce. You can’t hold your staff accountable for their performance if you’ve never discussed where the bar should be set. More transparency, communication and getting constant feedback from the troops on what they need to improve their work efficiency will only enhance things in the long run.
4. Get Involved. The leadership of any company needs to be a constant presence within the company. I’m sure you’ve heard the term “managing by walking around,” and this is keenly effective in an apparel decorating business. To truly understand what’s going on in any department, you have to get involved. Talk to the people who work in that department. Ask them specifically, “What do you need to make your job easier?” The funny thing is that they will tell you. You may not be able to immediately resolve every challenge, but maybe you can find a compromise or workaround that will do the trick. If you are the type of leader or owner who sits in his office staring at bottom line numbers, wondering why things aren’t the way they should be, then this one is for you.
How can you make effective decisions without understanding all the myriad details that are involved in the work being performed? This was the main issue with my colleague’s firm, as the owners of the business were off-site and just made decisions based on a balance sheet. They rarely, if ever, came to the shop and didn’t understand the complicated nature of the business. Without the comprehension of all the complexities of the work being performed, they were essentially dooming the company, as they were making crucial long-term business decisions while ignoring the knowledgeable and experienced workforce that they employ. It’s no wonder their key staff members want to jump ship.
5. Be Open to Criticism, Complaints and Requests. One of the most effective tools you can have is to be open to suggestions for improvement in anything in your shop. Who knows how to do the work best? Mostly, it’s the people actually doing it. People want to do a good job, while also doing it with a minimal amount of effort if they can. Sure, there’s always a new product on the market or gizmo that can alleviate some work or make it easier. Keep an eye out for that, but if you pay attention and keep an open ear, your staff will alert you to what they need. Sometimes, it’s just an extra hand to unbag some stock that came in or unload a truck. Other times, they could be having a computer issue where it’s running slower than normal. Maybe if you never ask, they will just slog through it and get less work done that day. If people know you are constantly searching for improvement suggestions, they will come to you with their ideas and challenges. By constantly tweaking your company, you make steady improvements that can add up to big savings over the long term.
6. Be Honest When Dealing with Customers Too! Be more open and honest with your client base about a few things. First, don’t bite off more than you can chew. For example, if you only have a manual press, getting a two-location, 1,000-shirt order printed with a two-day turnaround might be quite the challenge. Yet, ambitious sales staff or owners will agree to this to pick up a new client or make the big sale. Know your limitations and conduct yourself accordingly. Maybe that 1,000-piece order can be contracted out to a larger printer, or maybe you can get some more time if you ask. You may have to check with your production team to see if they can work a second or third shift to get this handled, factoring into the quote overtime or a bonus they will need to get the job produced. Whatever the case, remember to be honest about your capabilities and know your limitations. If you do book something that is a stretch, be sure to record all of your extra costs with that job along the way. Measure your performance, and learn how to do it better next time. Keep asking questions.
It should also be mentioned that when things go wrong on an order, honestly admitting to them and working to make it right is always the best thing to do. Let’s face it: Not every order will be handled the way it should be and sometimes you have upset clients. Some of our best and most loyal customers are ones that had had problems years ago, but we “made it right” – and probably lost money doing so. Not all issues are production-related either, as there can be challenges with shipping, garments, billing or even the nature of how clients’ purchase orders come in to you. The important thing is that you steadfastly promote an honest partnership with your customers at all times. If you have people working for you, it’s vitally important that you communicate this not only by policy, but by example as well. Your staff takes their cues from you, so lead by example. When there is a challenge with a client, have a discussion afterward with your sales and customer service teams to illustrate how it was handled and why the decisions were made.
Marshall Atkinson is the chief operating officer of Visual Impressions Inc., and Ink to the People, Milwaukee. Atkinson has lectured on sustainability at ISS trade shows, and webinar industry panel discussions regarding the Consumer Product Safety Information Act (CPSIA). For more information or to comment on this article, email Marshall at matkinson4804@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @atkinsontshirt.
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