I've been a plant manager in a dramatic "turnaround" situation where I took a failing CNC (computer numerical control) & manual machining plant that had never turned a profit & made it profitable. My plant was part of a multi-national corporation & we would supply machined products to numerous other plants under the corporate umbrella. Those plants would then complete their particular unique process and ship to the end customer around the world. Additionally, my plant would produce and sell to other end customers worldwide, outside of our corporation.
The machine tool equipment in my plant was extremely large, a speciality within itself. When I took the helm as plant manager, the workers were absolutely in mutiny mode and all of them were looking for work elsewhere. These were highly skilled machinist & welders in a very competitive field, they're not easy replaced. Despite the best efforts of the workers, the quality of production was horrible, 50% or more required major rework or scrapping altogether. About 80% of the equipment at the plant didn't even operate or had severe mechanical/reliability issues when it did operate. Metrology (measuring tools/gages) were nearly non existent and none had undergone recent calibration. The men had not seen a pay raise in years, further fueling the poor attitudes. To say the plant was filled with inefficiency, frustration & poor moral would be an understatement.
By the time I left, the equipment was functioning 99% of the time. All the CNC equipment was reliable & productive and as a result, production had skyrocketed. Non functioning grinding machines were repaired & operational once again. New metrology equipment was brought online and non-conforming work was nearly non-existent. New production processes were developed, new QC processes were incorporated and moral and employee participation was evident everywhere. As for the workers, they got a nice pay raise based on the improved profitability of the plant with some seeing as much as $2.00 per hour. The workers felt respected & valuable once again. The improvements were all accomplished while staying within a tight budget and without adding additional employees.
Once the plant became productive & reliable, I was replaced by a "Lean Manufacturing" manager who thought worker skill could be replaced by painted lines on the factory floor along with charts & graphs hung on the walls... I wish I was joking...
The workers called me a few months after I was released to wish me a Merry Christmas and tell me they missed me. Very thoughtful... I have strong reason to suspect the plant is in shambles once again...
Prior to that, I owned a CNC machining job shop providing aerospace, metallurgical, automotive & other various manufacturing components. Some of my end customers were NASA, GE Aircraft, Rolls Royce and other aerospace customers. I also provided consultation services to manufacturers, custom designed zero setup tooling and JIT production parts. Most of my customers required very close tolerances with some tolerances measured in angstroms of light. The crash of 08 took me out, most of my customers needed tax breaks they could only qualify for by utilizing minority owned businesses as subcontractors. I wasn't one so my work dried up. I was forced to close shop... Just like so many other businesses during that period.
My father was part of the original Polio Vaccine Development Team in the mid 1950's. Dad changed the world for the better, a life goal we should all embrace.
I'm also a private pilot and here is a photo of my Cessna 172 that I sold a few years ago.
Currently, I'm working to bring a new technology that I invented to the global marketplace. This technology offers massive improvements to peoples lives and to the earth as a whole!
I'm putting together a crowdfunding project that I hope will fund the startup. No I won't reveal the product prior to the crowdfunding presentation unless your last name is Getty or Ford & can really help get this off the ground. Just remember, you saw it here first. When the crowdfunding video is ready, I will post it on STEEMIT & I would like to invite everyone to watch it.
A simple idea really can change the world! Once unveiled, I invite you to join us in changing the world for the better! So, if you've ever wanted to make a world changing difference, now's your chance.
Well, that's part of what I've done, part of who I am and part of what I'm doing.
P.S. I hope you'll help me out by keeping this post all steamed up!
Thanks in advance for that!