Transcript Welcome to the Human Resources exchange

April 12, 2013
Goal of the Exchange Process
1.
2.
Help each Member professional to expand
their business networks in order for you to
improve the efficiency and effectiveness of
how you tackle you job functions.
Provide Members with a dynamic and
reliable resource to help you solve problems
and find new implementable ideas
Rules of Engagement
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Do not use your HOLD button on your telephone
– hearing elevator music in the next 60 minutes
is not good!
No body language signs – please be aggressive
and speak your mind and thoughts.
Please identify yourself with name and company
before speaking.
Take Notes about who is saying what…
Warning: My goal is to facilitate aggressively so
we can cover as many topics as possible.
Last but not least, I need your feedback on how
to make this process better for you and the
participants.
Question: Do customers require you to comply with more than one set of
audit requirements? If so, how do you handle the multiple sets? (Dan
Cunningham)




Dave J. – Dan Cunningham…800-592-2268 (Monday)
Provide materials to food processors in the food service industry. One
customer wants us to run a new safety and sanitation audit
system…another has their own system…how do you handle customer
requirements in this area???
Jim K. – we serve automotive and encounter similar situations in quality.
We end up just doing it in order to comply with the customer.
Do the customers require different auditors?
 Jim K…customer usually sends in their own auditors.
Vern M.- same situation… State of CA requires a medical molding
license and several customers wills end in their own auditors.
 Dave J. – UL / SM / ISO – there have been markets we have simply
turned down. These are all combined into one System

Question: Manufacturers Reps vs.
Company Sales Personnel? (Vern Meurer)







Currently have a mfg rep and we don’t have a contract. He wants to add new business
to his portfolio. Doesn’t want to sign a contract; we don’t want extra liability.
Dave J: We do a lot with mfg reps. We have an internal sales professional that keeps
the sales reps in line. We make them sign a contract which expires in a year. A
contract is key due to non-performance issues. We make the attempt to hold them to a
goal. We than support them with Technical Support. Type of Contract? It is more of a
template contract.
Provide Vern with Dave’s email address.
Dan C.- We have moved to a combination of internal versus external.
Dan C. will share a template with Vern. The agreement can be adjusted to products or
territory.
Charlie B. – The issue is more of getting him to sign. Develop a strategy on WHY he
should sign the contract…Option: Convince him to become an employee….may take
on additional insurance risk, but you have some protection.
Jim K – concurs…usually the outside rep wants the contract to protect themselves.
Maybe that is the strategy to be used in Vern’s case. To educated the Sales
professional on the benefits of having the contract in place!!!
Question/Issue: Company/Growth expansion – how do we control our
growth and not become overwhelmed by it?







(Brendan Cahill)
We have a couple of very large programs taking up most of our capacity. It is about how we
manage it from a personal side, equipment side…
Charlie B. – We great last year and had similar problems. Be careful on throwing the labor at
it…make sure your customers are happy…bottom line may suffer in the first year, but don’t
give up hope. We, in advance of the growth, expanded our financing available with the bank
and doubled our line of credit. Advice is not to delay this!
Dan C.- We can meet and talk as we are experiencing the same issues. We did get into a
more favorable situation with our banker. We meet at least on a monthly basis to review where
we are and where we are going so…
Vern: We handled this differently. We have friendly competitors and swap molds when we run
into capacity related issues. (Possible to create a relationship with a similar business?)
Dave: We increased our shifts to provide new capacity.
Tim J: - Got big into sales and operations planning. We have worked to get good numbers and
working to improve our forecasting tools so we can prepare downstream. From a plant
perspective, we put together a rough cut capacity model. This is working out very well. Sales /
Operations planning: Anything by Oliver White…the father of S&OP.
Sales Contracts….how do you make sure that when you invest that the customer stays with
you…


Dan C. - In out markets contracts are almost nonexistent.
Charlie B…ditto with an exception
Question/Issue: What types of wellness programs are successful and
where do you find details? (Lisa Lewandowski)

Just getting started in putting together a wellness program.
What resources are out there to create a good wellness
program?
 Dan C. – Dekalb Molded Plastics (Kassy Davis) & Tasus Organization
(Mark Anderson)
 Charlie B.- Can offer discounts for those that do this. Waste line, blood
pressure, ect… Thinking about acquiring moving bands so record motion.
Issue: Sales/Marketing/Business Development strategies using
Social Media.

(Tom Duffey)
Dave J – just starting to put videos on website and on
YouTube. (our belief is that if people can see the product, than
they have a much better understanding of how to use
it…increasing sales…)
Issue: Hiring the right person for Business
Development. (Dave Jentzsch)

We are getting to the point where we have good sales and good
marketing but we have a gap. We have some product lines that are
declining rapidly. Do I find a tech person that knows the product well, or
one that knows how to sell??? Do I go technical or not???
 Jim K – From out experience as we’ve asked this question before, we’ve slanted to
orienting on the technical side and teaching them how to sell.
 Dan C. – The method that has worked the best was not familiar with product line but
had a tremendous sale’s / marketing skills.
 Jenny T. – Consensus from the Sales and marketing group….easier to train the person
with the marketing and sales background on the technical side of the business rather
than the other direction.
Question: We currently use IQMS to track employee training
but it is difficult to use. What are other ways to track this?
(Ted Duggan)
Question/Issue: Creating and exporting plan; Employee training (Teri
Woodward)
Question: Communication re: daily emergencies – Can’t figure out
how to do this efficiently w/o drowning people in meetings? (Charlie
Braun)
 Day to day issues that everyone needs to know about and getting
them resolved…
○ Dan C…I’ve been having a management team meeting twice per week for
the last 18 months. (These meetings last no more than 1-hour…an
agenda is published in advance for input…Then I hold an admin meeting
with HR, accounting and operations coordinator which is where we pool
information and act accordingly.
○ Tim J. – We use G-walks, we look at our visual boards and examine our
KPIs…and will locate problems and develop plans to knock out.
○ Dave J. – If they call Dave, then you have failed in your job. I try to take
myself out of meetings and enable my people to solve the problems. In
many cases, I realized I didn’t have the skill set, so I hired people to fill
the gap.
 Best times of holding production based meetings?
○ Charlie B. Morning
○ Dave J. PM>
Question: Direct labor hiring practices?

(Norm Forest)
Question: Is the economy turning around or is it in further decline? (Robert
Loranger)
Issue – Organizational Structure, Compare structure for
similar-sized organizations. (Jeff Applegate)
Issue: Terms and Conditions Review. (James Krause)
Additional Questions?
Thank you!