I just bought a profitable manufacturing company. 90% of the company is fab-ing and welding steel together. I was a welder for 5 years and a structural engineer for 15, so I'm not totally moronic, but I am looking for more resources to educate myself and take the business to the next level. Already designing my first robot fixture, and trying to get more customers, but I really want to learn more about streamlining manufacturing processes and increasing quality and productivity.
If anyone has any book recommendations (I've already bought a few industrial eng, hydraulic, and lean books) or good websites/forums, or any personal anecdotes they would like to share, I would appreciate it.
I used to sell hotcakes but the profit margin was thin so I went back to collecting aluminum cans.
I’ve been a factory automation engineer for some years, can’t help a lot with books but the Toyota Way seems to be one a lot of factory people at least read once.
From what I see and get to do in factories one very important thing is to know what happens on the factory floor in detail. As factories grow their layouts usually become botched and inefficient. We have projects where clients want a 60% faster stretch wrapper, but they could have moved the foil storage closer and saved half a million. You ask a guy on the floor what he does all day, and he says he spends most time moving finished parts one by one because some passage has become too narrow for a pallet truck. Employees watching a single robot full time because it will frick up the tool in some rare crash situation (that was easily fixed with a small program alteration), stuff like that. Guys using a magnet drill on the floor (!) instead of the state of the art drill press because the drill press table is ‘too wobbly for long parts’
Doesnt it always seem like the most successful shops have an owner who is borderline clueless on a lot of shit that goes on?
Its not the 1950s, people dont work up the ladder from the mailroom, into a long term management role, and then buy from the old man.
The shop owner doesnt send his kid to college to get an engineering degree, he sends his kid to get a business degree and then he learns what he needs hands on in the shop, from the workers, from the managers.
Your engineering and your welding experience lends almost nothing to being able to run an actual business.
You are profitable, you have customers.
Slow WAY down and change your whole mindset. You arent a grunt anymore, you arent the engineer anymore, you are a the owner. You are a suit.
You had BETTER know how to run your numbers, how to deal with suppliers, how to deal with customers, how to deal with payroll and your employees.
And you need to know how to do this well, all BEFORE you go in and flip tables changing the processes and pushing for productivity changes.
Dudes save up money and start their own shops in their own fields all the time, and they overwhelming fail within a few years due to poor business practices. They think they can fake it, or learn basic business on the fly. They crash and burn.
Your manufacturing processes not being as lean as they could be wont tank your business, but a business blunder with suppliers and customers can.
Dont let that be you.
Go slow, ideally youll be running this the rest of your life. The timetable is huge, if its not broke dont fix it, youll have more than enough time in the future to tweak and increase productivity if you spend these first few years learning actual business acumen.
>You arent a grunt anymore, you arent the engineer anymore, you are a the owner. You are a suit.
>You had BETTER know how to run your numbers, how to deal with suppliers, how to deal with customers, how to deal with payroll and your employees.
>And you need to know how to do this well, all BEFORE you go in and flip tables changing the processes and pushing for productivity changes.
No worries there. I owned and sold a successful electronic testing startup to big tech, and ran a small successful engineering business. My people skills will probably never be as good as a true successful businessman because of my personality, but I've learned a lot over the years. And I've been pretty dug in to accounting for a while. I hate it, and still need lots of help, but I've done well so far.
I'm trying to think ahead and start learning for the future. I'm not trying to make changes to production right now. I'm DEFINITELY not running this place the rest of my life. Just long enough to make it better and sell to the right person and go do the next fun thing.
Not asking how to run a business. I just know PrepHole because I've been there a lot, and there are some clever people. I'm asking about manufacturing literature specifically. I can't ask my competitors, for obvious reasons.
Thanks. Didn't know if the Toyota Way was a meme book or not.
>As factories grow their layouts usually become botched and inefficient
I agree. This is where I was a welder, and coming back years later, I see how the growth didn't quite get managed properly. Not bad, just not as efficient as I would hope for down the road.
I'm looking into something similar. Did you use a broker or buy directly from the owner?
Directly. The fewer people involved the fewer payouts needed.
Understood. Did you know the seller prior to purchase or follow a process to source a d buy the business?
>Didn't know if the Toyota Way was a meme book or not
I work for a major construction equipment manufacturer, we paid Toyota to come into our factories and help us revamp and streamline. JIT manufacturing is a MF'er, but the slant eyes push that hard. After covid, JIT should go the way of the dodo bird for the most part.
>i'm totally successful to the extent that i buy whole companies
>i need to ask anonymous morons on the internet how to run businesses
Pick one.
If you have existing employees (production guys not suits) with IQs north of room temperature you should simply ask them what's getting in their way.
Fire your bottom 5-10% as often as possible.
>Fire your bottom 5-10% as often as possible.
If you actually have to do this regularly you need to fire the one who hires them or the ones who let them through their probationary period. If you have a decent organization you can find good employees and keep them for a long time. Having to fire 1 out of 10 regularly means your organization sucks at the top.
It's good to have dissenting voices in your decision making processes. Usually they can help you become aware of problems that can occur. Suggestion boxes for employees are also a good idea. Keep them anonymous and respect their contributions.
My company over bought into the prefab idea (I'm in construction) and while almost every floor hand could see that it was biting off more than it could chew, the managers resisted every dissenting voice and got a warehouse that was essentially double their needs - millions down the drain.
The best way to keep in touch with how to go forward is to make a great, reliable, and timely product. Communication with customers and their needs is the bread and butter of good management and sales. Idk about books tho. Just seen so, so many prefab frick ups and terrible communications/bad resultant products
(This is my post). The toyota way is great because it works for toyota. The way toyota makes it work, is that they control literally their entire supply line. They can therefore enforce perfect QC for the entire line of production, which means that when a car needs 47 of one kind of bolt, they can not just give only 47 of these bolts, but ensure that every single bolt is exactly what it needs to be. As a fab shop, not every material you get will be perfect. Nor has our world supported the continuation of the hyper specialized globalist economy. It's okay to have a bit of buffer, even if it eats tiny bites into profits. When I was in my fab shop, they tried the toyota way, but when they'd give us the 47 bolts or whatever, there'd almost always be a fricked up bolt, or the directions would be wrong. They realized that the extra margins on material buying were there for a reason.
Be open to change constantly, and constantly weigh it in your head - but be cautious and adopt it as needed. It's okay to be a bit slow to adopt change if it means that you're making educated changes.
I am most likely saying things you already know though. (Employees also love the occasional free lunch btw, can even help reduce inquiries of increased pay if you make them feel appreciated.)