As the competition gets more aggressive and the markets have slowed, your company’s sales are inevitably slowing, and margins are dropping. Let us face the fact that these are now becoming challenging times, and leaders must face these challenges in a healthy way. Whether you are a line supervisor or the corporation’s CEO, your job will not get easier in the coming years. When sales and margins were flush, it was much easier to maintain the status quo and be viewed as doing a great job. But now that the markets are slowing, you really are going to know the true tests of leadership and having to shoulder all the burdens and blame that comes with your responsibilities. Let me give you just two crucial behaviors that will help you evaluate your strengths as a leader within your organization. Both are excellent examples that should make you rethink what and how you may be performing in your world of influence.
Yesterday’s Solutions Are Not Always the Right Solutions for Today’s Challenges — Relying on what you think is the most common solution for your current challenges may be the wrong thinking for every circumstance. Doing the same thing and believing it will always give you the same results when the market changes can be dangerous. Anyone who has read about the most successful leaders of sports teams or companies will be able to find plenty of examples of leaders who did not accept what was most common within their industry but thought outside the box. Within the building industry, many decision-makers are unaware of what things can, if any, be improved upon by thinking outside commonly accepted practices.
- Design — How many design managers feel the solution to meeting the ever-increasing demand for their work is more bodies to perform the same task? How many off-shore designers must a company hire, making them more bound to their vendor, and negating any bargaining strength? When was the last time the design process was reevaluated so that some other solution might assist and alleviate the burden on the design group? Never be so bound to any particular process that you think it cannot be improved upon. Are there ways to reduce and improve the design process that will significantly improve it? For most companies, the answer to that question is “yes,” but few are willing to make the effort and prefer to stay on their current course. For example, most quotes for roof trusses should take no more than ten to fifteen minutes to produce a reliable, accurate quote – can your company do that?
- Manufacturing — When capacity and labor issues are causing concerns, most believe the obvious solution is new automated equipment and facilities. For many, the “safe” decision is to go with the recommendations of their current vendor. These recommendations often include new processes that, on the surface, would theoretically reduce labor needs. However, the reality of what was promised and the end results are not always what was delivered, inevitably leaving the decision-maker at a loss as to what should have been done. I cannot state enough that what may seem straightforward may not be the right solution. So many companies are willing to spend millions of dollars on what they believe is the right solution but are unwilling to pay a fraction of the total to potentially get a far different perspective, make a more informed decision, and save tens of thousands of dollars. For example, a common mistake is believing that only two roof truss assemblers on a roller gantry table is the most economical setup. The frequent justification for two assemblers per workstation is because they use a board foot per work hour as the measurement. The result is no actual labor savings per truss and a severe reduction in capacity.
Too Many Believe Making No Change is the Safest Option — If you are responsible for a given area, whether a small group or an entire company, your job is to oversee the work getting done in the most efficient means possible to meet the company’s goals. This means you are responsible for the process that constantly needs updating and refinement for the entire group, not just the daily efforts for your order processing. Updating and refining takes effort and time, but many are unwilling to make this happen. The most common excuse is that they were too busy. If you are too busy to make meaningful changes because you are too busy, how effective do you think you are at your job? Time and time again, the companies that are struggling the most are the ones that did not make the changes needed to keep up with the changing times.
New vendor salespeople in our industry are surprised by the all too common actions of a potential client suddenly not responding to any of their communications. No matter how well they believed the previous conversations were going, all communications suddenly can stop without any explanation. Not even a simple reply to an email or text message is provided. Months or even years later, an explanation might reveal itself, but the most common reason is that they got caught up in their day-to-day business and no longer had time to make any decision or change they were contemplating. They believed they were too busy and could not take the time to even respond to the vendor salesperson. Seriously? One is too busy for the common courtesy of a simple email, “Thanks for your time, but we need to put this decision off until….” This has happened to TDC, and I have heard about it from every other vendor within our industry many times.
Solution — As markets and conditions change, do you want to play catch up or be the effective leader so that you can head off potential problems before they happen? Weeding out the best solution for both the near and long term while not getting too caught up in your daily tasks is the main challenge for every leader. What every leader needs from time to time is a new perspective and new ideas. The excuse we are too busy can not be acceptable. Now is always the right time to make changes and not allow inaction from doing what is best for your responsibilities. TDC sees this with every client, knowing there is no best one-size-fits-all solution for everyone and that everything must be tailored to the client’s needs. In my case, I don’t have to play internal company politics or favor any particular vendor, so I am able to pull people back from the trees and allow them to see the forest from a new perspective to offer the best-in-class solutions. Maybe it is time to remind yourself that getting a new perspective and best-in-class suggestions from a very successful solution provider called Todd Drummond Consulting is the right thing to do.
TDC is your best source for learning about proven and practical lean manufacturing best practices combined with industrial engineering principles to keep your company at the leading edge of competitiveness. Cost savings and net profit gains that usually take months or years can be accomplished in weeks or months with TDC. No one is better at providing your team with proven results for good employee practices, pricing, truss labor estimation, and so many other best-in-class practices. All areas are addressed, not just manufacturing. Please do not take my word about TDC’s services, though. Read the public testimonials many current and past clients with decades of expertise and experience have been willing to give.
Website: www.todd-drummond.com • Phone (USA): 603-748-1051
E-mail: todd@todd-drummond.com • Copyrights © 2025