When looking for new opportunities for improvements in your operation, it is quite natural to ask for advisement from outside your company to give you a better perspective. Who you should trust to help you take your company to higher performance is not as clear cut as it may appear. Costly...

Recruiting production managers is a huge challenge. It’s not that jobs are unavailable, as we usually have several Production Manager openings at TheJobLine.com. It’s finding qualified and willing candidates. Most often, it’s a problem when the move is lateral.  Most...

Many of us started 2020 with resolutions/goals both for ourselves and our businesses, but then our year was turned upside down with the Covid worldwide pandemic and other issues such as lumber prices topping highs we thought we would never see. While many LBM/component businesses are working at...

I remember it clearly; I was in the Lounge at Portland International Airport when I got a call from Joe Kannapell. Joe was going to be sharing with the MiTek team in the next day that he would be officially retiring at the end of 2020; Joe has been a part of the industry for more than 46 years....

Our roles as managers and owners sometimes feels as though we are constantly changing over the past several decades, but how we planned and strategized sped up dramatically after the 2008 global financial crisis. Managers who understood the need to be a strategic leader and a disruption...

Nothing is more frustrating than dealing with poor services by a department within your company or a vendor when you need to resolve a problem or find information on a timely basis. However, what is even worse than the poor services is having that troubled group in complete denial about their...

Relying on traditional supply chain execution systems is becoming increasingly more difficult, with a mix of global operating systems, pricing pressures, and ever-increasing customer expectations. There are also recent economic impacts such as COVID-19, supply shortages, the global recession,...

I recently heard a talk by Bob Myers, General Manager of the Golden State Warriors, on leadership, values, and culture in winning teams. It was a great speech and there were many points he raised that made sense, and really resonated with me.   He also struck me as a thoughtful and...

As a team, we have been providing both in-person and virtual visits for all of our potential and current clients with projects underway. After a recent virtual training week, a company owner called me and told me how much he appreciated that I listened to his team and did not over talk or force...

The current global demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) has created a severe shortage of PPE across the world. And while regular distribution channels ramp up, we have seen several creative ways some individuals and companies are making changes to support our COVID-19 response,...