By Becky Ferrell
I grew up in the era of muscle cars, REAL muscle cars: GTO, TransAm, Chevelle SuperSport, Mustang, Challenger, Charger …. WHEW! These were cars that took your breath away to watch them and hear them and, for some of us, to drive them. And I mean, REALLY drive them.
The first “parental” vehicle I was allowed to drive was my grandfather’s older Cadillac. Don’t laugh. It had a big block 454 in it and was SERIOUSLY underrated as a performance car. Pop used to tell me before I left the driveway, “I don’t want to hear about you drag racing this car, but I NEVER want to hear about you LOSING.” That set the tone, and my vehicle of choice when I started working: Pontiac Trans-Am, full power, manual transmission.
Racing with Friends
I was blessed with a friend (some 20 years older than I) who probably had a “need for speed” worse than mine. Peggy was FOREVER urging me to put my cars through their paces, NOT, mind you, that it took that much urging given the right conditions. One day she called me at work. Her husband had taken a load of show horses to Toronto for a weekend show and forgotten his show bridles. Could I PLEASE drive her over and bail him out? Road trip with Peggy? THIS could be good. So, within a couple hours, we were on the road.
Easy passage (back then) into Canada and a bit later, I’m grabbing a look at the map when I hear her say, “OK, we got you!”
Huh?
“He wants to drag. I said OK.”
WHAT???
I glance over and this guy has a beautiful Chevelle SS that sounds AWESOME, definitely NOT stock, and ready to rumble. I rolled my eyes and prepared myself to eat his dust. But when the light changed, I caught him off the line and kept going. How, you may ask? He missed a gear, and that made all the difference. Peggy was delighted, and I never told her how the story SHOULD have ended.
Racing against Competitors
OK, Beck, what’s the link here to manufacturing???
Work, lots of it, is being done to bring manufacturing and other business back to the U.S., to rebuild the manufacturing base we lost (read that as “gave away”) over the last several decades. The Work / The Investment is to bring companies in: OEMs. Now, what do OEMs need? Tier 1, Tier 2 and, even Tier 3 suppliers. For every OEM job in the U.S., there are at least seven support jobs created.
In truth, I’m not that concerned about the OEMs; they’re coming. What I am concerned about is the readiness of the sub-tiers: the necessary support suppliers who ensure the success of the OEMs. It’s truly “Drivers, START YOUR ENGINES” time for the sub-tiers.
ARE YOU READY to “hit it, right off the line”? Or are you going to miss a gear and get left playing catch-up?
Get Ready: Investment versus Efficiency
Now you might be thinking, “But, Becky, you know what the economy has been like for the past several years. I don’t have the money to expand my footprint or buy new equipment.” Well, maybe, just maybe, you don’t have to do that.
What can be done to optimize your footprint, or scheduling, to free up wasted capacity? I’m not talking about an expensive MRP purchase. Are you at a zero scrap rate? Doing a lot of rework that can be eliminated if your First Time Quality was higher? Machinery sitting idle? Lots of material flow to complete your process?
I’d challenge you NOW to get prepared for the start of this race. It’s coming fast, and you’ll want to be ready to optimize your ability to take on new business without costly infrastructure or equipment investment. How? Ask HVM – we can help. Our experienced associates are just that: floor/operations experienced who know HOW to do in addition to WHAT to do. Put a seasoned, outside set of eyes on your operation who has ONE goal: make U.S. manufacturing great again.
We CAN do it!
At HVM, our highly skilled contractor resources are experienced professionals who not only take pride in their work but have DONE the work. Our focus, our priority, is to ensure the client receives “best in class” recommendations and support. Need help with “next level” KPIs or ensuring compliance is adequate? Need to ramp up your problem-solving process? Simply need an experienced set of eyes to evaluate your operational performance? Give us a call! You’ll be pleased with the quality of our work, and your result!
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