Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Welcome to the Clear Impact Podcast, brought to you by Mitre Brands University. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sheri Conner and I am your host.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: Creating ownership towards an improvement can be the difference between success and failure at times. Sure, you need to use good communication. You need to include the team members and the improvements and give them the opportunity to share their ideas when they have those. And lastly, provide them some autonomy that as they are working through this improvement, you know, to make some little changes on their own here and there. And doing these actions will not only help create some ownership, but if you do create that ownership, it also will help to sustain that improvement.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: So, good afternoon. We are here on the Clear Impact podcast, and. And I have some wonderful people sitting with me today.
They're actually from the Gratz manufacturing facility, which is where we're recording in Pennsylvania. We have with us Bill Webster, Chris Rothermel, and Nathan Spencer. So welcome, guys.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:01:18] Speaker C: Thanks.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: Thanks for being here. We wanted to really dive into how the guiding principles impact the manufacturing process in Gratz. And so before we get into the specific questions, I would love for you just to take a brief minute to introduce yourselves in terms of your background, your tenure, and your current role and responsibilities here. So we'll start with you, Bill.
[00:01:40] Speaker C: Hi, I'm Bill Webster.
Here about 19 years right now. Brief background. I started here loading trucks right out of high school, worked my way into supervision and shipping, and then moved on to lateral supervising window lines and glass lines, and eventually moved my way into my current role of technical services manager in the Gratz plant.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: Wow. Congratulations. That's quite a history. Okay, Nathan, how about you?
[00:02:06] Speaker D: Hello, I'm Nathan Spencer. Started here in Gratz as a production assembler on third shift. Twelve years ago, I worked my way up into the production supervisor role before assuming my current role as a CI handling product cost savings initiatives and improvement projects.
[00:02:22] Speaker A: CI meaning continuous improvement.
[00:02:24] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:02:24] Speaker A: Okay. Awesome. Congrats to you too.
[00:02:26] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: That's nice. Okay. And Chris.
[00:02:29] Speaker B: Good afternoon. My name is Chris Rothmel. I started here 41 years ago, packing windows on the second shift.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: Wait, 41 years ago?
[00:02:38] Speaker B: 41 years.
[00:02:39] Speaker A: 41 years ago. Okay. Just checking that that's what I heard.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: And worked my way up through the ranks, the supervisor very similar to Bill, up to the position that I hold right now, which is the production operations manager. There you go. Thank you. Operating manager of the Gratz facility.
[00:02:57] Speaker A: Nice.
So that's impressive. 41 years. Congratulations.
[00:03:01] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: Well, I appreciate your time. Thank you for being here. I know that Things are humming along without you. And we have questions around each of the five pillars of the guiding principles. And so we're just going to get into it. So, Bill, for the safety function, what does a strong safety culture feel like on the manufacturing floor?
[00:03:21] Speaker C: So, to me, a strong safety culture feels like everyone has a voice and a responsibility for safety, and everybody is responsible and expected to speak up about safety issues. Whether that's their own safety or anyone else or anything else. They're all responsible for that.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: Nice. That's how it should be. Right, Nathan, what's one small habit that has the biggest impact on workplace safety, do you think?
[00:03:46] Speaker D: I believe in the Gratz plant, the awareness of the safety culture has been the biggest impact. Had we talk about it in general conversations, one on ones, our morning meetings, every morning, safety is the very first thing we talk about. And that awareness has spread to the team and leads to what Bill was talking about with everybody speaking up and being a part of it.
[00:04:07] Speaker A: That's excellent. Chris, your question is, can you share a moment when someone on the team spoke up about safety and it made a real difference?
[00:04:16] Speaker B: Yes. It was a number of years ago, back right around 2015, I'm going to say we unfortunately had a team member who lost a finger due to the fact that he removed a guard from the piece of equipment.
And it was at that moment in time that management kind of drew the line in the sand and said, that's it. If anybody removes and operates a piece of equipment without any guarding on it, they will be terminated.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:04:48] Speaker B: So a few months later, we came into work one morning and we received the report that there is a team member who came into their piece of equipment in the morning, and there were no guards on it, just some tables and stuff that were stacked around the piece of equipment. So we went and immediately went down, and it was exactly what was reported.
So we did a little bit of investigating and we found out that the piece of equipment on third shift broke down. So they pulled that piece of equipment out, put another piece of equipment in to replace it that had no guarding.
[00:05:23] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:05:24] Speaker B: And they asked the maintenance manager if he was going to replace the guarding, and he said, nope, I'm not going to do that. It's not worth it. Just barricade it off and we will be fine.
Well, the production manager on third shift seemed to agree, except he didn't make someone else run it. He ran it himself.
But he did run it.
[00:05:45] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: And when day shift came in and the team member found this ash cleaner without guarding, he immediately Went to the supervisor and said, hey, there's no guarding on this machine.
And supervisor went out and took a look at it and said, well, they ran it all night shift and it's all protected by tables and stuff. You should be fine to run it. So we immediately stopped all activity and we started doing a bit of an investigation. And that is what we found out. Unfortunately, there was no choice. And the right choice was to let all three of them go. But that cost us 70 years of window and door making experience in one fell swoop.
However, in that one moment, that one defining moment when that team member reported, that changed the culture. I feel it changed the direction of the safety cult in the facility. Because they knew we're serious.
[00:06:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:43] Speaker B: This is something that we are serious and taking very seriously. And it has only been up since there.
[00:06:50] Speaker A: Wow.
And so Gratz is a VPP certified facility, right?
[00:06:54] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:06:55] Speaker A: And you said it was the first one.
[00:06:56] Speaker B: Yep. We were the first ones to take the certification. Yes.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: Nice. And that was in. You said 2017?
[00:07:02] Speaker B: Yep, 2017.
[00:07:04] Speaker A: Okay. So going on 10 years.
[00:07:06] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:06] Speaker A: Congrats.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: That's a big accomplishment. There's a lot that goes into that. All right, so integrity is another one of our guiding principles. And so, Bill, your question is, how do you encourage employees to speak honestly about problems or mistakes?
[00:07:23] Speaker C: Well, I find if you actually listen to what they have to say, you create a culture where doing the right thing never gets you in trouble. It's always encouraged to do the right thing. You encourage the team members to speak up about problems or issues, whether their own problems or issues or somebody else's. If they see something isn't right to speak up about it.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: Yeah, that's solid. But that's not accidental. Right. You have to be really intentional about creating that kind of an environment.
[00:07:46] Speaker C: Right.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: That's amazing. I love that. That's one of our points.
Nathan, what is one leadership behavior that instantly builds credibility?
[00:07:55] Speaker D: For me, I believe from my experience, it's the follow through. When you say you're going to do something for the team members or a process or some type of change for the team members, they're paying attention to what you do.
And if you do not do what you say you're going to do, then you lost credibility right away. And that just like that. What Bill said has to be intentional. That is one thing that is a pitfall for some of the newer supervisors or newer to leadership, because we have so much to do already. So when you're putting more on your plate, it's easy to forget about the small things. And those small things really make an impact to the team members.
[00:08:31] Speaker A: Yeah, I would agree. So, Chris, what's one leadership behavior that instantly builds credibility?
[00:08:36] Speaker B: Well, is kind of the forefront of what Nathan is saying. Nathan is kind of covering the improvement at the back end. I'm kind of looking at the front end of it.
And to build credibility is very important.
If you don't have credibility and trust built, improvements are very difficult to move forward with. But when you do move forward, you need to have that good communication and not just speaking skills, but listening skills as well. And leaders are all too often afraid to admit that they made a mistake or own up to their mistakes. We're all human. We all make mistakes.
When you make that mistake, own your mistake. I do truly believe that the team members really appreciate that transparency.
And when they have a supervisor that's willing to admit they were wrong.
And lastly, I think it's very important to maintain your composure in a difficult situation.
If you can manage that situation and not look like you're going out of control.
The team members, they appreciate that. They feel that someone is always in control and the direction is moving where we're supposed to. And I do feel that makes a big difference as well.
[00:09:47] Speaker A: Yeah, somebody's gotta be the steady, right?
[00:09:49] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: No panicking.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:09:51] Speaker A: Yeah, those are great answers. All right, so onto creativity. Bill, what is the. The biggest misconception about innovation in manufacturing?
[00:10:00] Speaker C: I think the biggest misconception is that you have to have this brand new idea or brand new product or this new fancy technology to be innovative, where sometimes it's just correct your process, maybe find the best way to manufacture a product and then build products that fit those processes and ideas.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: So small changes doesn't have to be like, revolutionary.
Nice. Okay, Nathan, how do you encourage employees to bring forward new ideas?
[00:10:29] Speaker D: So here in Gratz, we developed a QR code that we use that the team members can scan at any given time. Just ask them their name, a brief description of their idea, and, you know, what line they're on. So I know exactly where to go to talk to the team members. And then I also encourage all the new hires and the floor team members to use that or at least talk to their supervisor if they're not comfortable just putting it into a QR code or talking to me specifically, but talking to the supervisor using a QR code. Get the idea out there. That's what we try to do. Through every orientation and every conversation with new team members,
[00:11:05] Speaker A: we are sharing our expertise around all topics relating to the window and door industry. Whether you are a customer selling our products or a homeowner doing research, the Clear impact podcast provides helpful content that makes an impact. Subscribe today wherever you listen to podcasts.
That's awesome. I love that. Okay, Chris, here's your question.
Have you ever seen a small idea create a big operational impact?
[00:11:31] Speaker B: Yes, I have. In 2018, there was a group of us that were trying to plan out the plant footprint for the 90,000 square foot expansion that we were putting on.
So it was critical that we utilize that space as efficiently as possible.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: Same time, we had a couple issues that we had to keep in mind, and probably the main one was the overactivity of the front aisle of our facility.
There was forklift traffic, there's team member traffic, and on top of it, there is a lot of blind spots because we were staging all our windows and all our finished doors in that front aisle.
So we had to come up with a better way.
So we're trying to struggle through this. And one evening and one afternoon, we're sitting around and kind of talking about the shipping department, and the shipping manager just says very matter of factly, well, why don't you put shipping at the far end of the building, at the west end, you know, which would be the new end of or the far end of our expansion? And you could almost immediately see some light bulbs going off. It's like, yeah, that's not a bad idea.
And the more we went about thinking about this, the more things really started falling into place. But I One simple little idea, and it made a big difference for our front aisle. There is still forklift traffic, but it is greatly reduced. You still have the team members crossing it, but we lost the vast majority of the blind spots.
And it was a very good idea that came just on a whim.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: Nice. All right, everybody good? Everybody doing all right? All right. So continuous improvement. Nathan, I feel like you should just be the only one to answer this question, but we're going to go around. Phil, what does continuous improvement mean? Beyond the normal productivity metrics?
[00:13:24] Speaker C: I think continuous improvement should mean things are always changing for the better, not only for efficiency improvements, but also for safety, for quality, for customer experience, team member engagement, and work life. That's just to name a few. But continuously improving everything that may not even be quantifiable.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: Right? That's good because there's so much that's measured and counted all the time.
So to think outside of those norms, that's excellent. Nathan, this is your specialty. Here's your Question.
Can you share an example of a small change that delivered big results?
[00:13:57] Speaker D: Yes. Through an effort to reduce our IG remakes, we implemented a simple idea of just putting a plastic divider in between our IGs while we're offloading and loading our IG cards.
Just with that idea alone, getting that across the board for our plant, we saw our IG remakes go from way above goal. We were trying to lower it to under 2% and we were well over that. And then just with that simple idea, we've now been under 2% for, I believe, two years now.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: Wow. And so for those that may not completely understand, IG is insulated glass unit.
[00:14:31] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:14:32] Speaker A: Okay. All right. And so, Chris, here's your question. How do you help employees feel ownership in improving processes?
[00:14:39] Speaker B: Creating ownership towards an improvement can be the difference between success and failure at times.
[00:14:46] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:14:47] Speaker B: You need to use good communication. You need to include the team members in the improvements and give them the opportunity to share their ideas when they have those. And lastly, provide them some autonomy that as they are working through this improvement, you know, to make some little changes on their own here and there. And doing these actions will not only help create some ownership, but if you do create that ownership, it also will help to sustain that improvement.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: Right.
[00:15:16] Speaker B: Once everything is done. So nice.
[00:15:19] Speaker A: Excellent. So the final pillar is profitable partnerships.
And so, Bill, actually you and Chris are going to answer the same question. But Bill, we'll start with you. What do customers value most from manufacturing partners today?
[00:15:34] Speaker C: Quality, integrity and service.
So quality the products that perform as they should and are aesthetically pleasing. Integrity. So do what you say you're going to do. If you offer a two week lead time, hopefully you're providing a two week lead time and it's rarely outside that norm. And then service, you run towards issues with the intent to solve problems. You never run away from an issue. You're always customer focused and you go above and beyond for your customer.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: I like that. Well done, Nate.
What makes a partnership truly successful in manufacturing?
[00:16:06] Speaker D: I believe that the profitable partnerships allows for honest feedback both ways. Gives both parties the ability to look at the bigger picture and then develop a plan for a win win situation for both of them. If that's our suppliers working with us or customers working with us with issues that they're having, you know, providing that good service. And we can don't just focus on the small problem from what it does for you, but you focus on what it means for both parties. You can typically come up with a win win, and that's better. For both parties, rather than just thinking of it in a silo.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: Right. Well. And if you solve a problem for one customer, you're probably solving it for multiple customers. Absolutely right. All right. And so, Chris, I want to see if your answer is different than Bill's. What do customers value most from manufacturing partners?
[00:16:49] Speaker B: Today he has stole much of my thunder, but I am going to say that customers want the product the way they want it, they want it when they want it, and they want it where they want it.
[00:16:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: And that is absolutely true. But it's not complete. If you don't have the quality and if you don't have the service to go along with that, you're going to fail as a company. And we are not hitting the mark that we are looking to or the expectations of the customers. We are constantly striving for the win win situations between all our manufacturing partners.
[00:17:23] Speaker A: Yeah, well. And you guys have been in business for a long time, have some very loyal, long standing customers. So obviously it's working. All we have some leadership questions, Bill. So we have the five pillars. We have safety, integrity, creativity, continuous improvement, and profitable partnerships.
So how do these five pillars show up together in everyday operations?
[00:17:48] Speaker C: I would say that operations are built on these five pillars. They are used kind of to prioritize and to make decisions based on those. Every decision is made based on the safety, based on quality. Continuous improvement goes along with those. But if you have an improvement idea that will improve, say efficiency, but maybe risk, safety or quality, well, those two are higher priority. So that will not work.
Profitable partnerships. You know, we work with our vendors, we work with our customers. That all shows up in inventory controls and service and delivery to our customers day to day.
[00:18:28] Speaker A: Yeah, I like that. Making sure that the priorities are the right ones. Nate, your question around leadership is what advice would you give someone just starting in manufacturing?
[00:18:37] Speaker D: I would give the advice of starting with learning, obviously your job tasks, but also understanding what's happening upstream and downstream of that process.
Doing that will give you the ability to understand why you're probably doing some of the tasks in whatever job you're doing and make you understand how to deliver better to person downstream and also why things are coming to you a very specific way.
[00:19:01] Speaker A: That makes sense. Yeah. To understand the bigger flow.
[00:19:04] Speaker D: Absolutely.
[00:19:05] Speaker A: That's great.
And Chris, your question is, which pillar do you think has changed the most in manufacturing over the last decade?
[00:19:13] Speaker B: Well, you know, there have been changes and improvements made throughout all the pillars to the positive side.
But to me, the biggest change has been in safety. We built this facility and moved into it in 1995, 1900s.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: There we go.
[00:19:30] Speaker B: And that year we had more than 50 recordable injuries in just that year.
Now, you know, none of were of this real serious nature, but you have contusions and you have cuts and pulled muscles, and they are all stillyou discomfort.
So I had mentioned in an earlier scenario about the safety culture change, and that has changed to the point where, you know, the teammates. It's now the first thought, not just an afterthought in most people's minds. And you had mentioned about VPP. Well, in 2016 we began preparing for this VPP journey.
And in 2017 we were awarded the VPP star status. We have since recertified three times. And that just helps to grow the safety culture and keep it moving in the right direction for us. And manufacturing will always have potentials for injuries. But the biggest thing is if you are continually trying to remediate those and eliminate those possibilities, which is what we do.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: Oh, that's excellent. Mike Troutman would be proud of that answer.
All right, so onto the final question.
And this is fun. I love hearing what people's answers are around the Mitre DNA. And so you can have more than one, but usually there's one that really stands out for each person. And so, Bill, tell us what your favorite DNA statement is.
[00:21:01] Speaker C: My favorite DNA statement happens to be the first one. We believe in our guiding principles and make them part of every decision.
So the reason that's my favorite, it literally speaks about the future of the company and about the plan or the current roadmap. So our vision is to build the most valued window and door brand in America. So that's where we're headed. Our common purpose is to deliver value by manufacturing the finest products, service and customer experiences every day, everywhere. That's how we get to where we're going.
[00:21:28] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a great one. Nathan, what's your favorite?
[00:21:31] Speaker D: My favorite would be the. We focus on controlling the controllables. This just happens to work very well with my current role. This comes up in every conversation I have about an improvement project. It helps put everybody at ease about what we're trying to do and understand that, you know, there are things that are outside of our control, but we don't have to focus on them. If you do, you're not going to get anywhere. We have to focus on the things that we do have control over.
[00:21:56] Speaker A: Yeah, that's smart. I like that. And Chris, what's your favorite?
[00:22:00] Speaker B: Well, I swear I wasn't copying off of Bill's paper, but I also believe in our principles and making them part of every decision. You know, our quality pillars are the guidelines that we conduct operations on a daily basis. You know, safety we have the safety of ourselves and the others around us are at the forefront of our daily thoughts. Integrity. We are delivering on customer promises, you know, by providing the best quality and the best service in the business. Continuous improvement. We are always looking for manufacturing processes that will improve the work life of our team members as well as enhance the quality and the delivery for our customer base. Creativity. We utilize creative thoughts and ideas of our team members that all go towards changing that for the better, changing the work atmosphere within the facility and lastly, profitable partnerships. We are constantly striving to improve those relationships with all our partners which include team members, vendors and customers alike.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: Yeah, well said. All right, thank you so much. I really do appreciate your time with us today and I love learning more about the minds behind how all of this works. I was fortunate enough to tour the Gratz facility on Tuesday and it was impressive and now I'm understanding why. You guys are awesome. Thank you, thank you, thank you. All right, have an amazing day.
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