This book is the result of spending a lot of time learning about what happens in manufacturing businesses. I was able to see every aspect of what a business owner does to run their business. I saw and experienced this in a wide variety of businesses. They were small, large, family held, corporations, machine shops, molding companies, stamping, automotive components, high tech electronic and medical as well as defense contractors, etc. Soon enough I started to see what was working and what did not work.
As soon as you show someone that you can be a resource for their business they start to share more information with the intention of asking your opinion. Many times the conversations would start with asking “why do you do that?” and then “have you thought about doing it this way.” Most everyone in manufacturing wants to know a better way to do things. Every one from the operator and maintenance person up to the owner wants to know what will be quicker, better, cheaper, etc. The more I learned the more I was able to share this information with other companies and business owners. Also, more importantly, almost every owner wants to know because they can put good information to work quicker in their business and with some authority.
Soon I found myself spending a good portion of my company visits talking to them about what they should be doing and how their business should be operating. So with numerous discussions with people that involved telling them how to run various parts of their business I though it was time to share that knowledge with more people than just who I see that day or week.
In the big picture manufacturing needs to succeed. It takes time, resources and money to start a manufacturing operation. You can not decide today to open a manufacturing company and start making something tomorrow. It would be nice if you could create a virtual company in one day. Many times there is equipment that needs to be purchased, the proper space acquired, resources and suppliers need to be lined up. It takes so much more to start a manufacturing business and the stakes are much higher if it fails. The owner is required to take more risks and chances. If a manufacture fails it can cost a lot of money. So I believe that we need to focus on improving the chances that manufacturing companies succeed and prosper. I hope this helps because it would be great to see manufacturing have another big run in the 21st century.