Small Commitments
"A person’s name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language"
~Dale Carnegie~
Do you ever have a seemingly simple experience that continues to resonate for a long time? That happened to me recently after a plant tour at one of our long-term customer's facilities. Getting a plant tour is always a great experience as it gives you insight into operations, capabilities, culture, and future plans. In addition, it's a sign of trust between companies--and I don't take that lightly. I've toured this plant before, but this company's rapid growth and dynamic product mix has created lots of changes, so I was really looking forward to this.
Because this longtime customer, an industry leader and innovator, has changed a lot over the years with staff, plant expansion, technology, and product lines, their tours are always valuable. In fact, each tour has provided a rich learning environment whether led by logistics manager, production manager or the Plant GM who led this tour.
So what struck me on this tour? Was it the launch of a new product which promises to be a gamechanger? Was it their manufacturing operation with its combination of highly-skilled people and advanced manufacturing lines? Or perhaps it was the round-table discussion in which the strength of leadership and their determination not to be satisfied with the status quo was apparent? While I was impressed with each of these components of the tour, and hope to apply the principles I learned to our business, it was something else...
What struck me the most was the GM's focus on people. As we walked the plant floor and stopped for the GM to review part of the process and get input from the people performing the work, I noticed something... The GM called every single person by name. Not only did he know the names of the line operators, but he knew the names of folks we passed and the forklift operators driving by. If you're thinking--no big deal, he should know names--I'll tell you something else. They have 500 people working in that plant.
At one point, stupefied, I asked him, "Do you know everyone's name here?" He said that he did his best to know everyone's name, that it's important to people and it's important to him. That it takes a lot of work, but it's worth it. I could see that it is just who he is as a leader.
It's probably one of the reasons, AMT has such a strong relationship with this customer. We both know that it's about people. In the end, our job here is to make a significant and beneficial impact on the people we serve, here at the office and out in the world. Sharing values like this makes our work with trusted customers both gratifying and meaningful.
This was originally published as part of 5-minute Friday, a weekly newsletter with personal stories and industry knowledge for Manufacturers and Distributors. Subscribe to the newsletter at https://shipamt.com/mikes-weekly-newsletter/