Maintenance of Your Machine

I wanted to start tonight’s blog with a quote.  Here it goes

The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.”
― Robert M. Pirsig

Why this quote is so relevant is because what I want to talk about.  Maintenance.  Yes we develop maintenance plans for our machines, our mixers, our trucks, but do we our employees?   How does one develop a maintenance “plan” for people?  It’s not like you can change the oil every 3 months or replace a belt every 12.  What do we do?  Is it necessary?  My opinion is yes it is necessary and what do we do…three things. Listen, learn, and educate. First listen.  Listen to your employees.  Stick your finger on the pulse of the company.  Is your employee going through tough times, is your employee hiding something, is your employee elated about something?  Every day is different, but this goes back to some of my old blogs, you are only as good as your employees make you.  Listen to them!  There may be something affecting them that could swing you positive or negative.  But like I said every day is different; keep your finger on the pulse.  That is the only way to maximize productivity.  Second and third learn and educate run together.  Your employees can teach you things and you can teach things as well.  It’s a give and take.  I always find it amazing, at our plant we have one guy who can look at something and take it apart in his mind.   Any engine, any machine, he can dissect it.  Well every time something needs repair it’s a learning experience.  I find myself thinking every time what happens when this guy retires?  You can’t replace this knowledge, but what can you do?  Learn and educate.  Teach another, teach each other.  Along the same lines we have an employee that is time and time again the most recommended delivery driver job after job after job.  What does he do differently?  Again I find myself thinking, “We need to keep this mentality up, what happens when he is gone?”  Every person on your floor or in your fleet has value! They all can teach and they all can learn!  Open it up let them be teachers, let them be the students!  I cannot stress this enough.  We are a society of learned citizens who always yearn for the next step, the next plateau, and we as managers/owners need to lead to those plateaus.  And a lot of times those plateaus are within the company, we just never knew it.  That being said we also have more resources than our shop employees.  Why not use them?  Case in point.  I have started an education fund for our employees where I will match whatever money they put into an “education fund”.  This fund will pay their way to educational courses put on by our national organization, the National Precast Concrete Association.  Why do I do this?  Everyone wants to reach that next plateau, they just don’t know how.   Flip the coin over, this is preventative maintenance on my part.  I invest money in my employees to be better educated in their job, what is my return?  A better understanding of their job and a better respect of what they do.  Money well spent period.  That will give more of a return than any extended life filter or belt you will ever buy.  So it’s like Robert says, “The place to improve the world is in one’s own heart and head and hands, then work outward from there. “  Maintenance on a man will go infinitely longer than any machine.  Listen, learn, EDUCATE!

In My Father's Footsteps

So in light of Father’s Day I am going to of course write about Father’s Day.  I’d like to share a story with you.  My dad used to do anything for me.  I remember when I was an up and coming pitching prospect and my dad used to catch for me every night.  I must have hit his shins at least 1000 times.  We could have bought shin guards, but he insisted he was ok.  I never really understood why he took hit after hit after hit until now.  Now the tables are turned and I have my own boys.  My son Brady loves to play baseball as well.  However only being 3 he hits off a tee, but guess who fields the ball every single time and guess who puts it back on the tee every single time.  Now I understood why my dad did that, it was the love and sacrifice that I think every father feels for his sons or daughters to be something great.  I do it now for my boys and my dad still does it for me.  Although I don’t play baseball with him anymore, I still feel that love and sacrifice he puts in day in and day out for me.  My dad has not coasted a day of his life and he hasn’t stopped yet.  He works every day of his life to create something better for me and my brothers.  He understands who I am and lets me develop and watches me grow in awe.  Although we have had and still have our share of disagreements, we understand how to work together for a common cause.  Is it business, is it wealth, no it’s a father’s love and sacrifice.  He would do anything for me and I him.  He wants the best for me and the best for my family.  I write this because I think if we all shared a story about our Father’s we’d realize what they mean to us.  I know who my dad is and I wouldn’t trade him for anything.  Love you dad and Happy Father’s Day all!

Sorry Dad Had to Post It   Love Ya!

Boost!!!!

Friday I won a sizeable contract for a job.  Great!  The best part about the contract award was the feeling I got from telling the production staff we are finally got a challenging contract.  Our common day to day stuff has been keeping us going, but we finally landed a nice contract to turn us from steady to busy and test our skills.  This got me so excited and who to better share it with, the staff.  It had to be one of the proudest moments of my career to finally see the high fives, the fist pumps, the hoots and the hollers.  It was then that I realized we needed a morale boost and we finally got it.  It was like a complete 180 degree change in mood.  To me, morale is the single most important aspect of merit based shop and we are full of it.  I’d like to share with you a quote that describes my crew.

"Morale is when your hands and feet keep on working when your head says it can't be done." ~ Benjamin Morrell

My crew is full of this morale.  Some days I come to work and wonder why our guys work as hard as they do.  Is it the money?  Is it camaraderie?  Is it me?  Personally I think it’s the projects. Having the ability to say I precast that or they told us that can’t be precast, but we precast it.  It is really nice to give them a good, challenging project, which will test our skills and change the workplace a bit.  The only way to describe it is perfect.  I’m ecstatic I landed this contract not only for me, my company, but my staff.  We needed this, we got it, look out world Dalmaray is running, catch up!

Listen to Your Mother

In honor of Mother’s Day I’m writing on something I learned and learned hard from my mom, never quit.  First I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day and thank you to all the mothers out there.  To my story…When I was a about 11 years old I was playing Little League Baseball.  I was in my second year of baseball and had good success my first year.  Second year not so much.  Honestly I wanted to quit.  I was benched and very upset with myself.  I approached my mom about quitting and she told me adamantly, “No, never, you will not quit!  Quitting is never an option!”  We argued and argued and frankly I really hated my mom for not giving me the answer I want.  But, in the end, she forced me to stick it out and wouldn’t you know it, things got better.  Things got alot better.  I enjoyed four consecutive all star seasons with the stats to back it up.  I went into high school as one of the best players in my class.  After high school, I was offered a chance to play college ball, but turned it down to go after education.  Mom was ok with that.  My point being, we live in absolutely cynical world and family comes first.  Not everyone has the family experiences I have had I know this, but I can guarantee that everyone has at least one moment in their life where no one was there for except your family.  And if it’s your mom, your dad, your siblings it’s the family that counts.  Your family never judges, your family loves you for what you are no matter what.  So to the parents that are moving forward these days, remember what your mom did for you, remember what your dad did for you and apply that to your son or daughter.  I find myself in that boat these days and I can’t help to recall the lessons I learned from my mom, most important NEVER QUIT!  So Mom, thank you, I love you, and you made me what I am today. 

Arnold the Motivational Speaker

As most of you know I am huge into motivational positive thinking.  I cannot stand negative thinking.  I cannot stand unfocused thoughts.  The world is such a crazy place if thoughts aren’t pure, focused, and positive they will go nowhere.  I love this video.  Despite Arnold’s recent trouble he is one of the most motivating people and most successful people of the modern age.  He has accomplished so much.  To state a few seven Mr. Olympia titles, nationally acclaimed actor in multiple films, and most recently Governor of the state of California.  I’d like to dive into this video and comment on what he is saying. 

1.       Trust Yourself—Never saying I want to be like this guy or I went to school to be this.  What are you? What do you want out of life?  Go out and get it.

2.       Break the Rules – I agree with Arnold when people tell me I’m the youngest to do this or I’m the first one to do this I just glow.  That is the best thing anyone can tell me.  Why? Because I want to be that guy that does things that no one has ever done. Can you ask for a better high?

3.       Don’t Be Afraid to Fail – When you take risks, sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.  That’s risk.  But if you quit, how do you ever know what could have been?  Yes failure is part of life, but getting back up speaks the strongest words.  Get back up and never stop driving!

4.       Don’t Listen to the Naysayer – What really revs me up is when people say you can’t do this..this can’t be done.  Some people call me ignorant, well yes and thank you for that compliment.  I never settle for no this won’t work.  Instead how will this work?  How can we make this work?  What can we do to make this work!  I want this to work!

5.       Work you butt off – We’ve had jobs that on paper could never be done.  But how did we do them, worked our butts off.  Personally I find myself spending nights and weekends researching, learning, and writing.  Why?  I want to be the best in the industry.  I’m not a lazy person.  I will never stop working.  I will never stop fighting!  And when I get to the top I will keep going.  There is no finish line, there is no goal.  As long as I’m breathing, I’m going to drive. 

6.       Giving back—This to me is so important.  Realizing that you never get to where you want without help, so give back.  As little as giving back to your family.  Realize you have a support system and they need support as well.  Give back to everyone.  Give back to your family, your community, your organizations, and your country.  You may just inspire the next big change. 

So please take the time to watch this video if you haven’t.  I promise you will enjoy it.  Arnold is an amazing guy, and I personally would give anything to have a 5 minute talk with the guy.  I grew up watching his movies as I’m sure most of you have.   I have admired him since I was 12 and still do.  But he so much more than an actor and a politician; Arnold is one of the most motivating individuals of this era.

 

Teamwork

On a production floor you have a lot of things going, a lot of things you have to look out for.  You have machines that can break down, forms that need constant attention, labor that needs to be well trained, and other outside interferences that can really mess up a day.  When all things click, it is really a sight to see.  When everything clicks and your production team is working like a clock, filling in the production holes it’s just awesome.  As a production manager it is really good to hear a production member say next I have to this task and then someone pipes in and says already done!  I love this.  That is when I know we are clicking.  When the production team members are working back and forth completing tasks for each other to get done more efficiently that is when we click.  When we click we are dangerous.  Things get done faster, get done better, and overall morale is through the roof. There is no arguing, quality doesn’t suffer, and costs go down.  Now when the wheels start falling off and some of the harmony fades, that is when problems arise.  Attitudes boil, morale goes down, and quality suffers.  What is my point? Running a production floor is like being on a sports team.  You have coaches/managers, teammates/production members, and equipment.  If one of those three lacks, your team hurts and you don’t click.  Personally, every time I reference my guys they are not employees or workers, they are team members. That word team is a powerful word.  Makes you feel like a part of something.  So whether you are a team member or a coach do your best to operate in a team.  Go that extra mile and think before you act.  Treat others like team mates not co-workers.  Coaches train your team members and continue to let them practice, that is the only way they will get better.  And maintain your equipment so it can work for you.  That is the only way everyone benefits. 

Baseball

“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.”

This quote stated by James Earl Jones in Field of Dreams is my favorite quote from all the movies I have seen in my lifetime.  Now this is usually where I’d tie this into concrete or motivation, but not this blog, this blog is going to be solely baseball.  I grew up playing baseball from when I was eight until college.  I have fond memories of pitching to my dad every night, playing ball at the field with friends day after day after day, and tournaments, oh those are memories in themselves.  The cities, the teams, the hotels, man those were the days.  I miss those days; those were days without money, without bills, without jobs.  We had one task, beat the other team.  After a few years baseball just became natural.  I was so in tuned to baseball I ate it, I slept it, I lived it.  Baseball, to me was everything.  I still find myself going back to those moments from time to time.

 Moving forward having to part with baseball was one of the most difficult things I had to do.  Like James says…”baseball has marked time.”  The one thing I find no matter what is going on in America, in my life, in business, baseball is constant.  I can mark the events of my life with baseball.  Baseball is the release that sometimes makes the day better.  To me nothing is better than a 2-2 tie bottom of the ninth and my team hits a walk-off homer, nothing better.  One of the best ways to spend a Saturday is at the ballpark with friends.  No matter how good or bad the game turns out, it is never a waste of time.  I can always come back to baseball.    So to part, I love baseball, to me nothing beats it.  I hope that some of you who read this have to agree and look forward to this still young 2012 season, not only the baseball season, but the construction season.  Go Brewers!