I always work in manufacturing companies with thin margins, limited resources, unstable/less talents, above all, management with less positive attitude. Unless you are working in Apple products’ value chain, you will have the similar experience as me. Unfortunately, when you find that your working experience is tied to manufacturing environment, you may feel that your career and even your life is dimmed. Every day you will be exhausted with endless issues – good people leaving because of better opportunities outside- both in the shop floor and office, nobody come for interview, materials shortage because of insufficient forecast for MRP, maternity leave of the capable women (most serious in China now), heavy rainstorm which cause power stoppage, water overflow to facility & etc.
All in all, you will lament that why the factory is in a remote area (for cost concern) which is not attractive to talents and even operators. Why the company (due to thin margin) is unable to offer higher salary to attract talents and even operators. Why the product is so labor intensive, instead of capital intensive. 1 human face means 1 story; 2 human faces mean 3 stories. It is always the people being the most difficult issue. Darwinism always hold true – survival the fittest.
How to overcome the above constraints? Just tell the truth. Below is a scenario I used to telling the candidate:
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Dick: How do you feel our physical environment?
Interviewee: h… It is a “typical” factory environment.
Dick: Exactly. In other words, it is a shit environment because we are not rich enough! We are in a very difficult external environment. Transportation is not good. Product margin is thin and we cannot offer above-market salary. As a result, only less superior people or less experienced people will choose to work here. Some only treat themselves as passer-by.
Interviewee: (he looks innocent…)
Dick: We do not expect every employees get married with the company. We do not have robust ERP system; we are still developing the manufacturing management system; we are working hard to get more new customers; we are fine-tuning our production/engineering management teams. Almost everything is under development. We are always struggling! The factory is only aged <10 years
However, being the member of the team, you will get involved significantly in the development process. As there are 10 problems, you help resolve these 10 problem and you will possess the skill set of resolving 10 problems after all; if there exist 100 problems, you will possess 100 skill sets. It will be easy for you to identify your contribution in the company. Constraint can spur creativity and incite action, as long as you have the confidence to embrace them. (Creative Confidence, Tom Keely & David Kelley)
If you choose to work in a big company with robust system everywhere, your daily work is just following procedures and you will end up with playing politics. At last, you won’t have any momentum to drive change because Robopath is everywhere. Here, be bold to voice out or even roar when you see things not running properly. Overcome the constraint to nurture your capacity. After few years, you will get a brighter future, not necessarily here but outside.
1 more example: we are using an antique ERP system which is elder than your age. So what? We make use of Excel/VBA to develop thousands of planning models/auto-email reports, daily/weekly/monthly, and even APQP system with PPAP embedded. The users come up to praise that it saves their time a lot.
If you are doing Apple accessories, you are only dealing with 1 customer; if you are working here, you are going to deal with 50 customers by yourself as the order amount is small. Jesus! You need to develop your own way to manage your time!
Guy, there are many roads from/to Rome. What matters is the mindset of “there is always a road”. Join us if you are still young psychologically; throw away your map and heads to the way.
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Believe or not, it works
Dick Lam's Blog 