Production – Where the Rubber Meets the Road

There is no other way to say this other than to outright say it directly: All the rest of the business issues I write about mean zilch unless you have great production. This is the one area that you as the business owner need to devote your energy towards over any other. I’m an administration guy, many years of experience dealing with those types of issues. But there is one thing I truly understand, which was taught to me by a client, if you don’t produce the money, the rest of it is just a great paperweight.

When I first started out in accounting I wore the suit and worked long hours. My first client worked late too. I stopped in on my way home and he was trying to load a steel fabricated support tower onto a flatbed at night, in the dark. The tower stood about 35 feet tall and he had to lay it down on its side onto the trailer. There was every bit of ½ of a ton of steel here. There was only him and one other employee. The truck driver couldn’t help because he was under strict safety guidelines as to his responsibilities. Bob, my client, had me throw on a hard hat and help. Using a crane, forklift, and some good old back muscle, we got the rig onto the flatbed and strapped down for the journey to his customer. It took 3 hours to get it done. It was now past midnight. My white shirt was black from grease and dirt, but I had a big smile on my face as I felt a sense of real accomplishment.

[do_widget id=black-studio-tinymce-7]

Bob looked at me and said, “Now the rubber can meet the road”. He knew he was going to get paid and more importantly, have more opportunities to get work from this customer. He did what he had to do to get the product built, loaded, and delivered to the customer on time.

The reality is the business doesn’t earn money unless it delivers the product or service. You can have the best policies and procedures manual, the best accounting and front office administration, the best marketing program, all the capital in the world to create the best environment to build or provide the service. But if you don’t deliver, it is all for naught.

This section is dedicated to providing the insight and tools on getting production to deliver products to the market. How do you efficiently produce? What type of feedback loops do you create? How do you deal with personnel work schedules, etc? All of this will be covered here to help you achieve the best production program for your business that very few people can achieve. Let’s get started and remember: Act on Knowledge.