Typically the most experienced and technically skilled employees are advanced into leadership roles. On paper it makes sense to promote the most skilled person within a department to a Supervisor. After all it is their technical skills, ability to troubleshoot equipment, maintain his/her machine, and constantly produce quality pieces on time that justified the promotion. In reality, there may be additional skills needed for your newly appointed supervisor to succeed. Great manufacturing supervisors are made, not born. Managing people is entirely different and requires specific training.

Three reasons to invest in supervisory training: Read the rest of the blog

Culture is a "touchy-feely" subject, often not described in a meaningful manner. MANTEC defines it as the combination of values, beliefs, assumptions and processes found in your day-to-day operations. We look at human activity in the organization everyday and how it conducts business. Once you define the culture you can improve it. MANTEC uses a tool to help define the company's strengths and weaknesses.

How does it work? MANTEC administers a survey given to your employees (via the web or paper printout), The results give us a snap shot of the cultural health in the company and we use the results to identify areas of improvement based on strengths or deficiencies. The organizational and leadership effectiveness tool is built upon years of academic research and business/industry application. This allows us to compare like industries for contrast. Most organizations will compare against themselves after the first year baseline measurement. Read more

New leadership in OSHA has brought about changes in overall strategies and the way they inspect businesses. The costs and fine structures have not changed in two decades, but not now that too is about to change.

On the positive side, an employer who has been inspected by OSHA within the previous five years and has no serious, willful, repeat, or failure-to-abate violations will receive a 10 percent reduction for history. Previously this was based on a three year period.

Conversely, employers that have been cited by OSHA for any high gravity serious, willful, repeat or failure-to-abate violations within the previous five years will receive a 10 percent increase in their penalty, up to the statutory maximum. Repeat violations will be subjected to historical look back increase from three to five years. (Read more...)