2. My Tool Box
Tom Randall – Critical Skill Set
Business Vision
ROI/Business Impact
Strategic Planning
Effective
Communication
People
Management
Staff
Development
Accountability
Mentoring
Delegation
Quality Planning
Project Leadership
Safety Programs &
Awareness
Continuous
Improvement
Budget Planning
New Product
Introduction
Lean Manufacturing
Cost Control
3. Mentoring:
As Plant Manager I set up a mentoring program
between staff managers and individual contributors to
reinforce positive skills and groom high potential
candidates for future promotions. Working with the
Maintenance/ ME Manager one of our Quality
Engineers took on additional projects doing line layout
and kan ban organization projects to broaden his
scope. His hidden expertise uncovered several
improvements to the line layout that saved an
additional 10% in travel distance.
Delegation:
As Business Unit Manager I was often away at shows, customer
visits and dealer training and was unavailable to run
manufacturing. I empowered my production team to run the
business as if it was their own. I encouraged them to discuss
problems, brainstorm solutions and make a consensus decision.
Most importantly they made the correct decisions without waiting
for me to return. At one point they also hosted a customer visit
complete with prep, tour, demonstration and question & answer
session that impressed the customer to increase his order size.
Lean Manufacturing:
I set up an in-line progressive assembly line for our
Slicer assembly. The line consisted of six stations with
a TAKT time of 12 minutes. By analyzing the
bottlenecks on the line I determined that the “special”
models were the limiting item. These were scale
machines, certain export models and the unique
Arby’s machine. I removed those specials to a
dedicated Short Run cell. The result was Takt time
reduced to 9 minutes and quality on the special units
improved by 15%.
Safety Program/ Awareness:
As Plant Manager I established monthly safety meetings covering
different topics. I also implemented bi-weekly safety tours with
managers to observe, coach and correct safety problems. Actions
reduced lost time accidents by 28% and increase days without an
accident to new levels. The tour looked for slip, trip and fall
hazards, PPE violations, chemical labeling & handling issues and
general housekeeping. By demonstrating management
commitment to ongoing safety and using staff to supplement the
Safety Coordinator we were able to cover more ground and see
more potential problems to correct.
Effective Communication:
As Plant Manager I created a campaign to change the culture to reduce the amount of time operators spent off the line. By
highlighting WIIFT –”What’s In It For Them”, I coached them on reasons why productivity and efficiency suffered when they
were away from their workstations during non-break times. By positive reinforcement and a couple examples (write-ups) I
convinced the workforce to stay at their stations until break/ lunch contributing to an increase in efficiency by 15% and
production output by 40%.
My Tool Box
Tom Randall – Critical Skill Set Examples
