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Material Insights

Who Wants to Tighten Up Cash Flow?

Charles “Red” Scott is credited with saying, no doubt in his signature Texas drawl, “Cash ain’t cash until it’s cash.” The famous corporate leader, who died in 2013, was talking about cash flow. Staying competitive and excelling in your industry require a strong cash flow system. Without one, you are at risk of unnecessarily spending money on things that aren’t critical or urgent. With a sy...
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Colorful Outlook Improves for Finishers

The future looks bright for the coatings industry. There appears to be plenty of opportunity for finishers ready to make the leap. As I write this post, a very positive November jobs report was released. Another indication we’re getting the economy back on track. More than a half million jobs were added in the past two months alone. This is more than the estimated 200,000 a month needed to keep...
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Cost & Delivery: Opportunity for Finishers

Finishers focus on quality, cost and delivery—“QCD”—for good reason. It’s a popular metric and, if you can do it efficiently, it keeps customers happy. Trouble is, from a management point of view, “quality” always seems to trump cost and delivery. It’s probably because poor quality is so unacceptable. Well, I agree with the latter, but not so fast. Here’s the problem: There’s more potential fo...
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Customized Solutions, One Customer at a Time

The very notion of a “solution” has become overused and overpromised, like “quality” and “service.” As a result, “customer solutions” echo will-fit parts. Sure it’s gonna-kinda fit, but will it work? Will it solve your immediate problem and get you the results you need? Is there anybody assuring you that it will? Do you feel important, or are you all alone on this one? True customized solut...
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Finish Performance: 2 Secrets to Insure Success

How do you define finish performance in the first place? Is it a measure of how fast you can lay down a great finish? Is it a test of durability? A certain degree of customer satisfaction? Or is it more like an equation that weighs time, cost and effort against expectations, objectives and lasting results? In any case, a great performance always requires preparation. You have to know what you’...
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Material Gains Come With a Price

Don’t assume the things you will be manufacturing in the future will be made from the same materials you’re used to finishing now. For that matter, don’t assume they’ll be made from materials you’re even familiar with now. Do assume, however, that your customers will continue to seek out finished goods that are delivered cheaper, faster and, ultimately, deemed better in the marketplace—they will d...
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In the Finishing Industry, Lead With Questions and Act Accordingly

How likely is it that a customer would recommend our company to a friend or colleague? That’s a great question for anyone in the finishing industry and your organization to ask because the answer provides a revealing measure of your company’s product through your customers’ eyes. What could be better? But if you cannot answer the question with conviction “They’re loyal enthusiasts who’ll keep buyi...
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A Few Words on Workflow for Coating Finishers Big and Small

For coating finishers, finishing has everything to do with workflow; it’s the most promising path to perfection and effectiveness. Your stuff must be produced fast and smart. It requires teamwork, efficiency and effectiveness. And it’s the effectiveness you produce that earns success. Your efficiency is merely the “how,” which, if you think about it, is precisely what everyone else must do. So ...
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Primers Form Foundation for Success

Galileo, one of history’s most famous scientists, conducted one of his legendary experiments in Italy—at the Tower of Pisa (aka “Leaning Tower of Pisa”). There, as the story goes, using the convenience of the overreaching balconies, he proved that gravity was undiscerning and would pull any object of the same air resistance to the ground at the same rate, no matter the weight of the object. A ...
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Shift Your 2014 Perspective With Best-of-Breed Business Podcast

There’s promise for economic improvement in the coming year. Your sales team had better be ready because customers have learned a few things in this new economy. Values and priorities are shifting, so if you’re not also honing your game, learning more about how to address your customers’ problems, you’re likely to fall from favor. Meaningful relationships are difficult to impossible to forge w...
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