Manufacturers Newsletter

February 2017

Welcome to Upper Tampa Bay Manufacturers Association

Your One Source Newsletter For All Things Manufacturing...Current and Future!!!

It's Actually Easy Being Green

How would you like to reduce your energy costs, get a year over year ROI of 30% or more, leverage rebates and incentives to make the switch to LED lighting and be cash flow positive from day one? Then make sure you attend our February 16 meeting, 8am, Upper Tampa Bay Chamber, 101 State Street W, Oldsmar. Green Lumens will be our presenter. They know how to do this and cut through all the red tape. If they can save over 95% of the energy costs of the Empire State Building, see what they can do for you...undoubtedly not that dramatic but they have the goods...just sayin'. Take a look.

Do What You Said You Would Do!

Mary McCoy, Prism Plus Consulting, provided us an excellent end to end perspective on what quality means to your business and what it takes to have and maintain a quality operation. Couple quick observations from my perspective:

Quality is easy enough to say and define but not so easy to do...until you make it a habit
A quality operation demands teamwork; top to bottom and bottom to top
You and your customers and suppliers all need to have the same definition of quality or someone is going to be disappointed at some point
Quality and safety are sides of the same coin and both are critical to your bottom line
As good as you think you are you need a trained outside eye to periodically check your delivery on your quality programs if you really want to do what you said you would

Click here for more and access to Mary's presentation.

Tribal Knowledge

Here's a book review on a publication written by one of our third party providers, Marnie Schmidt, on the topic of documenting your processes to capture the lessons learned along your journey.

The Tribal Knowledge model is aggressive yet comprehensive. This book will help prepare and guide those who seek to implement sustained quality and process improvements. If you are a quality improvement professional this book doesn't offer many new tools, however, it does offer a succinct and comprehensive improvement process. If you are not a quality improvement professional or have failed to implement improvements in the past, this book is an excellent resource. Read more about the book and the author. Click here.

US Manufacturing On The Rise Globally

Here's the take on a guy who has worked in the U.S. global manufacturing industry throughout his career, spanning nearly two decades, and what he's witnessing now. It both excites and concerns him.

Those who criticized the lack of U.S. manufacturing jobs during the last election cycle were (at least partially) wrong. Thanks to technology-enabled innovation-particularly the application of business intelligence-industry has been resuscitated and now thrives. My excitement is tempered, however, by reports of a desperate need for more skilled workers in the U.S. manufacturing industry. Read more. Check the evidence in

Deloitte's 2016 Global Competitiveness Index.

Question is, are you ready and willing to play?

Millennials How To Motivate Them

Here is an excellent infographic that speaks to motivating millennials. But look closely, it also speaks to the difference between management and leadership as well as team building and corporate culture. Management is getting things done and getting the most out of your people. Leadership is being in charge of those in charge of getting things done and motivating them to maximize their potential. May sound odd but there's a big difference.

Training Corner

Good article on Making America Great Again and upskilling. Info on Upper Tampa Bay Leadership Seminar Series, Pinellas Technical College Apprenticeship programs and Career Source Tampa Youth Programs. Check it out.

TRADE Tools

Here's a list of tools and upcoming trade missions in the winter and spring. Read more...

We Do Round Tuits

Have anything that nags you routinely in your operation but doesn't q uite get up the priority scale to make it go away

permanently? Stuff that may cross some management lines and isn't quite worth the battle? These are irritants you never get around to. No more excuses, we're here to take them on. Read on...

Things That Make You Go Hmmm????

Lot of stuff on Trump this month with some angles and perspective we're not getting in the day to day reporting. Interesting overlaps between on policy handoffs from Obama to Trump. Also quite a bit on China as that was the focus of business reporting. Plus other stuff, Amazon buying a lot of robots but also hiring a lot of people. Read on...

Time Savers

Here are links to additional information on various important topics

COMMUNITY CALENDAR and NEWSLETTERS Click Title to Access

With the help of Becky Burton, BAMA, we're trying to pull together a single calendar of all regional manufacturing events to include BAMA, UTBMA, and professional associations like SME, APICS, NTMA, etc. Access the calendar here. If you you would like to input your organizational calendar contact Becky Burton or Jerry Custin.
One Voice - great national level insights on a variety of hot topics from NTMA and PMA Advocacy Clips...
this is a must browse

February 1 Manufacturing Growing At Fastest Pace In Two Years
February 2 Will Trump Help Manufacturing Gears Turn
February 3 St. Louis Manufacturers Address Worker Shortage

White Papers...more useful thoughts

Jobs Corner

Kick off 2017 by hiring some of the best developing talent in the region!

Below is a variety of information on job seekers and employment opportunities:

Florida Chamber Adds Internship Program Focused On Workers With Disabilities

Seeking

Added some great new job seekers this month some highly experienced.

Career Source has trained solderers. Several come with Paid Work Experience and/or OJT funding. Take a look!!!

Proven senior leader and management professional,veteran
Veteran, aircraft maintenance, HAZMAT qualified, heavy equipment operations, leadership skills
Hard worker, impressive and versatile hands on skills, OSHA, MHSA trained
Experienced Mechanical Engineer/CAD Designer

Opportunities

Cardio Command is looking for a Buyer/Planner. Click here.
Dermazone Needs A Shipping/Receiving/Material Handler Click here for details
Farmer Mold Lists Four Openings Contact Janet Leroux

Association Update

We appreciate those of you that have joined either the Upper Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce or the Upper Tampa Bay Manufacturers Association. We request that you consider formal membership at this point. We are attaching a brochure outlining the service activities we provide as well as an application form. We appreciate your consideration and support and look forward to advancing the cause of manufacturing in the Upper Tampa Bay in 2015 and beyond!

Manufacturers Association Resource Guide

At the roundtable we heard many comments along the lines of 'I didn't know that', 'I wish I would have know that' and how do find out about that'. So we have developed a resource guide which will have a permanent spot on this newsletter to try and help out. This is a 'work in progress' so any suggestions on making it more robust and useful are welcome. Access the guide by clicking here.

Issue: 2