My takeaway from my peer council meeting last week was to better define and communicate our core values here at PlastiCert.
So I started in on doing just that and am getting them honed. Interesting enough, I am writing this as the temperature outside my window is -30o F, that’s negative 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Factoring in the 11 mph wind out of the WNW, and it felt like -51o as we walked in from our cars. I say we as there are only a handful (10) people at work today. The remainder did not all call in sick. Knowing what today was going to be like, schools closed, no mail service, City Hall closed, many shops and stores closed, we gave our first shift people the option of staying home today, second shift is cancelled. One of the benefits of being located in a small town rural setting, is that the majority of our people live within just a few miles of the plant. So shutting down the plant seemed overkill, as those that felt they could safely come to work, would have been forced to use PTO, vacation or an unpaid day.
We let it be known that everyone was free to make the decision that was right for them and no inference or judgement would be reflected upon anyone’s decision. A perfect opportunity to enact and reinforce one of the core values we have identified from our brain storming. Maintaining perspective; between work, career, home, family and the goals that incorporate all of those. I highly doubt anyone will ever say to themselves, “gee, I wish I had gone in to work on that -51o day back in 2019.”
Since my beginning in manufacturing 40 years ago, the last few days of the month were always a big deal. Shipping product to feed into the monthly revenue number was and has been a big deal. It’s not as much of a phenomenon now as it used to be. Customers have OTD metrics we adhere to, we can’t ship early just to hit our internal revenue numbers. BUT, in this month’s case, we are forecasted to have the largest revenue month in over 20 years. So, missing a production day on the second to the last day of the month, carries a more significant effect this month than most.
Hence the coincidence that I was working on our core values and the reminder that work, is just work. Safety and family come first, and whatever revenue number we post, we’ll know we had a good month, from all perspectives.