Survive a Plant Visit From Senior Leadership

Ed Ballina
Well, hello team. Back with you again. I’m Ed Ballina.

Alvaro Cuba
Hello guys, Alvaro Cuba here starting the summer.

Ed Ballina
And he is always very summery. ⁓ you know, the fact that he lives in Florida may have something to do with that as I wear my flannel shirt today, a little chilly. ⁓ so hey, welcome to the Manufacturing Meetup Podcast. this is where, you know, we sit back, we talk about what we’ve experienced in plants, we try to give you some ideas on how you could address some of the issues you’re facing.

Alvaro Cuba
So what we have for today, Ed?

Ed Ballina
Of course, the hat banter always has to happen. So we’re supposed to get thunderstorms in Pennsylvania today. And I wore my Gore-Tex hat to make sure I keep my head, you know, dry. And if you’ve seen this hat before, I will tell you, you’re not correct. You have seen another copy of this hat because I have two. So on the record, this is the first time you see this particular hat. But Alvaro always looks spiffy. I love that hat. Tell me.

Alvaro Cuba
It is. Yeah, know summer coming, sunny, a lot of hot. So these hats are perfect for the season.

Ed Ballina
Good straw hat, I love it. Well, ⁓ we are going to have another ⁓ conversation today. I have to tell you, this is probably one of my favorite ones, okay? Because having been on both the receiving and the giving end of these tours, man, do we have stories for you. So we have both, Alvaro and I have been on both sides of plant reviews or site visits, right? We’ve been operations leaders, plant managers, et cetera, that had to host ⁓ these tours. And over time we became them. ⁓ and then we showed up at the plans to talk to plant managers about their opportunities. We know what it’s like to be on the other side of the table. We also know, you know, in our former roles, what we would expect out of these visits. So we’re gonna get into what it actually takes to handle it well, even when your baby is ugly.

Alvaro Cuba
Yeah. Well, as Ed said, we have work in a plant, we have managed plants, we have visited plants in different industries, in different cultures, different countries. So a lot of stories for you. But before we go to that, hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss these conversations. And with that, let’s get started.

Ed Ballina
Let’s do it.

Okay. So Alvaro, here we are with another great discussion, this time about what your VPs…I  think there is a slight amount of PTSD that I’ve retained from those. And this is my way, this is my therapy, ⁓ keeping others from having the same problem. And they can be emotional. So what do you do? You get the phone call, you know, from the VP or the head of supply chain that says, Hey, we’re coming down into your facility. We’d like to sit down, review your performance, you know,  walk the shop floor, etc. And you immediately go into a little bit of panic mode because you know the expectation is high in terms of, you know, housekeeping and the state of equipment and all that. And maybe your plant is not doing the best. Okay.  I don’t know that I’ve ever been in a plant where we were firing on all eight cylinders. Okay. Some place I was in a plant where we were barely getting by with a cylinder and a half, and struggling on the road.

In other places, I’ve been in places where we’re turning them around and now it starts feeling like a little bit of a sports car, right? But but the first tip that I can give you, okay, is know where you stand and be truthful, okay? And you have all kinds of data to help you with this. Most organizations have, you know, critical KPIs that they use to score your performance. Many locations, many organizations will force rank your plant, okay?

That was the case, you know, in the beverage industry. We had 54 facilities and they were forced rank one to fifty-four across a whole, you know, host of criteria, including safety and  org health scores, et cetera. But so you need to really fill yourself with the knowledge, right, of what your VP is looking at. Because I can guarantee you that that person will have a really clear understanding of where your plant stands.

I remember having VPs come to my facility tour with a three-ring binder with tabs that they had already gone through. They knew where my issues were and also where we were doing well. So, first, if your baby’s ugly, call it ugly. Okay. Don’t try to put lipstick on a pig. It doesn’t work. And  to some leaders, it’ll feel like you’re trying to pull the wool over their eyes.

And most of those leaders, by the way, have been in your shoes at least once, twice, if not even more. Like I for myself, I ran two plants. You know, before I started doing other work, Alvaro, hosts of them. And you know what? The most important thing that I require from a leader is trust. I need to be able to trust them, right? So a leader that can answer three key questions. A, do you know what’s going on in your business?

Right? That’s number one. Number two, do you have a credible plan? Does your plan have a technical right to success? Okay. I will be looking for that. Does the math add up? Right? And that’s really, really important. And then lastly, you know there’s a problem, right? You have a plan that you’re gonna execute. Can I trust you to execute the plan in the way you’ve shared it with me? Because when you share it with me, that’s my opportunity, not to nitpick, but to let you know I’ve done this for 15 years of my life, if not longer.  I I don’t want you to have the same flat tires and hit the same potholes. Because no matter what, your results are true to me, right?  I’m responsible for North America or the Northeast. If you stumble and you miss fifty a hundred thousand dollars, the expectation is I find someplace else to find that money, right? So I have a vested interest. So Those are couple of the ones that I would really kind of you know kind of key on. So leave you with do not try to BS your senior executive. Okay. First of all, they have access to a bunch of people that can get the information they need. And if they don’t know it themselves, and if you try to BS them, not good. They already know the truth. Alvaro?

Alvaro Cuba
Some things from experience when you are going to have a visit, one is understand what the VP or the director or whoever is coming to the plant wants from this visit. Obviously, they don’t have time to miss. If they are coming to your plant, they have something specific in their heads. So it’s important that you understand that so you can plan the visit accordingly. And it’s not a secret that nobody wants to surprise you for the good or for the bad or this is a business and everything has a reason. So if you are not sure call, call the VP and ask them. You are coming, what you expect, what you want,  what are the points? Second is understand the context.  The VP works in headquarters and have the KPIs are for the entire facility. So understand how your facility contributes or if it’s having a difficult moment, how it’s impacting the company. That will help you even understand the stocks of the company, what the CEO is talking about. If cost is high in the company, make sure you have your cost story. If safety is high in this moment in the company, have that. So, relate that he’s in that environment. If you…put yourself in his or her shoes, then you are going to be able to connect better. Your plant is not an isle, your plant is part of the company. The other is the framework of skill, will and access. So  the person who is coming to visit, it’s always, and Ed alluded to this, it’s thinking, do they have the skills that need to run the plant to its best? Do they have access to the resources? And there is willingness. The people is going for it. Think about the VPs They have three roles, strategy and vision. So where are we going? Give resources, which is this a great opportunity for you to clarify what resources you need, and then to cheer or push depending on which situation you are. So  go for it. And they will be looking for if the leadership is there or not. They will be looking if the people is comfortable, if they are smiling or not. They will be looking for cleanness, organization, organized things, and they will be looking for you to answer, to know the answers to the questions they are going to put.

Ed Ballina
And it’s okay. In fact, I encourage you, if you do not know the answer, be honest. Okay. Tell ’em, hey, you know what? I I don’t have that right now, but I will get back to you with, you know, a follow up to your to your comments because the worst, as I mentioned before, your  honesty and transparency are on stage here, right? So be honest and transparent. I don’t have an answer, but I will get back to you. And whatever you do, do not miss that window of getting back, because that’s another, that’s another you know, red flag. So so what are the biggest opportunities that you might be missing? Well, one thing that I  did want to say is I try to give people, I’m sure Alvaro does the same thing, clear priorities, right? So we expect you to walk, chew gum, and play a song at the same time. That’s what you get paid to do in these plants, right? But When all when you’re forced to make a choice, you try to give them the right value. So for me, it was always safety number one. Number two was kind of tied between quality and environmental, right? People, and then productivity and cost. We should be able to do them all, but when you don’t, you never take a chance on things like quality. And also one other real watch out, if you if you try to deflect the tough questions to your staff, that tells me a lot about you as an individual and a lot about you as a leader. So you  handle it. You deal with your team later, but in front of them, you are there to support them. So plant leaders think that  these reviews are something to survive. You know what? I’m gonna tell you that there’s a WIIFM. You’ve heard me say that before. What is in it for me? As a plant leader, this is your chance to accomplish a couple of things. One, build a trust, right? 

And your leadership ability, right?  Show them the issues that you’re dealing with. Get the shop floor involved. I think that’s incredibly powerful, right? Because the shop floor, first of all, let’s be honest, senior leadership tends to treat the shop floor a little bit differently than they treat us. And they also have a tremendous amount of credibility, right? Those operators and those mechanics, some of these VPs may have been the plant manager there years ago, right? So It it has a lot, a lot of credibility. one other thought is that the first 10 minutes of your tour are incredibly important and they will set the stage for the rest of the day. So I get it. You have a limited budget to clean up and to paint. I mean, we all do that, folks. It’s  not a secret, right? I would tell you prioritize first, prioritize anything around safety and you know and quality, but with the money you have left.

The focus on making sure the first ten minutes of that tour are a home run. Because if not, you’ll spend thirty minutes in the parking lot discussing things happening off your building, unpainted parking spots. Ask me how I know. San Antonio, nineteen ninety-eight. Yeah that was me. Two weeks into the job and I had a senior executive tour. So anyway, I’ve got lots of stories, but Alvaro, you’ve got some stuff too.

Alvaro Cuba
Well, I think that we talk a lot about how you have to prepare for the plant and get ready and all that. But for me, a plant visit is a huge opportunity for you to get a lot of things out of that visit. Think about how many times have you been in the shop floor and your people is asking you, why we are not doing this?

And your answer is, well, corporate is not clear.  Why we are not implementing this, ⁓ we didn’t have the money. Why we are, yeah, they don’t understand. Well, a visit is a great opportunity to make them understand,  make them see what you need them to see. So there is this flip concept which is very powerful. Yeah, it’s important that you know why the VP wants from the visit. It’s also very important what you can get out of that visit, no? And put it in the agenda. So we are going to talk about this, this, this and that, which is what the VP wants. We are also going to talk about this, this, this, which is what the plant wants. In my career, several times, I have been the one that I have called corporate and said, hey, can you visit us? We are finding that we are not getting the message through, so it would be great if you can visit us. The  other thing that is important is, and Ed alluded to this, is corporate is important for our people. So when they are coming, you can have prizes that you want to give. One thing is you give the prize to someone that did outstanding job, other is a VP is giving that prize. They are going to feel great. It’s a great opportunity to give exposure to people for them to present your key talent. It’s important for the senior leadership to know your talent that you want to promote. And if you bring these people to the shop floor and the shop floor presents to them and they get the, ⁓ great guy, great thing you are doing, you will have those guys motivated for a long, long time. So think about that. This is the opportunity of your lifetime every time someone comes. So make sure that you are prepared to take advantage of all that, not only for you, for your talent, for your people, to make them understand, to get the budget that you have been cut, or many other things.

Ed Ballina
Hey, the example we shared, I think, in the last the podcast before  the last one, the example of the diaper, right? And how I made it a point to when senior leadership come in and say, this is why I need half a million dollars for a new roof, right? You did exactly the same thing  in one of your facilities. And you know what? It’s up to them. You’re presenting the data, it’s up to them to figure out whether they can make that investment. The other thing that really gets people, you know, twerked up a little bit is if you come up with excuses. Okay. And I’ll just give you the quick snippet. I was sitting at a meeting with the CEO of our company and the person that was running our largest market, it happened to be out on the West Coast. And it’s a friendly dinner, we have after a meeting and he turns to her and says,  hey, we’ve been looking at your numbers and your numbers, you know, your volume is down, your pricing and all this. And  frankly I wasn’t expecting that in the middle of dinner. But she turned to him and said, well, you know,  in this particular part we’ve had a really, you know, wet spring and cold temperatures. And we know that temperature drives consumption, right, of beverages. And  he was the nicest guy in the world, very mild-mannered. And he turned to her and very coolly said, I wasn’t asking for a weather report. I was asking you when you were going to start hitting your plan numbers. And I sat there and I was like, Well, this is what the big leagues are, okay?

That’s kind of what happens. So anyway,  no excuses, folks. So so we talked about ugly results. So moving into segment three. If if you’ve got a limited budget, right? And we all do. No plant I’ve ever been in has funds to spend willy nilly. You have to be, and you know your plant is not at its best. And you can’t afford to fix everything, right? You have two choices. You can either spread your little bit of money around usually the tour area. ⁓ here’s a trick for you. People don’t stick to tour areas. Okay. I have had people veer completely off, come to a locked garage door and ask me to open it. And what was behind there was not really pretty. There’s a reason why the door was locked. But anyway, more on that some other time. But you can’t put enough money into the facility if it’s not in good shape to make a difference. Here’s the tip: pick one area. Maybe it’s your maintenance shop.

Maybe it’s your quality control area, maybe it’s your batch preparation area, but take that area all the way to Bright. What do I mean by that? I mean 5S, right? SOPs clearly outlined, employees engaged, the infrastructure, it’s brightly lit, it’s  freshly painted, right? That  and and you will take the tour through there and say, hey, look, this is what my standard is, okay?

I can’t afford to take this plant all the way there in the next year, but here’s my three to five year capital plan that starts getting me there. But I’m showing you that this is my standard. And then invite feedback from them. What do you think about this? Are, you know, is my 5S, you know, the way you would expect it to? How about tracking KPIs, et cetera? You accomplish a tremendous amount for a little bit of money. Frankly,  it’s called about leadership. Now,  I’m sorry, it’s called leverage. Now, I’ve been one of our senior leaders, used to love to walk the floor, find an issue, right, and look at the plant leader point to it, it could have been a pothole in your warehouse, it could have been  a piece of broken pallet board holding a photo eye the discharge of a palletizer, okay? I didn’t make that up, that actually happened to me. He walked by the palletizer, points at it, looks at me and says is that your standard? Hey, there is no good way to answer that question, right, because there isn’t. So  you take your lumps, you say, Listen, we’re not where we need to be. And that’s an obvious you know, that’s an example of it. We’re working on it, and that’ll be ⁓ the other thing, as soon as that happens, you better get somebody out there. So when they get ready to leave the building, say, I have taken care of this issue, thank you, and we’ve got more to come. So, you know,  that’s one that you want to think about. I talked about the parking lot. If your parking lot is dirty, if it’s not striped, if the sales guys hang banners off your windows and then leave the strings hanging down, that caught me. I tried joke that it was a wind indicator. I got this look like, this ain’t joking time, Ed. I was like, this is the guy that hired me into the company, okay, that I knew. He was like, this is a learning experience. Funny, every time I hear that, I cringe now. So last piece, no surprises. Ever, okay? You can’t hide stuff. Sooner or later it shows up. And if you don’t let people know what is happening, they’re not even in a position to help support you. So please, no surprises.

Alvaro Cuba
And in reality, there is no surprises. Every time I was going to visit a plant, I was going with my HR lead and my finance lead. And before going to the plant, both of them have done their homework. So the finance guy had all the KPIs, financial and non-financial, and the HR had already know all that.

I had the summary, and you are in your plant. So you know exactly the same picture. So if it’s going to be a difficult, because there is no, we have good moments, bad moments in the plants. When there is a good moment, they will come and visit and then we’ll celebrate all together. When we are in a tough spot,  the thing is how we flip it, how we flip it from a surprise and a bad moment into a, we are going to help you and we own this together. So a couple  things is…

First is the law of three, Ed mentioned that. You need to know where you are,  what are you doing about it, and when are you going to show the results. And then you use those three in three opportunities. When you start your visit, the first thing you say is, Hey guys, we know we are in  a tough spot. We know we are here. These three KPIs or these things, we are struggling. We have a plan and we’ll give you the plan on what we are doing to do that. And our commitment is that by certain date that you and your team together, put together, we are going to be out of that.

No? And then you said it at the beginning. In the middle, you, at some point you stop and say, remember guys, we have this problem. We are doing this. And by the time you are finishing, before you say, thank you very much, you do the three of them again and you remind them. And through the meeting, we agreed that you are going to help us in ABCD things. The other important thing is your people knows when you are in trouble. They are the first to know and they know that these senior guys are coming to look exactly into that. So this is a great opportunity to bring your entire team together. Normally when you are struggling, the plant is doing something, maintenance is doing this other thing, engineering wants that direction, R&D wants that. This is the time for you to put everyone in a room and said, guys, these guys are coming because we are in trouble. These are the problems we need to pitch in, but we also, we all together need to face the same thing. So when they are coming, we need to show a united front, not only for the picture, but we have to work together if we are going to get out of this.

Once you get these internal things, one additional one is look for allies outside the plant. If you are having a safety issue, go for the safety leader in the company, ask them to come first to help you understand what you are not seeing and how they can help, and then ask them to come to the meeting. If you are having a financial problem, do that with,  or if you are having a talent problem, ask your HR and then bring them to the meeting. So when the conversation starts getting into the detail, they can say, we also review with the plant. We are helping them to see some things and we are bringing some skills or capability to help. So that makes a three-prong. The table is better when you have the plant commitment, the functions commitment, and your boss commitment. Then it’s much easier to overcome any difficult situation you are in.

Ed Ballina
That’s a three-legged stool, right? There’s there’s also another  potential opportunity, not potential, exists. And and that is when you present your plan, openly ask the VP for their input or thoughts. Okay. For me,  I learned how to be really good at controlling fill heights on these lines, right? I may not know about a lot of other things, but I’m really good at that. I would actually take the time and go on the board and write for them. Hey, go check this. Check your drop-off. Hey, here’s my equation for fill. You know some things at that level, right? As a plant manager, ask for that because you may be surprised. This person, not only that, let me say, hey, you know what? I’m gonna send you Joe, who like is amazing, you know, at setting up fillers. Resources that you did not know about. So  we’re gonna move on to the key takeaways here,  right, so we can kind of wrap this up.

One other thing that you have to remember about these tours, folks, this is not a one-shot deal. Especially if your first first tour doesn’t go well, they will come back. And they would expect change. Okay? So don’t think that once you survive one, you’re good. Uh-uh. You’ll be on the list. And many of them will tell you, hey, I’ll be back in three months. I want to see the impact that you’ve  made. So they’ll return. So, wrapping this up, if you were running  a plant and you had a tough, you know, kind of situation, your plant. The first thing I would say is walk the plant with a different set of eyes, as if you were a VP. That is not always easy to do because you become accustomed to what you experience every day. So I have a different idea. Call your buddy. Find a plant manager that you can trust, or a senior leader that you can trust that is at a more close level to you, have them come in and give you a mock tour, okay?

I did this when I was working in Mexico. We had our senior supply chain officer come in. And I spent days before doing a mock tour of the plant in And and I know they really, really appreciated that. ⁓ you  want to make sure that you look at things with a complete  different eye. And going in the difference, going in knowing the difference between accountability and explaining, right? I’m going to raise an issue.

You as a site leader owns it. It again, back to Alvaro’s three points, right? You’re acknowledging, you have a plan, and you have to instill trust that you will actually be able to deliver upon that. So this is  a an opportunity. It is nerve-wracking. Every time I had a tour, I would try to go to bed at nine o’clock in the morning so I could be there at five. And after two hours, three hours of sleep, that was it. Sleep wouldn’t come. Okay.

And even though when I had a great story to tell, you know, when Denver was like kicking butt and all that stuff, I was still nervous. And once they left, it was like I must admit that I might have hosted some adult beverage sessions after those tours as a way to unwind and help my people out. So Alvaro.

Alvaro Cuba
Couple things, probably the biggest for me is a plant visit. It’s not a how I survive. It’s how I get what I need. So I have to change the mentality of myself and of my people. You are part of the company. Nobody wants you to fail. Everyone wants you to succeed. And the fastest you succeed, the better. So think about these visits as, ⁓ this is people that has experience, that have resources in their pockets, and they are coming because they want us to improve and the fastest. So be prepared to take advantage of that. And it starts in your daily thing. No, every time you are finding a thing with your team, oh, this corporate can help us, write it down. When you come to the plant to when you get the visit, ask for that. The best plant visit is not the one where you get the rating. The best plant visit is where you had actionable advices and you have some things that you needed, some resources that you needed that now are coming your way. No, and the other thing is always bring your people with you. No, so have your talent in the room, make them embrace, make them, this is the opportunity to make your people to work together and to live and to learn. They also learn when they are seeing these senior executives, they are learning a lot if you give them the opportunity.

So with that, its’ time for the closure. We hope that you found this discussion interesting. We all have plant visits, good, bad, ugly, beautiful and all that. So let’s take advantage of all that. We hope that these advices have been helpful. So thank you very much for joining us. If you enjoyed the show, please follow or subscribe.

If you like the episode ⁓ and you are watching YouTube, please leave us a review. And if you are listening to iTunes as well, and more important, share this with your pals.

Ed Ballina
No, ⁓ exactly right. A really fun episode for us, you know, to to to coach and and and share with you. ⁓ if you like to keep the conversation going, you know how this works. You can email us at mmu@augury.com. We’re available everywhere. ⁓ we’re all over the map. we also have links in the show notes for this episode. Thank you for your time and see you next time.

Alvaro Cuba
See you guys, thank you.