Our team recently achieved a long-anticipated goal, and I’d like to share with you how we did it and what we learned! We always keep our goals at the ForeFront of our minds, and how we do that is by utilizing a strategy-driven execution management platform called Keynelink. Our leadership team started the year off by creating 8 initiatives and divided those up into quarterly goals, and then each team member created personal goals to support those initiatives. We meet one-on-one monthly to check in on the progress. This year alone our company created 41 goals that are tied to the 8 initiatives, and 13 are already complete! With this tumultuous year, we have been more productive than ever and we credit this system for keeping our team on track.
Our business team lead Roy created a goal of having our operations team tour some of our plants. Roy said, “I think it’s really important for everyone to visually see the processes in action, so we all have a basic understanding of what we actually create here.” I’m so glad that he had the idea because the tour was fascinating!
Roy took us to a paperboard manufacturer not far from our home office. They’ve been specializing in paper printing and custom folding for over 30 years, and still have many of their original employees. I saw the biggest machines I’ve ever seen in my life- and some are worth over a million dollars! Our tour guide told us that machine paid for itself in seven months. I asked the team about their takeaways, and everyone walked away with something different!
Our operations manager Meredith said, “I was impressed by how much they integrated aspects of their business to be done in house at their warehouse; from the die-cutting to the specific case size-making, all of which help to cut down on the lead time of projects. I thought that was pretty cool!”
We saw a carton-folding machine that ran at an incredible speed- over 30,000 units per hour! Our bookkeeper Aleyna said, “Don’t stick your hand in the machine.” (When I asked her for a better quote than that, she added, “Packaging doesn’t seem cool, but it is.”)
Bryan is our newest account support specialist, and he had a unique connection to this facility. “I used to work for the company that provided the coating to make their products and it was really interesting to finally see how it all works. It really was!”
For myself, I was most inspired by their proactivity. An engineer on the floor told us that when lead times on rolls of paper increased from 6-8 weeks to 12-16 weeks, they decided to be self-sufficient and stock up. Their warehouse is a sight to behold; huge rolls of paper are stacked as high as the ceiling, almost 40 feet in the air! As I have been researching the challenges of the supply chain industry for the blog, I feel very fortunate that our team plans ahead so that our customers never run out of stock.
ForeFront Packaging is an elite team made of proactive, goal-oriented individuals who partner with industry specialists to make our supply chain management systems flawless. If that sound like a team you want to work with, give us a call today!
