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Content about Productivity

March 28, 2013
Better Supervision = Better Productivity = Better Profits (Conclusion)

EVANSTON, Ill. — Teaching Latino supervisors how to improve performance in face of customer demands

EVANSTON, Ill. — I once wrote an article titled Training Foreign-Born Hispanics for Supervisory Jobs in the Dry Cleaning Industry due to the need to teach the growing numbers of Latino first-level supervisors how to improve performance in the face of customer demands for high-quality cleaning and next-day service, all at competitive prices.

The article explained how dry cleaners could boost productivity and speed turnaround times by training Hispanic supervisors to adapt the traditional authoritarian Latino leadership style to a U.S. “best practices” mode of supervision. I also discussed the five key elements needed for effective training of Hispanic supervisors.

Here are those elements, and the continued results of the training from six dry cleaners using this approach. Each had four to seven drop-off stores, for customer convenience, feeding their garments to a single central plant.

September 27, 2012
Maximizing Your Dry Cleaner’s Value (For a Sale or For Yourself), Part 2

SAN FRANCISCO — If you are not actively selling your business, you are actively re-buying it yourself every day

SAN FRANCISCO — Owners often ask how to prepare their dry cleaning business for an optimum-priced sale. Generally, the answer is the same as the answer to an entirely different question: “How can I improve my business?”

To optimize the value of a business, make it the best it can be. Is that an oversimplification? Yes. Is it true? Yes.

KEYS TO PROFITABILITY

How can you make your business more profitable? Try these approaches:

Be Flexible

You need to be willing to consider new options, including:

Processes — Continual innovations, changing regulations and improved equipment have combined to make streamlined processing possible. Be certain your current process is appropriate and efficient and not just based on habit.

Suppliers — The consolidation of supply chains has created an especially challenging environment for local suppliers. If your preferred supplier has not adapted appropriately to reduce your costs, it is time to review the relationship and the cost/reward ratio.

September 7, 2011
Clean Up Spotty Productivity by Gainsharing (Part 2 of 2)

EVANSTON, Ill. — By focusing on the cultural values of their growing foreign-born Latino workforce, drycleaning plants and laundries can boost productivity, lower per-unit costs and better meet ever-stiffer customer demands.

Most drycleaners have tried to motivate their workers for better productivity—with varying degrees of success. Those with mainly Mexican or Spanish-speaking workers find “gainsharing” gives them more productive employees and a greater competitive advantage. Why? Latin cultural traditions meld closely with gainsharing values.

GAINSHARING DIFFERS FROM PROFIT SHARING AND 401(K)

Gainsharing avoids the drawbacks of profit sharing and 401(k)-based retirement plans for several reasons:

September 6, 2011
Clean Up Spotty Productivity by Gainsharing (Part 1 of 2)

EVANSTON, Ill. — By focusing on the cultural values of their growing foreign-born Latino workforce, drycleaning plants and laundries can boost productivity, lower per-unit costs and better meet ever-stiffer customer demands.

Most drycleaners have tried to motivate their workers for better productivity—with varying degrees of success. Those with mainly Mexican or Spanish-speaking workers find “gainsharing” gives them more productive employees and a greater competitive advantage. Why? Latin cultural traditions meld closely with gainsharing values.

WHAT IS GAINSHARING?

Gainsharing is a group pay-for-performance program. Worker performance is quantified and given a dollar value. When workers top a threshold pre-set by management, they can earn a bonus. Employees receive half the value of their better performance, and the company, the other half.

July 17, 2008
Shrink Business to Grow Profitability

For certain operations in today’s economy, shrinking may be the first and best step toward growing stronger and more profitable. The strategy is contrary to the basic principles of entrepreneurial capitalism and its basic philosophy: “Grow or die.”

In general, the strategy flies in the face of standard operating procedure, but today’s environment offers less-than-standard operating conditions. Today, many people face unique circumstances that may also relate to drycleaning operations.