The Art of Hiring New Employees

I recently read a great article that explained the importance of hiring an employee with the right cultural fit for your organization. It stated that there may be numerous individuals who have all the right qualifications, but if they don’t have the right personality to fit into your corporate culture, it will not be a success and can, in fact, be a huge detriment to your organization.

The most successful companies have a strong team mentality. They step in and assist each other without being asked. They pull together as they are all aware that if one fails, they all fail. Conversely, if one succeeds, they all succeed. To bring in a new employee who wants to ‘be the star’ or wants to work autonomously would cause resentment and ultimately weaken the team. They would not be the right fit for this particular corporate culture. However, if your organization requires minimal or no interaction among employees and thrives on individual over-achievers, then you want to hire the ‘lone wolf’ personality.

Make sure you know what type of personality will best fit your organization when interviewing for open positions. You can train most people to do the tasks required for a job, but you cannot train someone to change their personality. For the new hire to be successful and accomplish the goals you need to reach, be certain they will fit in your culture.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.

Free Registration for Pack Expo Las Vegas 2013

New England Machinery will be exhibiting at the Pack Expo Las Vegas 2013 show in booth C-2914. We will be highlighting our model NERCC-3, Rotary Capper, our model NEHCPE-48, Compact Unscrambler and our famous ‘Flying Yellow Bottles’ display consisting of our monoblock NEHHLPE-72 Unscrambler and SOE-3/540 Secondary Orienter.

If you would like to register to attend the show for free, please go to the show’s official website at: www.packexpo.com and use the following customer invite code: 59N76.

We look forward to seeing everyone at the show and will be hosting a ‘happy hour’ on Monday and Tuesday evenings starting at 3:00 p.m. in our booth #C-2914. Don’t miss this great event!

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.

PMMI Researches Opportunities and Challenges in Packaging Part III

Earlier this year PMMI (Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute released a research report on the opportunities and challenges for the packaging machinery industry. They held focus groups at the end of 2012 and identified 10 top priorities facing the packaging industry. The final four items on the list were:

7. Enabling end users to benefit from innovations in packaging materials used in innovative package designs and packaging operations. Every company wants their product to ‘stand out’ on the shelf in a marketplace. Machinery manufacturers need to work closely with the designers of new packaging to assure that it can be easily and cost effectively produced. A new package design is only good if it can be mass produced utilizing existing or low-cost, highly efficient machinery.

8. Consciously incorporating U.S. strategies and operations into fulfilling end users’ global packaging requirements and global presence. Creating packaging that can be used in multiple countries without changing can save millions of dollars to multi-national companies. The ability to create an O&M manual that automatically translates into any language may not be possible today, but would be invaluable to the company that develops it.

9. Recognizing that packaging creates a marketplace differentiation platform but that machinery purchases use scarce capital and create expense streams. Machinery manufacturers need to develop machines that are versatile throughout a plant. Production plants are looking to buy one machine that can be used for dozens of SKUs. They cannot afford to have machinery that is ‘dedicated’ to one product.

10. Supporting end users’ environmental strategy emphases in response to consumers’ green interest and behaviors. I recently saw a presentation on a new company that is using the roots of mushrooms to create foam containers for biodegradeable packaging. The roots are highly compressed and will form together in pre-formed shapes similar to Styrofoam. The best part is that once in a landfill they will breakdown safely. This is the future not just for packaging, but for the safety of planet earth.

For more ‘information regarding PMMI’s Top to Top Summit Report contact PMMI at www.pmmi.org.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.

PMMI Researches Opportunities and Challenges in Packaging Part II

Earlier this year PMMI (Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute) released a research report on the opportunities and challenges for the packaging machinery industry. They held focus groups at the end of 2012 and identified 10 top priorities facing the packaging industry. The second three items on the list were:

4.                  Recognizing and leveraging accelerated social media usage and its impacts on products and brands. Not since the invention of the printing press has there been a more effective way of promoting products than the new explosion of social media usage. A product that ‘goes viral’ on the internet can make a start up company a multi-million dollar company literally overnight. How is your company leveraging this important opportunity?

5.                  Understanding regulations and managing regulatory compliance at all supply chain levels. The pharmaceutical and food industries are especially affected by constantly changing government regulations. Recent legislation such as Serialization and the Food Safety Modernization Act are just two examples of ever changing regulations directly affecting the packaging industry. How are you keeping up with them?

6.                  Ensuring efficient and reliable machinery manufacturing practices and operations from order placement to start-up functions. Is your company utilizing ERP software to track orders from placement to delivery? Do you use a CRM software to track every sales opportunity? Are you using lean manufacturing techniques to optimize efficiency? If not, your competitors probably are and that will hurt you in the long run.

For more ‘Opportunities and Challenges’ noted in the PMMI report, contact PMMI at www.pmmi.org, or read the next installment in my Part III blog.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.

PMMI Researches Opportunities and Challenges in Packaging Part I

Earlier this year PMMI (Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute released a research report on the opportunities and challenges for the packaging machinery industry. They held focus groups at the end of 2012 and identified 10 top priorities facing the packaging industry. The first three items on the list were:

1. Urgent need to address workforce availability and skill sets at all levels. How is your company dealing with workforce availability? Some geographical areas will be challenged more on this topic than others, but all will be affected in one form or another. The smart companies will invest in growing their workforce from within by assisting in employee education and formulating career paths to help their employees stay happy, focused and challenged for long term employment.
2. Continuing emphasis on sustainability and lean plant level operations as a “new normal” was the second item on the list. It is vital for all companies to identify every opportunity to create their product in the most efficient and effective manner without wasting resources. I recently read about a company that makes its product ‘out of thin air’ literally. They utilize wind turbines to power their plant saving them tens of thousands of dollars annually while helping the environment. Your competitor may be able to build a similar product to yours for less money (thus sell it for less) if they learn to harness ‘free energy’. Don’t let them beat you to the punch.
3. Fulfilling needs of a changing demographic, attitudinal, and behavioral consumer marketplace. Is your company keeping up with your customers’ changing needs? For example, the aging US baby boomer population needs easy to open pharmaceuticals. At the same time, many US families include multiple generations living in the same household, creating a need for harder to open pharmaceuticals for small children. How can these two opposite needs be met in the same packaging?

 For more ‘Opportunities and Challenges’ noted in the PMMI report, contact PMMI at www.pmmi.org, or read the next installment in my Part II blog.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.

Where Do You Go For Marketing Inspiration?

Marketing requires a constant flow of new ideas. If you continue to market in the same way you always have, you will start to realize that your market share is dwindling. You need to keep up with the latest advances and changes in the field of marketing. However, you also need to keep up with the latest designs and ideas in marketing. Where do you go to get that?

I try to keep current by subscribing and reviewing monthly marketing magazines. I don’t think I’ve ever looked through an issue that I didn’t find something new and interesting that I could use in some format for the company I work for. I also watch design shows on television and visit art galleries. It seems that just when I thought there was nothing much new happening, something I see somewhere surprises me.

Take the time to, as they say, ‘Expose Yourself To Art’. You will be rewarded with a blast of renewed energy and ideas will start to flow.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.

Make The Time To Keep Up

Someone recently told me that they didn’t have the time to take a course on a new product that was being introduced into their industry. I asked them if they could really afford not to take the time to learn about it. If all of their competitors were making time to learn about the new product that might change something in their industry, they would find themselves way behind in not knowing about it.

Sometimes you don’t know what you ‘don’t know’ and that can be dangerous for you and your company. You will often find in life that you don’t regret the things you did that were not so important as you do regret the opportunities you let pass you by. We don’t always get a second chance to right our mistakes. Find the time to take those courses in your field to learn about something new. It could wind up making or breaking your company.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.