Wednesday, June 25, 2014

The Best ‘Summer Read’ For Managers

An acquaintance recently suggested I read the book “Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney” by Lee Cockerell. It was probably the best advice I have received in many years. The book should be required reading for all business school students.

Reading the book gave me new ideas on almost every page. Most books I ‘archive’ after I have finished reading them on my Nook. This book will stay on my ‘desktop’ forever. I know I will go back and re-read it several times as I think the ideas, suggestions and recommendations are all extremely valuable.

If you want to improve yourself and your company, I highly recommend you get a copy and read it. It is great advice about real companies, real employees and real managers and how a manager can become a leader that will be respected and followed through good times and bad times.

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.

Monday, June 23, 2014

Packaging Machinery Shows

We were fortunate to have recently exhibited at the Interpack 2014 show in Dusseldorf, Germany, and I have just returned from the Expo Pack Mexico 2014 show. Trade shows are an excellent opportunity to allow manufacturers to ‘show off’ their latest and greatest machines and technologies. It gives potential customers a ‘one stop’ shop for all of their production line needs. It also offers them a number of choices for whatever machinery they are seeking.

The shows were also a great opportunity for us to ‘touch base’ with acquaintances both old and new and network within our ‘packaging machinery’ community. I was pleased to even meet a few of my blog followers who came by to meet me! This year’s Expo Pack show even featured a seminar that gave packaging machinery buyers the ability to meet with and hear from a few of our customers. We were able to ask them questions, and more importantly, hear from them on their concerns and needs from packaging machinery suppliers/manufacturers.

I look forward to this fall’s show season. It promises to bring us all together once more for more opportunities to meet, greet, learn and share what is near and dear to all of us – the packaging industry!

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.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

How Does Your Company Handle Mobile Devices?

Our ability to communicate is changing rapidly. From the time that Alexander Bell first patented the telephone in 1876 until the introduction of cell phones in the 1970’s, the basic telephone did not change much in 100 years. In the past thirty years we have seen the introduction of the internet, tablet devices, and cell phones that can connect to anything and everything that has ‘electronic messaging’ capability. You can now be at home or in another country and monitor a machine running at your production plant.

Along with all these amazing capabilities comes problems. Securing all this information from people you don’t want to have it, is a serious concern. You must also guard it against others who can cause malicious damage. All of this is a big challenge for small companies that cannot afford to staff an IT Dept. Yet to compete with the larger companies, they need to have a certain amount of communication capabilities.

How does your company handle these challenges? What levels of communication do you allow and how do you keep up with all the changes in the industry?

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.

Monday, June 9, 2014

Packaging is a World-Wide Industry

If you are in the business of manufacturing packaging machinery, you had better be prepared to compete in a world-wide arena. Twenty years ago, only the large companies were selling packaging machinery world-wide on a consistent basis. Today it is a requirement. All of the large consumer goods manufacturers have plants throughout the world. Often times they want to standardize with one manufacturer throughout all their facilities. This requires having the ability to build and export to foreign locations. Not that big of a deal.

Small manufacturers can find a plethora of assistance in exporting from their local economic development councils. Every state has a Department of Commerce branch that is more than willing to assist in getting started with exporting. Don’t wait for the government representative to come knocking on your door to tell you they are here to help you, contact them and get the assistance you need. Your tax dollars are paying for it, so take advantage of what they have to offer.

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.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

The Packaging Industry – A Great Place To Be!

In my career I have had the good fortune to have worked for a number of different industries of varying products and services. My past employers include manufacturing, insurance, education, real estate development, advertising and consulting work. In manufacturing I’ve worked for pharmaceutical companies, a leather producer, environmental equipment manufacturer and, of course, a packaging machinery manufacturer. All of them have their pros and cons, but I believe that only the packaging machinery manufacturer has the ability to stand the test of time.

The packaging industry has been growing since man first learned how to produce more items than they needed, and discovered the value of bartering. With the world population growing at an incredible rate, the need for consumer goods will escalate accordingly. Products must be contained and secured properly in order to fill the supply demand. Hence packaging has a secure and growing future.

For me, it is also an interesting industry. As New England Machinery sells to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products and other industries, I get to see new products all the time. Visiting our customers is especially enjoyable. Until I started working in this industry I took for granted the products I purchased in a grocery store. Only now can I fully appreciate the involved process it takes to get those products onto the store shelves. So if you are looking for an interesting and long-term career, contact a packaging machinery manufacturer. It is a great place to be!

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.