To everyone who has been a faithful follower of my blog, I wish to say thank you. I hope that I have at least once passed on some useful tidbit of information that helped you, or you at least enjoyed reading it.
July 1, 2016 marks my official retirement date from New England Machinery, Inc. At that time, I will turn over this blog to my successor to perpetuate the dissemination of information about the packaging industry. I will, however, keep my finger in the mix working on a very limited schedule going forward, but my marketing duties will be handled by another. I sincerely wish all my followers, colleagues, and especially my co-workers the very best and to enjoy this tremendous adventure in the world of packaging machinery. It has never ceased to absorb, fascinate and surprise me and I wish that you too, will experience the challenges, fast pace, and occasional exhilaration of the packaging machinery industry. And, yes, it has been a great adventure park-like ride complete with tension filled climbs up, coupled with breath-taking soars down. Always leaving one craving that next hairpin turn and stomach-dropping fast bump. Enjoy every moment. My best to all! Marge Bonura
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 27, 2016
Monday, June 20, 2016
Do You Give Your Employees Refresher Training?
From time to time everyone needs to have refresher training on the tasks they handle regularly. It is surprising sometimes to find out that an employee has been doing something incorrectly for a long time and no one has caught the mistake. Don’t assume that just because someone has been handling the same task for a year or more, that they have mastered the correct way of doing it. We all slip into habits that may or may not be correct. Schedule refresher training for each member of your staff at least once a year. If you can’t take several days to check and review everything all at once, then schedule one or two tasks a week that you will review with them until you have covered everything.
You, the employee and the company will benefit greatly from the refresher training. You’ll be surprised what you may uncover and the employee will appreciate that their supervisor took the time to assist them in polishing their skills.
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.
You, the employee and the company will benefit greatly from the refresher training. You’ll be surprised what you may uncover and the employee will appreciate that their supervisor took the time to assist them in polishing their skills.
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 13, 2016
How Do You Qualify Candidates for Employment?
When hiring to fill a position in your company, how do you qualify your candidates? Assuming that you first check that the candidates have the required skills, education and experience you are looking for, what else do you look for to determine the perfect fit? In our company we look for someone who will fit our corporate culture. To us it is important that the individuals we work with share our work ethics, values, and positive attitude. We know that we spend more waking hours with our co-workers than with our family and we want to surround ourselves with happy people who are eager to assist our company in succeeding and who embrace teamwork.
So next time you are interviewing a candidate for a position, look for someone whose attitude about work matches the corporate culture in your company. Take the time to question them about how they would handle different situations so you can get a feel for their nature. If their answers make you uncomfortable, better to pass on them for another candidate.
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.
So next time you are interviewing a candidate for a position, look for someone whose attitude about work matches the corporate culture in your company. Take the time to question them about how they would handle different situations so you can get a feel for their nature. If their answers make you uncomfortable, better to pass on them for another candidate.
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.
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Does Your Company Have Written Standard Operating Procedures?
One of the biggest problems when someone takes vacation time is finding someone to temporarily replace them. It takes more than just putting an extra person in the position as they also need to know what to do and how to do it, to properly cover for the vacationing employee. One of the best ways to resolve this issue is to make sure every employee has written standard operating procedures (SOPs) for all the tasks they perform.
After you’ve taken the step of making sure the SOPs are all completed, make sure they are accurate and detailed enough. Have someone try to follow them to complete the tasks to see if they hit a place where they cannot go any further or are not sure how to proceed. Then make the necessary corrections to the SOPs and try it again until someone who doesn’t know the work, can satisfactorily complete it.
There is one final, important item to keep in mind and that is that the SOPs need to be reviewed and possibly updated at least once a year or sooner if you know you have made a change in a procedure. Once you have accurate SOPs for all your employees’ tasks, there shouldn’t be a noticeable affect if someone is out due to illness, vacation or leaves the 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.
After you’ve taken the step of making sure the SOPs are all completed, make sure they are accurate and detailed enough. Have someone try to follow them to complete the tasks to see if they hit a place where they cannot go any further or are not sure how to proceed. Then make the necessary corrections to the SOPs and try it again until someone who doesn’t know the work, can satisfactorily complete it.
There is one final, important item to keep in mind and that is that the SOPs need to be reviewed and possibly updated at least once a year or sooner if you know you have made a change in a procedure. Once you have accurate SOPs for all your employees’ tasks, there shouldn’t be a noticeable affect if someone is out due to illness, vacation or leaves the 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.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
How Do You Keep Up With The Latest Technology?
The company I work for keeps in very close communication with all of our vendors. We particularly meet as often as possible with the vendors for our electronic components. Our vendors in turn make sure to inform us of any upcoming new technologies they have or will offer shortly. Our Engineers make time to meet with the vendors and learn all the features and benefits of the new products. When those products will in turn offer our customers a better solution, we immediately find a way to implement them into our machinery.
Our customers depend on us to offer them the latest and best solutions for their packaging lines. We accomplish that by keeping open communication with our vendors and encouraging them to contact us as soon as they learn of anything new. How does your company keep up with the latest technologies?
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.
Our customers depend on us to offer them the latest and best solutions for their packaging lines. We accomplish that by keeping open communication with our vendors and encouraging them to contact us as soon as they learn of anything new. How does your company keep up with the latest technologies?
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, May 23, 2016
If You Want to Motivate Employees – Challenge Them!
I have read a lot of articles about how to motivate employees. Mostly they state that every individual is motivated by different things. Some employees are looking for recognition. For them, a pat on the back for something they have accomplished goes a long way. Other employees are looking to ‘move up the corporate ladder’, they want a clear path to success laid out for them. Some employees are looking for little perks such as ‘comp time’ or additional benefits. But it seems to me that there is one common denominator that will motivate all employees and that is to challenge them.
An employee cannot get complacent and bored if they are constantly being challenged. If you have a good employee you want to keep, make sure you continually find new ways to challenge them. Give them tasks that are outside their usual duties that require them to use skills they don’t normally need in the performance of their current position. Ask them to take on new projects and work on teams that will help the company to progress. You may find an employee who suddenly looks forward to coming to work each day to see what new challenges they can take on and feel pride in their new found abilities!
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.
An employee cannot get complacent and bored if they are constantly being challenged. If you have a good employee you want to keep, make sure you continually find new ways to challenge them. Give them tasks that are outside their usual duties that require them to use skills they don’t normally need in the performance of their current position. Ask them to take on new projects and work on teams that will help the company to progress. You may find an employee who suddenly looks forward to coming to work each day to see what new challenges they can take on and feel pride in their new found abilities!
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, May 16, 2016
You Shouldn’t ‘Sell’ Packaging Machinery
The term ‘selling’ pertaining to packaging machinery is a misnomer. A production company does not need to be ‘sold’ packaging machinery. What they need is a solution to a production line requirement. If you are manufacturing packaging machinery, your sales personnel need to be consultants, not salespersons. You need to give them comprehensive training on the needs and requirements for production lines.
In today’s busy work environment, production line managers don’t have the time to meet with someone who wants to ‘sell’ them a product. All they truly have time for is someone who can help them improve their production processes with recommendations and solutions. Train your sales personnel to know the ins and outs of a production line, to be able to recognize areas of potential improvements. Even if those improvements do not include an item your company manufactures. Your customers will be grateful for the recommendations and your sales personnel will be the first one they call when they need additional help. Your salesperson/consultant will also be welcomed to come in just for a ‘visit’ even if the customer is not in immediate need of assistance.
So when looking to increase your sales dept., look to hire ‘consultants’ not ‘salespersons’.
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.
In today’s busy work environment, production line managers don’t have the time to meet with someone who wants to ‘sell’ them a product. All they truly have time for is someone who can help them improve their production processes with recommendations and solutions. Train your sales personnel to know the ins and outs of a production line, to be able to recognize areas of potential improvements. Even if those improvements do not include an item your company manufactures. Your customers will be grateful for the recommendations and your sales personnel will be the first one they call when they need additional help. Your salesperson/consultant will also be welcomed to come in just for a ‘visit’ even if the customer is not in immediate need of assistance.
So when looking to increase your sales dept., look to hire ‘consultants’ not ‘salespersons’.
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.
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