Recently I was asked to share my views on the concept of work-life balance as part of an internal all company meeting. My views have changed over time as I have gone through several life changing events, including starting EAC 21 years ago, buying my first house, marriage, 5 kids, addiction in loved ones, divorce, hiring and firing good friends, and this list goes on. Through it all I have worked hard to be true to several guiding principals that have remained constant and have influenced my view of work-life balance. People may look at the things I have gone through in my life and be tempted to judge me. To say “See? He doesn’t have work-life balance figured out or XXX wouldn’t have happened.” There may be truth in that statement, but I can promise you I have learned from every one of those situations and am much better at managing my life now than I was back then.
Did you catch what I did there?
A quick search on the terms “work life balance” netted 102 million hits. The overwhelming view I see seems to be rooted in the belief work and life are diametrically opposed to each other; that I need to be doing one or the other but I’m a failure at work or at life if I ever mix them or they overlap or I spend “too much time” at one or the other. I lived with the guilt associated with this belief system for many years, and honestly, I believe it lead to many of the issues I experienced earlier in my life with both work and family. You see, I’m wired to work hard to try to be the best at whatever I do. Does that mean I’m always the best?? Absolutely not! It does mean I recognize I can always get better and I work hard to make that happen.
Reconciling that somewhat self-imposed drive with the pressures from societal beliefs and individuals demanding your attention often leads to tremendous amounts of guilt. Guilt for taking PTO. Guilt for working late. Guilt for making a personal call from work. Guilt for making a work call while driving your kids to school. You get the idea. I’m sure many can relate. I know it was a big part of my psyche back then.
But, a simple change in thinking can forever ease the guilt and make you a better parent, spouse, partner, employee, or whatever else you are determined to be. You see, bottom line is work and life are NOT diametrically opposed. It’s all just LIFE. Sometimes your kids, your spouse, your significant other, your partner, your boss, your project, your parents, your teammates, etc. need more attention than at other times. Who am I as an employer to dictate when that needs to be? Who am I to say my employees can’t take some time to go to the dentist on a Wednesday afternoon? or who are we as society to say they can’t take a phone call on a Sunday afternoon? If I’m hiring people with similar belief systems to me then I need to trust they know how to manage their lives in the best way possible; that they will get their job done just like they will manage raising their kids, managing their relationship and taking care of themselves both physically and mentally.
It’s all just life. Manage it.
In light of this holiday season we want to personally thank all of our customers with this video from our CEO, Thane Hathaway, and EAC employees. Thank you for everything you do! And when the holidays are over know that we are here to helping you to transform the way you design, manufacture, connect to, and service your products.
Have a HAPPY 2017 THANKSGIVING everyone!! Gobble Gobble!
Communicating product data across an organization has become more complex than ever. Here are 9 reasons it’s time to connect your enterprise systems.
With different departments gathering product data form a variety of systems including Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Systems, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems, Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), and Quality Management Systems (QMS) and more, how do we know our organizations are making the most out of all the information we’re collecting?
Just think about it for a second. Our systems and departments speak different languages, while a company likely aims for a single goal. This is why it can pay to connect your systems and provide company-wide access to business and product knowledge
With an estimated 90% of the world’s data created in the last two years alone (Conner, n.d.), it’s no wonder that companies have trouble utilizing it all. The IDC estimates that just 0.5% of the data we companies produce is ever used. It’s time to change that.
1. Increased Usability
Data experts believe that if Fortune 1,000 companies increased the amount of data they used by just 10%, they could realize over $65 million in additional net income (Marr, 2015). These numbers are huge. Hopefully, they help you understand why I’m writing this blog and pleading my case.
The truth is – our systems are currently too complex for many roles within our organizations to navigate, find, and transfer the right information. This leaves our separate departments accountable for communicating different product data.
So how do we make our product data more usable? By democratizing our product data from all existing sources into one single system.
2. Better Access to Data
The most important reason your product data shouldn’t (internally) be kept a secret is because product data is your company’s most valuable asset. Not everyone who needs access to specific product information hosted in your PLM system is from your engineering department, so why force them through the same vigorous Product Lifecycle system training?
In order to effectively use data, departments must have ready access to it.
After all, the solution to this problem must make rich product information easy to accessible for a broad set of roles. By creating an organized system that connects all of your product data, your organization’s information is easily assessable to users beyond those who have created it. Just think of the possibilities if you connected your data from multiple systems and delivered it to all departments through individualized, role-based views.
3. Complete Data
Imagine an entire enterprise with access to real data, at the right time, when it’s needed. By connecting your product lifecycle management systems with your other enterprise systems, every stakeholder within your organization can leverage product data from multiple systems. They can make accurate decisions based on the latest, most accurate information from EBoM, MBoM, SBoM, ERP, MRP, and QMS data.
4. Better Insights
Better data + better visibility = better insights. Your teams are demanding more at lightning speeds from your PLM processes and solutions. This is another reason why your organization might consider integration technologies and custom front-end solutions.
An enterprise with insights into how current products and processes can be optimized can drastically improve overall productivity. Providing your team with access to up-to-date, accurate product data will allow your organization to have better insight into areas for continuous improvement.
5. Better Decisions
Ready access to information is especially important to any company involved with product development.
Users without access to information often make assumptions and resort to workarounds. This opens the door to poor decisions and errors, quality problems, and waste. Decisions made from out-of-date, inaccurate data threaten product quality and delay time to market.
By providing everyone in your organization with broad visibility into your organization will drive better, more accurate decisions. This will improve your quality, reduce waste, scrap, rework, and meeting your time-to-market goals. The analytics resulting from connected systems help users across your organization make accurate decisions throughout your entire development process.
6. Better Products
Who doesn’t want to create better products faster? Providing your organization with universal access to data will allow your company to drastically accelerate product development. How so? By connecting disparate systems, you will have access to real-time data allowing you to achieve better product decisions. Because your decisions and actions are now driven by up-to-date information, you will achieve a higher product quality.
7. Increased Productivity
Why waste time manually reading, entering and analyzing data, when it could be automatically collected, filtered, and combined? By linking enterprise systems into one simple interface, any user within your organization can access contextual, up-to-date, real-time product information anytime they need. I guarantee your productivity will grow when your organization is able to plan earlier with manufacturing, order materials sooner with purchasing all while your engineering team is spending less time pulling reports.
8. Increased Collaboration
Using a system that provides role-based access for stakeholders provides every role with the ability to quickly understand the status of a part number, inventory, and the part or assembly’s role in the “big picture.” This will not only help mobilize and inform the work of teams throughout the organization, but it will also help maximize the success of your product development. Giving your team the ability to extend and connect your PLM data into the rest of your enterprise will rapidly increase your overall organization collaboration.
9. Real Results
The ultimate benefit your organization will achieve by connecting your systems comes from your ability to get to real results faster. It makes the “to” in “Quote-to-Cash” just a little bit faster. What does that mean? Data gives your organization confidence to quickly deliver value. Good decisions, accurate manufacturing, knowledgeable service groups, self-sufficient marketing and sales teams. This all adds up to faster time to market, faster time to revenue — real results.
So.. what now? It’s time to connect your enterprise systems.
I know what you’re probably thinking, ‘this sounds great, but it’s not that easy to connect and provide role-based access to enterprise systems.’
And you’re right. It would take a tool that connects all of your enterprise systems, right? I’m glad you’ve stuck it out for the long haul — because this is what I’ve been waiting to tell you. There IS a solution. It’s called ThingWorx Navigate. What is it? It is a single role-based app that you can easily access from your smartphone, tablet, or computer where you can literally see all of your product data in one place — no matter what department you’re from. Mind blown? We knew we needed to get our hands on it the moment we found out this solution that everyone has been looking for — which is why PTC has trusted us to be a valued Solutions Provider for their product ThingWorx Navigate.
Watch our video on how easy it is to use ThingWorx Navigate and how it may change the way your company does business.
As I’m settling into my desk and sipping on my hot coffee this morning I find my to-do list and mentally prepare for a game plan to get things done this week. I look to my calendar and see that Thanksgiving is a week away. A week away?? Where has the time gone?! In any case I remind myself that every year it comes as a surprise to me – even though I always know it’s coming. It always seems to creep up on me when I’m the most busy. I sigh out loud thinking about the work I’ll have to catch up on. The thoughts of working through my lunch hour and working late into the evenings sink in as I shift around in my office chair. Those thoughts alone make me feel tired. For a moment. Then, a thought lifts me up. How great does it feel to get back to work after a refreshing long weekend? Oh yes, there are other stressors – the ones that derive from family members that drive you crazy during the chaos of Thanksgiving. But what about the moments during it all? The release of laughter at the table when someone tells an embarrassing story about you? Or the sweet taste of honey-glazed ham that your loved one cooks just right? Or the fireplace crackling over the chatter that fills the room?
That brought me back to thinking about how you should find things that you’re thankful for in the workplace – even if you’ve got a lot on your to-do list. What are the things that put a smile on your face while you’re at work? What drives you to hustle for your team? What are the things that have kept you going and keep you motivated to be the best you can be at your job?
This morning I have come up with 5 reasons to be thankful for your team – and I’ve given a personal account of what that has meant for me and my experiences with EAC Product Development Solutions.
1. A Team That Gives Back
I am so grateful that I am a part of a team that cares about giving back. From the moment I started here I knew it was going to be a great fit. There is a very active presence in the volunteering department. I immediately wanted to get involved. The first month I started, I organized our team to volunteer with Feed My Starving Children for the late part of an afternoon. You get together in groups at each station and work together to pack food into boxes- and as a challenge, you’re timed and it becomes a race to see which group can pack the most food within the timeframe. It’s the perfect team building exercise as well as a great way to give back to those that are in need of food around the world. If you’ve never done this with your team, I strongly suggest doing so.
I’ve also had a few conversations with some team members who felt strongly about the Men’s Health movement so our team got together and launched a Movember project. We currently have a lot of hairy men in the office right now – all of whom are behind a good cause of course. The Movember Foundation lets individuals and teams raise funds for prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health and suicide awareness – all in hopes of stopping men from dying too young. We’ve come together as a team to raise funds that many of us are truly passionate about.
Please donate to our team! https://moteam.co/eac-no-shave-ember
2. A Work Culture That Aligns With Your Values
The first week I started at EAC, our team had a company BBQ potluck where everyone brought something to pitch in for an afternoon lunch. That was where I got to meet a lot of people who work remotely or are just in different corners of the office. So I got to see faces that I normally wouldn’t run into just because of a simple, yet impactful afternoon BBQ.
When football season crept up there was a lot of talk about a fantasy football league around the office for people who wanted to participate. When the fall season peaked, one of our engineers brought in their garden squash to share with everyone. There are plans to have a ‘Teams-giving’ next week to celebrate Thanksgiving in the office. When you run into a coworker, there is more than just work conversation – there is real value in that conversation because your work culture is fun.
Another great example of how fun the work culture is at EAC is the fact that we celebrate people. In our weekly meetings we celebrate work anniversaries and birthdays – and if that person works in the same office – guess what? We go out for lunch to celebrate them. Work for a company that cares about you and celebrates you.
3. Individual Strengths
I can honestly say that everyone that I have met from our company has a strong work ethic. Everyone is proud of their work and wants to do well at their job. It is the little things that each individual does that makes the whole team successful in the end. What is that saying again? Oh yeah – you are only as strong as your weakest link. When everyone works hard to accomplish their goals then the ultimate goal on top is just that much closer to being managed.
So how do we make sure that each individual is on track to meet their goals? We check in on them. And I’m not talking about just one-on-ones when you can talk about your individual progress. We check in on each other. You know – as friends – no, as humans do from time to time. Mental health is important in the workplace too. We even started doing wall-sits, squats, and planks to keep our physical health in check. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had someone just come up and just ask how I’m doing or just ask what I’m up to out of curiosity. We treat each other like family here which takes me to my next point.
4. Small Wins
I’ve learned not to ignore the small wins. Every day you put forth a lot of effort to get things done. Some days you accomplish more than others. But all efforts mean that you care about your job and that you are willing to do what needs to be done – even if it may not mean more money or more praise. There are always opportunities around the office that may not be on your priority list but if you go out of your way to tend to them, then it can give you a solid reward in the end. So when you’re checking tasks off your to-do list, do not forget to feel good about checking the small tasks off too.
5. One Mission, One Message
I noticed right away in my interview process was that not only was I interviewed with the Marketing Department but I was also interviewed with the Sales Department as well. I had a professor in college who told me repeatedly that in marketing you need to have your sales department on the same page as you or you’ll never meet your goals. He said that it sounds so obvious but you would not believe how often it happens because people get so buried in their own work that they forget to work as a team. It was very clear from the interview process that EAC knew this and that the collaboration between departments was vital to their success. I immediately had thought of what my professor had said and I decided that this company was on the right track.
After being with the company for only four months I can say that I work with sales on a weekly basis – if not daily. It is so important to have the right message – whatever that may mean to your company. This not only helps with consistency but it helps with your company branding too.
These 5 reasons are what have helped me through the busy and stressful times and remind me that I’m working for a great company. What are the things in the office that you’re thankful for?
There are a lot of things in life we as humans seem to put on autopilot. We seem to do things the same way, around the same time, even sometimes in the same place. Despite our best efforts to be different, we find ourselves thinking, behaving, and feeling the same way we did yesterday and the even days, months, and years before that. It’s time to challenge your ways.
Look at the way you do things for instance.
If you’re anything like me, you have routines for almost everything you do, from the time you wake up to the time you go to work. We often get so accustomed to how we do things, finding the reasons why we do them becomes a challenge. It is easy to overlook our other options if we fail to recognize the benefits of change. It is this very mindset that holds us, and the rest of the world from reaching our full potential.
Aside from personally challenging our ways, we should also be challenging our business processes.
It is my belief that companies, more than individuals, tend to do what they’ve always done. We become comfortable in the systems we know, the methods we have created, and the processes we have established. This is when we fail to recognize opportunity in organizational change.
Although the concept of change can be frightening for some the reality is, success doesn’t originate within our comfort zones.
If we never reevaluate or challenge the way we do things, how would we ever get better? I believe the answer is, we wouldn’t. As the quote often attributed to Albert Einstein states, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
We must acknowledge our propensity to build repetitive cycles in order to successfully grow our businesses, change and be different. After all, change is the vital element for both success and survival.
With the rapid advancement of technology our world is changing more than ever.
This means our organizations must quickly change, too. It is crucial that we optimize our business practices by looking at our operations and leveraging the resources we use to get things done. In order to grow and prosper, we must recognize our patterns and learn how to change them.
Taking an engineering department for example, your in-house staff may know your business or a particular CAD (Computer Aided Design) package, but are they experts at prototyping, simulation, electronics, and new materials? This is example is where utilizing a fresh perspective could more than benefit your company.
Now look at the systems your company currently depends on.
The methods by which you currently transfer documents, communicate through departments, and transmit information. These are the systems we ultimately forget to challenge. As we become comfortable in our ways, we forget our competitors might be challenging theirs. You might think to yourself.., ‘So what if our department communication may not be the most efficient process’ , but what if speeding up communication would bring your cost down by up to 10 percent! What if your communication systems boosted your competitive advantage, and ultimately accelerated your time to market? These everyday, repetitive processes are what I am challenging you to re-think.
Organizations benefit from change.
A change within an organization results in new ways of looking at customer needs, new ways of delivering customer service, new ways of strengthening customer interactions and new products that might attract new markets. But what many fail to realize is that many of these are driven from internal practices.
If you can imagine the kind of businesses that will all be able to help you improve the products you’re making, then you can see a world where people are able to find a lot more success.
Change is what allows us to explore new opportunities, learn new skills and exercise our creativity.
If nothing else, I challenge you to be fearless in the pursuit of what sets you and your solutions apart. I challenge you to re-think your ways and become the best you can be.
Of course, there are times where you think your team can take on the world no problem because well, you’re that good. But most of the time it is about much more than handling multiple projects at once. It’s about making sure the job gets done without compromising quality and the reputation of your brand.
Have you ever over-committed and realized at a certain point that it was too much for your team to take on? Without finding a solution would mean under-achieving on tasks just so that you and your team could get everything done. Let’s face it – the working memory of human brain has a limited capacity. In fact, only 2% of the population is actually proficient at multi-tasking.
So why waste your time trying to beat the odds? Here are 3 reasons why you need to stop taking on too many projects.
1. It’s a Sign that You’re Not Delegating your Tasks Appropriately
Stop doing everything yourself and let others help you. Delegating your tasks to those that have the time and expertise to do so will help you eliminate the risks of under-performing on projects.
It’s important for us to realize that we can seek help when it is needed. We can’t always do everything ourselves. It is better for you to let someone take over some of your tasks so you can focus on your most important tasks. Instead of wasting your time trying to figure something out yourself, let the experts help you.
Manufacturing and Product Development departments are turning to Engineering Services offered through small to medium sized companies and handing off projects to engineers outside of their own business to meet time-sensitive deadlines.
2. It’s Intensifying Your Time Management Problem
If you’re already past the point of planning ahead, then you can still manage the time you have left by dividing your remaining tasks into manageable goals. The plan is to increase productivity in the long run by finding ways to save and manage the time you currently have. Finding a long term solution for time management will result in working smarter, not harder.
Time management is not something that everyone is great at all the time. The important thing is to recognize when you are having a hard time and seek out the appropriate solution.
3. It Means that You’re Not Prioritizing your Projects
Determine what the optimal number of projects is that you should be managing to ensure appropriate planning and strong execution and control. You should be spending 75% of your time and effort on the projects within your team that are top priority. The other 25% of projects should be assigned to those that can take on the project with minimal interjection on your part.
Eliminate a chaotic work environment by handing off the lowest priority tasks to others and gaining back control of your highest priorities.
Why you should turn to EAC’s Engineering Services Team
Our Engineering Services Team at EAC Product Development Solutions – coined the Extensioneering Services — work with manufacturers, academic institutions, and engineering and design organizations throughout North America. Our engineering experts are located in Burnsville, Minnesota and are working around the clock to ensure they deliver engineering solutions that exceed our customer’s expectations.
Delivering quality work is a critical part of maintaining the trust of your customers. Our engineers leverage years of experience and deep knowledge of engineering disciplines to provide you with fast, high quality, and innovative design services. EAC has completed more than 400 projects over the last 20 years. We take pride in our ability to adapt to the ever-changing technology landscape to provide innovative solutions to our customer’s problems.
If you’re leading a team that could use some help, fill out this form to receive a free project scope.
