Tag: team

Big Relationships

Written on by frain-sales

While we fully support the fact that technology and data are exploding – we still favor big relationships over big data.

The Internet, Mobile Web, Uber, Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc. are all powerful forces leading the charge to amass data, disrupt every industry, and create new ones.

Frain, of course, embraces technology to upgrade our capabilities and communications with our customers.

But, to an even greater extent – we value people.

Today’s technology focus sometimes lacks or leaves behind the human element of meeting face to face, shaking hands, etc.

Frain bucks this trend by reaching out thru visits to our customer’s plants on a daily basis and inviting customers to visit us at Frain.

We’ve actually baked in-person visits into our process – namely the in-person factory acceptance test.

Some machinery and equipment sellers, renters will show you that the machine runs – the wheels go round and around.  For us, that’s not enough.

Not only do we fully restore each machine that ships and back it with parts warranty and our guarantee – We want you to personally visit us to sign off on your machine or complete line to your complete satisfaction.

We test each machine with your product samples before you visit and then invite you to see the same once we’re finished fine tuning each machine to your application.

To us, you’re more than a digit, data point, or piece of the pie chart – you are our number one focus and reason for our success.  You are Frain’s big relationship.

Vision, People, Risk

Written on by Rich Frain

Steve Jobs, co-founded Apple and was the visionary behind the Mac, I-Phone, I-Pad and other products. Jobs didn’t bring much in the way of tech skills to the table. What he did bring, and what made Apple such a successful company was vision, people and the willingness to take risks to validate them.

Steve Jobs was primarily an idea man. He envisioned the Mac, I-Phone etc. These seem pretty straightforward now. But until Jobs had the idea, “Hey, let’s make a phone that is smart enough to…” we were all happy with our dumb phones. We couldn’t even envision the next step. It’s why Jobs didn’t believe in market studies. Had Apple gone out and asked people what they thought of the idea of an I-Phone people would not have been able to even understand the question. The only way to bring something as revolutionary as the I-Phone to market is to bring it to market.

In order to do this, he had to have good people who could implement his vision. All sorts of people starting with Jonny Ives who designed the look and feel but also the engineers who developed the technology, programmers, manufacturing specialists and so on.

Either the visionary or the team, by themselves, are like one hand clapping. It just doesn’t happen.

The other thing Jobs needed to do was risk. He had a product that he was sure was going to be successful. What if nobody else shared his vision once they saw it? It ain’t cheap to bring a new product to market and the risks of failure are high.

Steve Jobs could have played it safe. He could have waited for someone else to build the first smartphone. Had he done that, the I-Phone would be just another smartphone instead of the iconic symbol it is today.

Got a great idea? Got a great team to help you implement it? You have to take the risk. It’s the only way humankind keeps moving forward. We can’t stand still. Work to manage the risk, but take it.

Do More…. Faster…. For Less

Written on by frain-sales

During our time at Pack Expo, hundreds of customers had the opportunity to learn more about our new brand, Frain Integration. They met with our industry experts to understand the impact of speed to market, accelerated cash flow, flexible manufacturing, and risk avoidance.

Surprisingly, the Frain Team learned a great deal from you.

More and more companies, large and small, do not have engineers and technicians in house to assist in the regular upkeep of their machinery let alone to recondition a complete line. Many outsource technical services and often end up paying a lot more than they should…downtime increases and wholesale brand revenue is impacted.

We found that manufacturers want reconditioned and integrated solutions working with a team capable of combining these elements. Frain Integration fills the void that currently exists in the packaging industry, and it does so by providing the largest certified pre-owned packaging equipment inventory in North America.

Frain appreciates the time all of you spent at our booth. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting you and the conversations we had.

They Need to Want

Written on by Rich Frain

Anyone in sales will tell you: People buy what they want, not what they need.

This is true on your plant floor as well. Your team is motivated by their wants, not necessarily your needs. They are not even motivated by their own needs. To be successful, in sales or management, you need to convert needs to wants. Once someone wants something, they will do anything to make it happen.

Needs are based on logic and reasoning. Consider a machine on your hypothetical line. There may be a number of good reasons why it needs to be replaced. It might be at the end of its useful life. It may cause excessive downtime. It may not be able to run potential new products. It may be any number of reasons.

If there is no want (only need), it will be possible to find a dozen other reasons not to replace the machine. Wants are based on emotions, not logic. The hypothetical machine above may be perfectly fine and in no need of replacement on any logical basis. If the plant manager decides they want to replace it, it won’t matter whether it needs to be replaced or not. A new machine will be purchased, assuming they can finagle the money somehow.

The folks on the floor are no different. They are motivated by wants rather than needs. These wants may be negative. They want not to get yelled at or fired, for example. When they are motivated by negative wants, they will tend to do the minimum required to prevent them. This will keep the plant running but perhaps not as efficiently as it should. Even small efficiency losses are expensive. Each 2% loss costs a week of annual production.

The wise plant or department manager is going to look for ways to use positive motivation. When people want to do better, they will. Some of this may be addressed in hiring but for the most part people want to do better tomorrow than they did yesterday. Give them the tools and encouragement and they will.