Once upon a time, not long ago, we were all forced to digest — with varying degrees of distaste — the cautionary tale of Toyota, the manufacturer that became so lustful for market popularity that it lost its connection to the little people its products served.
The morale of that story still seems a bit hazy, to be honest — did Toyota lose customers, for instance? — but if we shrink it down and apply it to more customized manufacturers, the lesson looks quite plain: Produce to your customers’ expectations or you won’t sustain the business.
This is particularly true for make-to-order and design-build manufacturers. The compact that these companies create with their customers is very specific and very hands-on. Besides being expected to deliver impeccable product quality, they face the onerous task of producing to a tight timeline under a detailed budget. And those requirements are all the more challenging because every project they work on essentially begins with a whiteboard for both the product and the production process.
Thus, one of the standout qualities of a successful design-build shop is its control over creativity. Like a broken pipe at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, creativity can spew unpredictably and relentlessly unless it is contained.
In the words of Dave Halliday, president of British Columbia-based Dynamic Structures, “In anything that is creative, you have to know when to stop.” If you let your team’s creativity run amuck, customers will take umbrage at your missed milestones and ballooning job costs, and then they’ll take their business elsewhere.
I met Halliday at our Manufacturing Leadership Summit last week. Dynamic Structures builds complex structures, from theme park rides to bleeding-edge telescopes. Dave and I stepped out on the patio to enjoy a beautiful (if windy) Palm Beach day, and he described what it means to him to manage customer expectations and deliver on dreams. It’s an interesting essay on the intersection of creative manufacturing and studious project management. Have a look:
How do you manage creativity in your business?
One Comment
A very insightful post about managing customer expectations. I always think back to the phrase, “under-promise and over-deliver”. But it’s never that simple. For example, Steve Jobs and Apple constantly promise the world and because they work so hard on the design side and they know how to manage and even create consumer tastes, they set trends and are able to match delivery with promise. At SouthPak we provide custom case solutions so it’s a challenge but we do our best to manage what we provide with what consumers and businesses require.
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