A merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Here’s to a year of growth and change! Some has been great, some challenging. As the year has gone by we’ve seen companies emerge as leaders while some fade into the background. We’ve seen new ventures and new technologies take hold, as well as challenges of all kinds. Here at Bridgeview we’ve had a year of growth as well as challenges too – we’ve added several new customers, for whom we’re very grateful. We’ve also continued to add to our facility in terms of equipment and increasing the amount of organizational and storage options we have to accommodate the inevitable increase in inventory. Most important of all the internal changes are the additions to our team! A great blessing as it gives our leadership the resources needed to focus on moving Bridgeview forward. We pray that 2024 will prove to be another strong year, our plans include preparing to move to a larger facility, finalizing our ISO9001:2015 compliant QMS and beginning to train some of our dedicated team for management as they grow in their roles. We’ll be exploring new avenues for Bridgeview, including building up our 3D printing activities and working towards partnerships with other businesses so we can provide our customers with more options for services. Our dedicated Sales Rep, Greg, is working to enhance communications to support all of these efforts. One aspect of this we will be focusing on in ’24 is getting out to see you all more frequently. Our recent trip to the Portland area was a great success and we had a fantastic time seeing some of our customers, it’s always exciting to see how things grow and change while we have our noses to the grindstone, growth and change we’re thrilled to be a part of! From our team to yours, we wish you a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Below: Ben, Seth, and Greg (left) open their gifts at our company Christmas party. Ashlee, Haley, Collin, Ben, and Greg (right) watch Kevin trying to open the parcel during our "Pass The Parcel" game. We had a great time at our Christmas party! What a great way to end 2023!
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Every good work space has flow to it. A chef knows where everything is in his kitchen and can easily access his equipment and ingredients to make a quick and delicious meal. An accountant knows which documents she needs and where to find the forms to prepare a quarterly tax return. Organization goes a long way to making work life easier but so does knowing the order in which we do things. This order is called our process and knowing the process allows for a work space with good flow.
An example of process is what happens when a customer submits a Request For Quote (RFQ). A company that does not know how much materials cost, what their overhead is, or even if they have available workers to fill the order won't be able to complete the RFQ in a timely manner, resulting in frustrations and possible loss of customers. They have no process and no flow. We actually pride ourselves in getting quotes turned around quickly, sometimes even as quick as a few hours. Why can we do that? Because we have defined processes of how to perform the operations required to create a quote. This speeds up the operation, giving us a flow. Successful process and flow allow for happy customers and a feeling of accomplishment. Have you defined your processes? Does your work space have a flow? Below: We have a defined process flow chart (left) posted at the shop to help everyone determine where they are in the process and what should come next. Ashlee (right) follows the process of putting away closed out orders and restocking the shelves. It's hard building a business. There's a reason why people like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, and Jeff Bezos fascinate us. They have built billion-dollar empires and are seen as people who made it, despite all the hardships they may have faced over the years. If building a successful business was easy, everyone would do it.
The most obvious side affect of spending the necessary time to build a successful business is stress. Do we have enough money coming in? Do we have enough people to help? Do we have a space big enough to handle production? And why does everyone keep stealing my favorite pen? One of our team members found an article that offered some strategies to feeling stressed. While the article is written from the perspective of the employee, it can also be adopted by those in leadership positions. The article can be found here: www.happyhighlysensitivelife.com/blog/6-ways-to-reduce-work-stress-as-a-highly-sensitive-person#:~:text=Take%20leave%20time%20when%20you,time%2C%20it's%20yours%20to%20take. One of best points of the above article is that energy spent must be restored. If we spend 60 hours working during the week, we must spend time on the weekend to restore that spent energy. If we continue to give and give and give, at some point there will simply be nothing left to give. Burn out is real and it's hard to come back from it. Not impossible, just really hard. To prevent burnout and make sure that you can keep your business growing, you have to take breaks. A stressed boss is no help to anyone. How have to make rest a priority? Below: The Padres' Swinging Friar (left) takes time out of his busy day of playing baseball to check in on Collin. Our 3D-printed dinosaur (right) joins Seth in checking on the progress of the 3-D printer. |
AuthorsChristina and Kevin Hayward Archives
November 2024
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