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Press Release

Lado Releases Book on Improving Leadership, Management, Quality, Plant Operations

Successful plant leadership, managing and improving plant operations and quality, are just some of the areas covered in “Building a Showcase Culture: Powerful and Practical Keys for Manufacturing,” a comprehensive guidebook and toolkit for running a world class, showcase facility.
Author Mark Lado, a global manufacturing operations consultant with more than 30 years in manufacturing leadership, wrote the book “to provide the tools and guidance as a go-to resource to make managers better leaders, and to elevate their facilities to a higher competitive level.”
The foreword, written by Bryce Currie, vice president/general manager Delivery Operations at GE Aviation, summarizes that the book is broken down into four distinctive divisions: “You can read the entire book or concentrate on areas where you need help. This book follows a maturity model of plant excellence, starting with orientation/new plant basics, which are the early how-to’s that are needed to start a greenfield site.
This area of the book also concentrates on your labor force, supervisor/leadership training, and establishing and utilizing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
“The book then transitions into the foundations of how to effectively build or improve the manufacturing facility infrastructure. Key areas of focus are the development of the organization, the facility itself, and the standard processes. In this section, key tools to success are demonstrated through principles such as Value Stream Maps, Standard Work and quality improvement processes. Additionally, focus on visual controls and people interaction are emphasized. If a plant does not utilize these tools, it will never have a successful operation.
“In the 3rd section of Mark’s book, there is a heavy focus on the sites’ operating rhythms. Having a consistent daily production rhythm in conjunction with a good communication plan is absolutely paramount to be a world class manufacturing site.
The book finishes with Competitiveness, which focuses on ensuring the site has a long term strategic plan and vision. Having a true strategic roadmap with plans to organically grow is key, but again, tends to be weak at many sites, as people tend to focus on short term metrics.
“I have known the author, Mark Lado, for many years and had the pleasure of having him work for me, both directly and indirectly in many roles. He was Quality Leader, Global Warranty Director, Plant Leader in China, and all around strong businessman. Mark led a startup plant in China as that country was first experiencing a tremendous growth. He setup the plant and grew it successfully, while instilling a unique and positive plant culture in a region of the world that did not have experience with basic process controls, quality plans and shift patterns —all quite foreign to the China team. Mark was excellent at finding strong solutions, even for the poorly defined issues.”
According to Lado, “This book is intended for a variety of audiences, but especially those who want to become factory showcase leaders. Readers will learn various tools and techniques along a structured path and be able to apply them or evaluate their company’s effectiveness. The information will be particularly useful for:
• Current manufacturing leaders
• All functional staffs
• Supervisors and team leaders
• Students studying engineering, operations, supply chain, production planning, finance, human resources, quality, and business administration
• Entrepreneurs starting new manufacturing enterprises”
The book focuses on the path to developing greater leadership capabilities in manufacturing as a new hire, current employee, or developing manager. “Not everyone is as fortunate as I was to have great mentors,” Lado said, “But this book is detailed resource that helps fill that role.”
Lado has held leadership roles in manufacturing in the U.S., Asia, and Europe for such companies as GE Aerospace, F-TRW, GE Aviation, and others. He is president of Asia Manufacturing Services where he provides interim management and consulting services worldwide. He holds a BS degree in Industrial Engineering from SUNY Polytechnic and an MBA in General Management, from the University of North Florida.
He is also a master Olympic weightlifter, master Cross Fitter, U.S. Navy veteran and dive master, husband and father of two sons.
He can be contacted at [email protected], or (315) 720-4096.