What happens when you are handed a blueprint of 4 empty walls and roughly 90,000+ square feet of a building? Use it for storage? As a playground, or perhaps a highly efficient manufacturing facility run by a motivating team? After 22+ years of being a Graphics professional and Prepress Specialist in the printing industry, I was chosen to lead a group of professionals in a small team because of my attention to detail, ability to plan, and flexibility to adapt to the new environment. Of course, the vision of a self-sustainable operation. Was it easy? Absolutely not. Besides the challenges and responsibilities that came with the job, I also had great support and was mentored by many. I made a few mistakes along the way and always come back up quickly, learn from them and take small, incremental steps to achieve results. How do I know that I am on the right path and doing well?
While we wish there were a superstar somewhere who could complete all the tasks single-handly, the truth is we did it with many helping hands. There is a lot of communication, sharing, and learning about each other's work and expectations—a sincere personality with empathy stands firm to achieve goals.
As an Operations Manager, the best compliment came from the customers, inspectors, and vendors. These professional individuals in their fields have traveled nearly everywhere and have seen
the good, bad, and the worst of plant operations. Their positive experience and comments are the best compliments on our work.