Related Posts

• Meet Scott Moore from the S-series Department

  Here is another of the behind the scene faces here at Cambridge Engineering that you wouldn’t normally get to meet but make a profound difference in our culture and our desire to manufacture the highest quality products for you….our customer. Today we are pleased to introduce to you Scott Moore from our S-series department. Scott leads the team that manufacturers our S-series products and is also a Lean leader here at Cambridge. You can also find Scott helping out at Christmas as one of Santa's many helpers. Oh yea, he is also another one of our all around great guys here at Cambridge. We hope you enjoy his video. For more videos from Cambridge Engineering visit our Youtube page at https://www.youtube.com/user/CambridgeEngineering

• Humility, Cultural Recruiting & Morning Meetings

  Reprinted with permission from the Winter 2017 issue of Target, an AME Publication. Authored by Lea Tonkin Part Three of a Four Part Series. Miss Parts One and Two? Click Here to Read!   Humility The culture at Cambridge reflects a unique perspective on pursuing humility. From the president to the front line worker, people share a consistent theme of humility as something to strive for instead of something to endure. “Humility is part of the beauty of working here and part of what attracted me,” said Meg Brown, human resources director. “You are asked to make improvements and share them with videos. It’s empowering to be able to say, ‘I made a difference today.” “No task is too small,” added Brown. Leadership and others from throughout the company voluntarily share the task for cleaning bathrooms, for example – reflecting humility and ownership. Cultural recruiting Cultural recruiting – attracting potential employees who will support the Cambridge collaborative approach – is crucial to the company’s long-term success. “We attract people who enjoy being problem solvers, and being given the ability to make changes,” ...

• Creative Emceeing Makes the Morning Meeting Much More Fun!

  Part of the personal growth effort of Cambridge includes encouraging each employee to feel more confident speaking in front of a large group and other public speaking opportunities. The "practice" of this improvement comes in the form of taking turns to Emcee the morning meeting that we hold out in the shop every day. Each Emcee can speak to whatever they'd like as the group stretches - some take the chance to talk about their families or hometowns, others give trivia and yet, others - like Steve, our Controller - take the opportunity to be creative. Watch the video below to see how Steve used his introduction time! 
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  Scrum: The Art of How an Overtasked Engineering Department Turned Their Work from Frenzied to Feasible

  Though the practice of scrum is fairly new to Cambridge (has only been actively applied in three of our 56 year existence) it has already helped us formulate a new approach to goal setting and how we will ultimately achieve those goals. More importantly, we are using it to address safety practices and protocols within Cambridge, so that every one of our fellow employees makes it home at the end of the day. After being introduced to the scrum concept (grouping agile thinkers together that stress constant communication to achieve complicated tasks and goals) in J.J. Sutherland’s book Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time, a group of Cambridge engineers volunteered to be trained in the practice by Toyota scrum expert Nigel Thurlow and apply it within the Cambridge walls, thus becoming our first four certified Scrum Masters. See their story and how their daily work has changed over the past few years. To catch a glimpse of Nigel Thurlow’s on-site scrum training at Cambridge - make sure to check out our blog on his visit!

• Move from Presenting to Selling for Improved Sales Results

  Have you ever found yourself in this situation? You go to a meeting ready to engage in a discussion and you wind up listening to a presentation that includes a massive data dump. I’ve heard it called “death by PowerPoint.” Entering into a customer meeting with your presentation deck provides the presenter with a comforting safety net but often times misses the mark in allowing one to build real momentum in understanding the customer’s core challenges and their primary need for the solutions that you and your firm can provide. In an effort to provide the attendees with as much information as possible, we often times miss the opportunity to truly engage with our customers on the topics that are most important to them. Presentations are great when you are engaged in an educational session and your audience is seeking educational content especially as it relates to new concepts, new product categories and ongoing educational agendas with your listeners. Educational sessions lend themselves well in these types of situations. Presentations ...
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  A Rhythm of Daily Gratitude

  A quick rhythm that sets the mood for the day.  Corporate leaders know that creating daily rhythms can make the difference between a “great idea” and a lasting impact on you and your company. These rhythms can range from a team touchpoint meeting on goals to spending 20 minutes reading up on industry trends and news.      A specific rhythm that makes so much sense logically, but can be hard to exercise is giving daily gratitude. It’s not lost on us that sharing gratitude and showing vulnerability in that manner can seem out of place at work, and uncomfortable for some.   We feel that this daily rhythm is incredibly important, so much so that we started doing it “first thing” in our morning meeting, before we go over daily sales and metrics. Our practice includes passing the microphone for people to volunteer to thank someone for their help or share a personal moment of gratitude.   One may ask “Couldn’t the 5 minutes a day (30+ minutes a week!) be better used?” We are a manufacturing facility that measures the Takt Time it takes to produce ...