Recently our new Client Advisory Board (CAB) revealed again the significant benefit Real-time SPC software like GainSeeker Suite has on our clients. I’ll get to that reason in a minute, but first I better explain what this CAB is all about.
This May we launched our new Client Advisory Board. We hosted our inaugural meeting in Chicago on May 16. Eight clients from across the United States flew or drove in for the day-long meeting. Most of them came the night before to tour one of the CAB member’s manufacturing plants.
Client Focus
Our company prides itself on being customer focused. And we do a pretty good job. But often our conversations are tactical; down-in-the-weeds. We talk to customers. They tell us what problem they’re trying to solve. We roll up our sleeves and get the job done.
We wanted to step back and ask bigger questions: What is going on in your business and industry? What changes are you anticipating in the future? How can we better serve your changing needs? We formed the CAB from a cross-section of size and industries to more intentionally focus on these more strategic questions.
In preparing for our first meeting, we deliberately took a listener’s stance. We reminded ourselves that each of us has two eyes and two ears, and only one mouth. Our team came committed to listen, and listen deeply.
The CAB Meeting
We spent the first part of the day with brief business presentations from each member. These presentations revealed great creativity and insight into how real-time data can provide value to a business. We heard about compliance tracking, business metrics dashboards, defect tracking, supplier quality, and several other stories.
In the months to come, we’ll have more to share about what we learned. We came away with long lists of ideas for changes we want to make to our product and to the way we service our clients.
For me, the two most gratifying parts of the meeting were the positive energy from the clients, and the surprisingly consistent and clear theme of the value real-time SPC has provided their business.
The positive energy from the clients was palpable. They were excited to meet with us to share their insights and experience. And they were eager to meet and compare notes with the other CAB members. These are very busy professionals. They set aside a full day out of their busy schedules to learn and share. And this was no boondoggle: we met in a hotel near O’Hare Airport (not some exotic resort), and they had to pay their own travel.
Real-Time SPC Software – A Single Source of Truth
The other very gratifying aspect of the day was to hear the members talk about how GainSeeker Suite has helped their businesses. A common theme emerged: GainSeeker Suite helped their company become a data-driven organization.
Several members shared that before they had GainSeeker, meetings to solve problems were driven by the person in the room with the loudest voice or the highest position on the org chart. Now they have a single source of truth – GainSeeker Suite. When someone has an opinion, the others – including managers and all team members – want to know, “Where’s the data?”
One member put it, “You have helped us be better. Thank you.”
In the coming months, we’ll share more news about the changes that will ripple out from the CAB. In the meantime, schedule a call today to discuss your journey towards Manufacturing Excellence.
