Why Does Elon Musk Insist On Bamboo Flooring In His Car Plants?

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Tesla hopes that by the end of next year, it’ll be churning out more than half a million cars a year, a significant uptick from the current rate of about 100,000. And where will all of those cars be inspected? On a bamboo floor right at the end of the factory’s production line.

Why you might ask, would Tesla CEO Elon Musk insist on a bamboo floor to inspect cars? What is so special about the flooring? As always, Musk has his reasons. He believes that if you’re going to inspect a product for quality, then whatever is framing that product must also be beautiful and flawless. Bamboo flooring is, by most accounts, stunning. And so by using this flooring, Musk hopes that it will emphasize any defects in cars coming off the production line. It’s almost like the cars themselves have to graduate from an art masterclass before they’re allowed out onto the streets.

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Photo courtesy of Maurizio Pesce via Wikimedia Commons

What can this level of attention to detail teach other businesses? Why does something as apparently insignificant as a bamboo inspection floor mean so much to people like Musk?

It all comes down to the environment. Musk doesn’t see the elements of his company in isolation. There’s not an executive, a board, a marketing team, a production team or any other arbitrary group. Instead, the whole business environment is a living, breathing entity – and like other entities, it’s affected by its environment. Can you emulate this approach to environment in your business?

Cleanliness

Factories are supposed to be dirty places full of oil, dirt, and dust. But to talk a walk in Musk’s Fremont plant in California is to enter what seems like a clean room that just so happens to be making cars. Musk says that working environments need to be perfectly clean to ensure that no compromises are made on the product. A clean environment is an environment which employees unconsciously respect, whereas, in a dirty environment, they are more likely to make careless errors and accept second best.

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Photo courtesy of Maurizio Pesce via Wikimedia Commons

This is why professional commercial floor cleaning is such big business in offices up and down the land. Bosses realize that in order to get the best out of their team, they need to work in a spotless environment.

Stunning Lighting

Musk’s car factory is one of the largest buildings in the world by footprint. But despite that, it’s also one of the brightest. When the factory was first bought, it was a dark and dingy place. But since moving in, it’s become light and airy, thanks to the installation of hundreds of skylights and LED ceiling lamps.

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Photo courtesy of Bill in SF via Wikimedia Commons

Why is this important? Well, it turns out that employees who are exposed to natural light are more productive than those who aren’t. If natural light isn’t possible in your offices for any reason, try supplementing it with naturally-coloured artificial lighting instead.

Allow Desk Customisation

Finally, allow desk customization. Research shows that employees who are able to make their desks a little more homely work harder and longer than those that aren’t.

Outsourcing: The Hottest Thing In Business

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When you’re in business, it’s very hard to fall behind. So many new advances, trends, and ways of doing things pop up all of the time – meaning you hear about them pretty much as soon as they land. Some will benefit your business, others will be irrelevant, and then you’ll find the trends that stick. Because some of them will just work for your business. One of these is likely to be outsourcing. It’s nothing all that new, but as trends go, it’s certainly making waves out there in the business world right now. If you want to grow your business, improve your productivity, and generally operate well, here are some of the key areas you could consider outsourcing.

Sales

Not everyone is comfortable with the sales process, and that’s okay. When you own your own small business, or you’ve just started out, it’s highly likely that you’ll be tackling the majority of the sales process yourself. And if you’re not a natural, it can be something that you dread. So, instead of suffering, why not look at outsourcing it to an expert? With a sales consultant, their compensation is often results lead, so you’ve got nothing to lose.

Production

Then there’s the actual administering of your business operations. If you manufacture a product, why not look into outsourcing it? Even if it means you have to send cutting services to one expert, R&D to another, and packing to a specialist, if it speeds up your productivity and is cost-effective, it makes sense. Even if you provide a service, you could outsource some areas of the work to free up your time for more important things.

Marketing

As a small business or startup, do you often find yourself saying that you’ll market more, and never find the time for it? If you’ve answered yes, don’t feel guilty, you’re not the only one. When you wear different hats, and you’re just trying to get your work done, marketing and promotions often get put to the bottom of the priority list. But that’s one of the benefits of outsourcing your marketing – it gets done for you. Plus, it will be experts handling your strategy, meaning they could probably do a better job that you anyway.

Finance

If you’re not a natural when it comes to numbers, you probably hate having to deal with them. Looking at budgets and forecasts and even filing your taxes can be a lot of work. So, outsource it. You can hire an accountant to take care of the regulatory stuff and even filing your taxes. And if you really don’t want to deal with anything yourself, get an assistant in to run the day to day stuff for you too.

Administration

When you’re really busy and are trying to put all of your efforts into growing your business, you’ll probably find that you just don’t have the time to take on all of the admin that needs to get done. Or, worse, you’re spending your time and efforts on the admin and not growing your business. Either way, you need a VA. A virtual assistant can take on all of the annoying admin that you hate doing, and probably get it done a lot quicker than you could too – because they’re a pro!

Ring Fence: 5 Ways To Prevent Theft On A Construction Site

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Photo courtesy of Matti Mattila via Wikimedia

Construction is booming at the moment as more people realize that manual labor is a suitable career. Of course, you have known that for a long time but are only now reaping the benefits. However, it isn’t all picnics and bouquets of flowers. When you run a site, you have to put up theft. Whether it’s your employees or burglars, it happens on a daily basis, and it costs the firm a lot of money. So, it needs to stop, and it needs to stop as soon as possible.

For those of you that won’t put up with it any longer, you have come to the right place. Below are five tips that will help you prevent of types of theft in the workplace.

1: Install Cameras

The obvious thing to do is to invest in construction cameras and create a high-tech security system. Now, if you think that cameras are reactive, that isn’t the case. Yes, they great tools for looking at incidents and figuring out what went wrong. But, they are also useful in the moment. For one thing, the majority of thieves don’t bother targeting a site which has CCTV. Because they are opportunists, there is too much risk even if the rewards are high. Plus, advanced systems allow you to monitor any incidents and take control in real time. A real time alert, for example, warns you of any suspicious behavior so that you can call the police or inform your people on site.

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2: Light It Up

Let’s stay on the topic of prevention for a moment. Cameras prevent theft because they add an element of risk, and lights do the same thing. Powerful lights take away a thief’s most treasured tool: darkness. Burglars use it all of the time to creep around in the shadows unnoticed, which gives them more time and a better chance of success. With spotlights, there aren’t many places a person can hide in the grounds. As long as the lights are bright enough, it should illuminate the entire site. And, if they sweep the area randomly, it only makes everything safer. If there is an incident, the light also helps identify the culprits the next day on CCTV.

3: Lock It Up

Construction sites are prime targets because they house lots of valuable materials. It isn’t uncommon to work with everything from copper to steel, and these have a high resale value. So, a common criminal won’t think twice about shifting as many raw materials as possible. Obviously, you need to make this as hard as possible, which is why lockers are essential. All you have to do is place anything of value in the lockers and keep it there until the morning. As long as the lock is strong enough, it should deter any person with light fingers. A safe is also a good idea if you can find one that is affordable. Regarding machines, there aren’t many ways to keep them under lock and key. Instead, stack materials around them to block off the path. Also, fit an immobilizer that cuts the ignition.

Don’t forget to lock up your personal items, such as your jobsite radio. To learn more about these radios, read this review of the The 10 Best Jobsite Radios.

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4: Background Checks

The biggest assumption bosses make is that they can trust their workers. That isn’t always true because employees are opportunists, too, especially if they think it’s a sure thing. As a result, the credentials of the people on your site must come into question. No one is saying that you need to grill them like a suspect under questioning, but you should look into their past. By talking to previous employers, it is possible to learn more about their personality and analyze whether they are a perfect fit. Also, a criminal background check should alert you to any major incidents in the past. No one likes to tar a person with a brush, yet you have to be careful. After all, it is your livelihood.

5: Security Team

Technology plays a massive part, but so do the people that walk around and stay on guard all night. The problem with a site is the size. It is too big to install cameras all around the perimeter, which leaves you vulnerable. Thankfully, boots on the ground can cover the places that technology misses. It is tempting to think that tech is infallible, particularly with recent advancements. The truth is that it is far from perfect, and that makes retro features like a security guard even more important.

The site is much safer when you put the new age and old school methods together.

5 Important Checks To Be Made Before Your Assembly Line Starts Operating

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Running a business is not easy, but running a functional assembly line is almost as difficult. It may seem easy upon first inspection, especially if you’re a new firm. Just hire the factory space and equipment, hire the staff, maybe even outsource this process, and you’ll be good to go, right? You’d be wrong. No matter how well staffed, how large your operation, or how trustworthy the firm is that you’re outsourcing to, it falls to you as the responsible business owner to make these 5 checks to your assembly line before you give the go-ahead for production.

Factories are intricate, with many working parts, working systems, and working employees all applying themselves to produce your intended material good. This is where the quality, safety and reputability of your firm is crafted. It pays to go over the various implements with a fine-toothed comb, so you can be sure that everything is functioning exactly as it should, to the most minute detail.

Here’s what to look for upon your first inspection:

Duly Staffed

The product line needs to be correctly staffed. There needs to be an understanding of how many people are needed to operate the machinery, how many people need to be there in quality control, and how many are responsible for storage. Outsourcing will help you with this, and depending on your output this could differ. Make sure you’re not stretching yourself thin and that you’re adhering to the correct laws.

Factory Hygiene

The factory you outsource to, or the factory space you rent should be completely free of pests and an overabundance of grime. Pests can spread disease and grime can be a flammable hazard. The nature of factories are that they’re generally messy, smell bad and create plenty of refuse, but that doesn’t mean the employees shouldn’t adhere to a strict cleaning schedule, or a cleaning service is there to take care of it.

Factory Safety

Arguably the most important point on this list. Your employees should be safe. Even if they’re being outsourced, they are still ‘your’ employees by proxy. You might not face direct legal ramifications for an accident through negligence when you weren’t there to see it, but you have a moral and ethical responsibility to make sure your money is funding a correct, responsible operation. This includes gearing the employees in the correct safety gear, giving them regular breaks, a well ventilated and well lit workspace, along with realistic shift patterns.

Equipment Maintenance

The machines that comprise your factory space need to be well maintained and observed during any standard work week. You should have a rota dedicated to regular machinery lubrication, machine cleaning where appropriate, and health and safety operational assessments that can keep future users protected.

Quality Control

You need a solid quality control team to make sure that your products are made adhering to strict safety laws, and are tested as such. Ideally, you should have a team of your own people responsible for making sure that the products are correctly made and handled. Don’t be afraid to lose money in the pursuit of positive, responsible material. This is your name on the line, and the health of your consumers.

Having a solid assembly line with great quality control goes a long way in providing your employees with great products, no matter what category of sale they fall into. Check these items regularly to maintain a well-functioning assembly line.

Business Admin Online: Making Sure Your Business Is Functioning As It Should

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Keeping your business operational online isn’t as easy as it first sounds. For the uninitiated, it might seem that just purchasing and keeping the website domain name is enough, and as long as you have an attractive internet site, the money will start rolling in without any more thought put into the matter. This is simply wrong. Many things go into the functioning of a great business website, and simply letting the site tend for itself is not one of those considerations.

But what does your online team do all day? Refresh the website to make sure that everything is functioning as it should? Thinking that way is simply an insult to them because a site that functions correctly, especially one that operates properly under demand is one that is multi-faceted and requires a diligent eye to keep operational. Remember, your website is the forefront face of any beginning consumer interaction with your firm, and if it’s unattractive, unresponsive, or simply has repeated and extended terms of downtime, your business will look unprofessional.

But how do you stay on top of everything? These tips will show you how:

Software Testing Tools

To keep your business online and operational, there will be some software packages that your business employs to directly aggregate the data they receive from the consumer use. This includes social media profiles and also installed software you use to manage your online postings securely. It’s important to use software testing tools like QASymphony to easily navigate the health reports of your software, and schedule your maintenance tasks more efficiently. Your online team will thank you for the considerations here, and it will also give you as a business owner added respect for what they do.

Department Synergy & Communication

Communicating and taking the advice from your departments is a sacred activity of any successful business owner because it’s those staff members who are in the trenches and arguably know the intricate responsibilities of their department much better than you do. Talking to these departments is absolutely no cost to you so you should keep that in mind when it comes to taking on advice that could help them perform their roles better.

At the end of the day, your staff is only trying to fulfill their roles more effectively. Usually, if a solution makes life easier for them, it makes life easier for you, too.

Reliable Server Hosting

Whether or not you hold the server hosting as part of your firm, or you outsource it (likely,) you need to have a stable and dependable service that is unlikely to go down, and relatively secure against hacking attempts. DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks are always going to get through if you’re unlucky to be the victim of one, but if the regular functioning of your server hosting service is failing you, you should look towards more stable areas of operation.

The online world is where all the important business action happens these days. It’s important to stay on top of modern trends and keep sharp with your maintenance if you want to stay relevant.