Mind Your Business

Thurke, of Mercury Marine, agrees. Surveys go out with every print job, and he makes sure his employees know what the customers are saying. His employees, in fact, are involved in much more than just running equipment.

A Focus On Quality

Thurke, IPG's 1993 Manager of the Year, has turned his Fond du Lac, Wis.-based in-house staff of 19 into a quality-focused team, just like many commercial business have done. The team has developed a quality manual and is concentrating on cycle time reduction. Jobs and procedures are carefully documented so that any employee can pick up where the main operator left off. Cross-training is the norm. Corrective action teams analyze problem jobs to discover what went wrong and fix it.