Leadership Is Killing Small Losses, Not Just Big Projects

My best leadership moments have happened on the floor, not in a slide deck. We cut unplanned stops by 7% on a drum line by moving the HMI into the operator’s sightline, slowing the infeed VFD during auto recover, and replacing a sticky pneumatic dump valve. That earned more trust than any capital request I have written.

If you want to grow as a leader in automated filling and material handling, get great at surfacing and killing chronic losses. Keep a visible backlog of nuisance fixes. Celebrate the person who retires a false photoeye fault, cleans up HMI alarms, or tightens a clamp timing window more than the person who gives the fanciest update.

What helps me: two hours a week for a deliberate line walk. Watch one pallet from empty drum to stretch wrap. Time the microstops. Read every HMI message and ask an operator to explain them back. Feel for air leaks. Check sensor mounts and cable strain. Then pick three fixes and let a junior engineer own them end to end.

How do you make small wins visible and career advancing on your team? What rituals or metrics have kept it going after the first month?