Page 40 - MetalForming July 2012

mittees and seminars, Interlake Indus- tries, through Habe, is represented in the association’s Naples Group and on its board of directors.
“I have found my roundtable, the Naples Group (top-ranking executives with decision-making authority), to be a great asset,” Habe explains. “With every meeting there is at least one item that I can bring back to the plant and implement for the better. Human resources, quality systems...we tackle different topics at each meeting, often with a plant tour.”
Habe points to the ‘dashboard,’ or daily update of company statistics, as one topic of discussion.
“We all share our dashboard,” she says. “What are the trigger points— when we look at the dashboards on our computers each morning, what statistics do we say, ‘If that number is off, I need to react?’ That information helps. We all have the same business issues. This group does not focus on the details of making a part, but rather on
“For years, PMA’s Women in Metalforming (WIM) networking group met in a small roundtable at PMA’s Annual Meeting,” recalls Gretchen Zierick. “Now WIM has grown into the much larger Women in Manufacturing networking group, including women in any type of manufacturing industry. I see a lot more women involved in committees and on the PMA board.”
running a business. You can’t get that kind of information and share these types of ideas in any other group.”
From CEO networking groups to district meetings, the opportunities to network have paid huge dividends.
“When we first became involved in PMA, most members I met were part of
small, family-owned businesses,” says Gretchen Zierick, president of Zierick Manufacturing Corp., Mt. Kisco, NY. “Many of us still are, but through PMA we’ve been exposed to larger compa- nies or those managed by people with big-company experience. This has helped many of us become better
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MetalForming/July 2012
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