“All,
It's taken four days to craft this email. Why? Pride. LOTS OF PRIDE!
The past four years have been like living in a hurricane. The pace of business slowly picks up speed, we think we can accommodate everyone's needs, then the wind speed picks up and you know you're in choppy seas, you make fixes, then things calm down, only to find out that was just the eye of the hurricane and you're in for round two of even worse weather.
If you want to hear a story about uncontrollable growth, fathom this for a brief second; C&H Precision has grown 781% over this same time last year and 3,228% over this same point in time two years ago.
I have poured my heart and soul into building a reputable brand over the past 10 years here at C&H Precision and in just a few short months, our reputation has been stained by a combination of events. 1. Bad hiring decisions due to lack of workforce during COVID. 2. Insufficient training of these new employees by myself due to lack of time or too much trust in the skills they claimed on their resume. 3. Lack of "give a shit" by several staff members (They either don't have a passion for the job or they lost the passion for the job). 4. Lastly and most important, Lack of Leadership and Mentoring of staff by myself. 15 months ago I knew I needed help and tried to hire a General Manager but the person my company needed and I wanted declined my offer so I continued to attempt to do everything myself.
Over the past four years the biggest challenge has been hiring the right staff. We made the mistake of hiring some staff and thinking we could train them to be great, however, even with great training, if they don't possess or have the right attitude, the only thing they did was collect a paycheck and become great at masking mediocre work as high quality work which then ends up coming back to us to re-work or fix again.
Over the past four months we've made some major changes behind the scenes. After seeking out some mentoring from several of my previous bosses from within my time in the DC area, they each reminded me that my most valuable skill set was not in the running or managing staff and day to day operations, but in solving technical issues, designing and developing new concepts or products, and collaborating with users or groups to solve urgent needs of operational forces.
The Fix Is In!
Change Of Command / New General Manager:
In Feb we hired Dana Smith from NineLine. She has over 20 years of experience in everything from retail sales, to managing a large sales and production staff, production operations, sales and warranty operations within the firearms industry. She now runs and manages all day to day operations. Having her experience and outside perspective is helping us to streamline processes and improve efficiencies and get us to a place where we can continue to manage the growth of the business.
Within her first few weeks she has become the catalyst for positive change and has implemented many new changes and improvements to the company.
New Production Manager:
In March we hired Chesnee Holly, the older of my three children. Over the past six years she has been studying Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Operations Management at Michigan State University. She might be young but she's interned with us and Bergara over the past five years and she's got the 'It' factor and is fantastic at planning and organizing operations. With the changes she put in place:
Chesnee has been focused on revamping the production schedule to increase productivity and have better inventory tracking. This will only get better once we have fully integrated the new ERP software. We have also eliminated waste of both time and materials through the new processes she has been implementing.
Screw Packing Machine:
The first thing Dana identified when we came aboard for the massive output of labor to pack screws for every package. She immediately began a search for a fix. She found a company in China and within four weeks we'll have a new machine that sorts, counts, weighs, and marks every bag of screws for our production line. Here is the video of the machine they made for us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y89G9KSsFqo
ERP Software:
Over the past two months we've been integrating a new ERP system so we can better track every single aspect of slide milling and plate production. This software package will take a few months to start working efficiently but it's going to help tremendously.
Getting Our House in Order:
Over the past six weeks we've cleaned house. All employees identified as not being able to produce quality work or those lacking the proper "Give A Shit" are gone. We have redefined job roles and responsibilities to ensure we have the right people focused on the right things.
Marketing / Social Media Manager:
We recently hired a veteran Marine who graduates from SCAD today. He's extremely talented with social media, video production, photography and marketing.
Web Page:
We retained the services of a Beyond The Brand Media to completely revamp our web page for a better user experience.
Family Owned and Operated Business:
We are a small family owned and operated business and we take this very seriously. Between Dana and I we have five children, 9, 14, 16, 22, and 24 and every single one of them works within our company either part time or full time.
We are not a company run by an MBA shirt and tie guy, nor are we a bureaucracy that takes weeks, months or years to change. We pride ourselves as leading from the front, being in the trenches everyday and we often make changes to a process immediately as needed to improve our customer experience.
The Ask:
I'm asking each of you to trust me, trust my instincts and trust my team. We are not perfect, we're never going to be perfect, but we will always strive to be somewhere close to perfect.
If any of you, any of your colleagues or anyone you know feel they have not been serviced properly, have an issue, hear of an issue, or need assistance in any way, please contact me directly and Dana and I will ensure the issue is resolved ASAP.
Thank you for your business and your endless support. I apologize if I've caused any of you any issues but I assure you we are doing everything in our power to make the proper changes and upgrades so none of these issues happen in the future.
Buck Holly - Owner
C&H Precision Weapons LLC
459 Edsel Drive
Richmond Hill GA 31324
buck.holly@chpws.com
www.chpws.com
W: 912-445-5803”
