Supporting Our Customers Is A Key Priority.
Three days until we ship a lot of machines to IMTS 2018
There is 4 days to go until we do the packing of the truck. For those who are new to following my blog, it is a day that is filled with a lot of satisfaction. All of us at Royal Master have worked for 9 months to get to this day. We welcome the truck into the lot and when it leaves, we exhale. Rich and I split the show up into three sections, the 9 months of prep, “the show” and then the “after show”. The actual show is enjoyable for me, and it is the least amount of stress. I love talking to the people that come into the booth discussing the different projects that we are presenting, and past projects that are applicable to their particular application.
We are fortunate that our team at Royal Master is fully invested into he success of our company at the show. There are a lot of late hours, and people asked to do jobs that they normally don’t do, but the results speak for themselves. We are happy to share the results with our employees as they were a large part of the success of the show for us.
We are introducing our GX3 machine at the show. Its dual grinding wheel set-up allows for applications such as endodontic files be ground in 1/3 the cycle time of conventional systems. Its primary grinding wheel creates the initial part of the file, and then the secondary wheel creates the flutes in the part. Its pretty cool! The machine cones with a completely new look enclosure which makes the system look sleek and modern.
Our New Hi-Acc machine has a new operator interface. The 24” touchscreen interacts in a new way with the operator where as multiple screens can be open at one time making navigation easier. There is total customization for each operators preferences. Just like a memory seat in a car but for machine tools.
Of course will have a robotically loaded machine, Fanuc and Keyence are strategic partners on this project . We will also have a TG-12×8 thrufeed machine grinding 8000 parts per hour feedrate. You must stop by to see how we are doing this! In addition to all of this we have a lot of variety in equipment. Simple Thrufeed machines to highly automated systems. Our machines are not one size fits all propositions.
what happens when you bring your kids ...
Customer Service?
Customer service is one of the things within a company that everyone says to do well. You see television advertisements about how your local car dealership has an internet lounge while you impatiently wait for your car to be serviced or the plumber who boasts “30 minute response time”- with the exception of mealtimes, nap time and overnight. Recently the phone company was challenged by the cable company to deliver phone service to homes in our area. In my own house, the phone went out about a month ago. We called the phone company, to fix it and were put on hold for an hour. We finally got someone who then told us it will be three days until they can fix it and the only time they can be at our house is between 9 and 2. We said, “Are you kidding me?” We basically gave up. We switched to the cable company and saved $70.00 a month and are happy.
Last evening my daughter and I went to the local mall to get her snow boots because last year’s boots instantly were too small for her 8 year old feet. We went to the mall on a quiet evening so that we could go into a store and be the only shoppers. However, we found that we had to constantly battle for attention with the clerk’s phone as he or she texted away. Eventually, we just walked out without buying the boots. My daughter was as equally annoyed as me because she liked the boots. I was annoyed because I just really do not like to shop.
We ended up at a Sports Authority sports store where we got our boots and went to pay. At the register we noticed that on the bottom of our receipt, if we filled out a survey and gave the store a “Very good” for customer service, we would receive a $10.00 coupon. Enough Said.
I got an e-mail from one of our top 5 customers last night and it was stated in plain language:
“You are correct – the last few weeks we have received in many ******* along with the remaining ******. I appreciate everyone at Royal Master working so diligently to get these out to us. Also, Alan has been doing an excellent job in going above and beyond in checking out the delivery schedules and expediting items in ...
Merger of United and Continental
Almost everyone has an opinion of Newark Airport. Looking out the window on departure you see a lot of familiar sights: IKEA, the Jersey Turnpike, Refineries, an occasional Sopranos flashback, and lots and lots of white planes with blue tails. These planes are now marked UNITED. Scratching my head I had to look twice.
The merger of United and Continental has not just begun- it is in full swing. I travel in and out of EWR a lot. I actually have grown to like the place in an odd sort of way. It always means that I am off someplace to meet a customer or go to a show. I’m eager to meet someone I have talked with in the past or for the first time. Arriving means that home is about 90 minutes from touchdown.
When I saw the planes painted the familiar white and blue with the United name, I was disappointed and concerned. Spending about 100,000+ air miles per year in a continental plane has afforded me a consistency and level of service that I deem more than acceptable. The 16+ hours to Hong Kong always seem manageable with the smiles and hard work that the attendants put forth; which is contrasting to my experiences with United: the old planes and crabby attendants who make it a chore and frown if you ask for the can of soda during the beverage service.
I listened to Larry Kellner the CEO for years during his pre-recorded message about their quality service, newest jet fleet in the industry, etc… but the biggest test for this airline since its bankruptcy in the 1990’s is to maintain its consistency of reasonable service at a competitive rate while not falling prey to the perils of mergers gone bad. And for all of us frequent business travelers, do not forget to just give us the whole can of soda.
Instant Information
On Sunday I arrived at the beginning of my journey to Asia: Newark Airport. With a sigh I got off the monorail at Terminal A, rather than my usual stop at Terminal C. This was only because the usual direct flight that I take was all booked and so our illustrious Lori got me on a partner airline, United. The only issue was instead of a direct flight, I had to connect through ORD (O Hare). This added another 3 hours to the travel time, but with 13 hours vs 16 hours, at that point you’re numb and hungry anyway. While sitting in the lounge (a perk of the Continental / United merger) an announcement began saying my EWR to ORD flight was cancelled. Looking at the time, I started to formulate a Plan B.
I walk up to the counter at the lounge, and politely say I really need to get to Asia but my flight is cancelled, and the next EWR
to ORD will not get me to Chicago in time for my connection, what now?
A few clicks and a few squints at her screen, and she produces a boarding pass that is famous in Royal Master Circles – “The Express”. This was my original preference before I was booked on United, but the cost was insane. As soon as I figure out what happened and realize that I was treated to a direct flight, my phone beeps and buzzes stating that my new gate of departure is 121 in Terminal C. Continental instantly sent me an update to my status of my gate and departure time.
Frequent flyers have all experienced this instant information but in the information age what made this cool is with a simple Mobile phone number or e-mail address, all of this is instant. Back when instant coffee was an innovation, it was coffee made fast, but now it takes too long for water to boil on a stove. So we look for faster ways to get hot water.
Instant information is key to running high volume production. Every minute of lost production means lost profits. Royal Master has now incorporated in their machines the ability for the machine to e-mail up to 10 addresses or send out text messages to mobile phones numbers when a machine ...
