This week, the RBB team showed our appreciation to outgoing President Jim Tennant for his 5 years of leadership. Here are a few words Jim shared with the RBB team:
“I have seen the great efforts made and great results accomplished by this team. I have absolute confidence in RBB and its future success. I know the hard work spent by this whole team. I don’t wish for them just what they have earned or just what they deserve, but far more. God Bless you all.”
Culture is central at RBB. We strive to be different, and it is noticed by our team. Last year, we had a team member leave RBB. While this happens frequently in most companies, what’s unusual is that he fought to come back.
Brian Thomas joined the RBB team in 2010. In 2018, he had a job offer. Brian thought hard about this new offer, which included a nice pay raise and sign-on bonus, and ultimately decided to take it. But after only three months at the new job, he started to wonder if what he was promised was really worth the change.
An important part of effective inventory management is monitoring and controlling residual inventory, or the parts left on the shelf after the last shipment is produced. It's important that every business orders the right quantity of parts at the right time to reduce the extra, hidden costs tied to residual inventory.
Do you spend days tallying parts during an annual inventory count? Are you shutting down your shop floor for days just to get decent counts? If so, there's an alternative inventory management method that will eliminate the need to shut down production and also deliver better results.
This alternative method is known as cycle counting, and whether you’re a global manufacturer or a privately held company, you may stand to benefit from it. In fact, at RBB we've experienced numerous benefits since we've started to cycle count inventory. Most Importantly, cycle count allows RBB to provide more reliable scheduling and delivery to our clients.
At RBB, we aren’t afraid to ring our own bell. But when we do, it isn’t all about us. We have a loud, antique bell in our sales office – and we ring it every time a new client joins the RBB family. Yes, the ringing of the bell is about internal celebration and recognition of the efforts of the entire RBB team, but it means so much more.
With RBB celebrating our 45th anniversary this year, I've thought a lot about how we got here and what I wish I knew all those years ago. In order to communicate that, I decided to write a letter to my former self. Here is that letter:
RBB is moving, so we know you may have some questions. In order to help answer those, below is some information which we believe will set your mind at ease.
RBB’s whitepaper on how small batch electronics affects the OEM-CM relationship
Very often OEM’s struggle to effectively manage large portfolios of small batches of custom electronic assemblies. That’s why I tackled the topic in the Whitepaper, “Market Dynamics facing OEM’s with Large Portfolios of Ongoing Small Batches.”
I recently gave a short talk on leadership transitions—in particular, the handoff from one chief executive to the next—at the Small Giants Summit in Detroit. Since joining RBB in 2000, I’ve been on both sides of this coin. I offered a number of hard-won, personal lessons to this enlightened audience of business founders, owners, CEOs, and up-and-comers.
On January 3, 2017, and for only the third time since 1973, a new president took over the reins at RBB. In honor of this historic event and Jim Tennant’s much-deserved promotion, I’d like to share a quick story that demonstrates how Jim began strengthening this organization on day one.
