What marketers can learn by looking at a manufacturing plant

I'm at the IndustryWeek Best Plants Conference this week. More than 600 manufacturing leaders have gathered in Milwaukee to learn best practices from experts and their peers. Plant tours are one of the key components of the conference, so manufacturers can see other plants' operations and learn from them. Today I was the IW representative who captained the Miller brewing plant tour.

How much can an eMarketer learn from a manufacturing operation like Miller's? Two things came to mind as I went through the tour:

1. Digital marketers should follow the example of manufacturing companies that post their key metrics and list of improvement initiatives for all to see. On the Miller tour today, we went into the room where teams gather for 20 minutes before each shift starts. The front of the room is covered with at least three dozen graphs -- colorful, filled in with magic marker -- that show their key performance indicators and how each shift performed over the past month. They post info about productivity, safety, attendance, etc. There's also a couple whiteboards that enumerate specific tasks they need to undertake, maintenance issues that need to be addressed, and problems that need to be solved.
   
   We need to do the same thing as marketers. Too often we keep our numbers buried in a spreadsheet. Even if your metrics report gets emailed to the relevant people and they read it today, the numbers are quickly forgotten tomorrow. Try posting a board in a prominent place in your office that shows your key metrics and how you're performing against them. Reports and spreadsheets that aren't posted don't cut it...because they're too easy to hide and too easy to forget about.
   
   
2. You need to have a passion for what you do. We didn't get to see a ton of employees -- maybe a dozen over the course of the three and a half hour tour. But the employees we saw were obviously passionate about the 150 year tradition of Miller and its mission to produce great beer efficiently. I could see it in their eyes and I could hear it in their voices.
   
   When's the last time you felt passionate about an electronic marketing campaign? Sometimes we get caught up in the daily grind -- churning out one project after another -- that we forget what it's all about. I know I'm often guilty of that.
   
   Dig a little deeper. Make the extra effort. Spend the time to do a great job on the little details. Remember what attracted you to this business in the first place. And once you've finished -- when you've produced a campaign or materials that are really first rate -- kick back and crack open a cold one...just like they'd do at Miller.