In this episode, our Director of Operations, Britt Creech, came on to talk about what it looks like to build a healthy culture, learning from your team members, and what she’s excited for next in Blur Manufacturing.

 

Britt:

Hey, I’m Britt Creech. I am the Director of Operations at Blur. I’ve been here about four years now, actually over four years now, and have been working with the guys at Blur for well over a decade. So it’s been a while and yeah, I’m happy to be here. 

Julia:

That’s a long time. 

Britt:

Yeah, it’s a very long time. It’s been great to see how Blur’s grown over the years. This year we celebrated our ninth birthday? Or tenth birthday?

Julia:

Ninth. 

Britt:

Celebrated our ninth birthday as Blur as a company. It’s been great to see the design and development side grow as well as the contract manufacturing side, which is why I’m here. And hopefully we can talk about that today. 

Julia:

We’ve been talking a little bit about what the culture is like at Blur. We talked to some bicycling enthusiasts and talked to some quality people. I’m curious to hear about what sort of culture you’re trying to build over at our manufacturing facility. 

Britt:

Very much the same. I think that the thing that Blur does really well from a culture perspective is not boxing people in. We get good people and we allow them to kind of find their roles and their passions. They may be hired for a specific role like a manufacturing engineer position, but they’re not limited, you know, they can come on the podcast, they can help with marketing, they may have some ideas on sales, and we welcome that format here. 

We also, as a culture, have a good balance, I feel like, of fun and work. We generally like one another. I’m sure that’s the case in a lot of companies, but here I feel like we enjoy working with each other. It’s a very team environment, but at the same time we are required to work independently but we balance being able to do both. 

Julia:

Yeah. 

Britt:

I think that’s been the thing with growing the manufacturing side of the business. When we first started out in manufacturing, you know, the design and development had been there for a while. We’re now trying to get more manufacturing jobs. 

With that, it requires different resources from week to week. Some weeks it’s more tech heavy, like needing more technicians. Sometimes it’s more engineering heavy. Some weeks we’re doing manufacturing transfers, which is, you know, bringing it from the design and development team into manufacturing and pretty much making sure that everything’s there for us to get a line set up, get the line going. That is a week of heavy engineering work. But then once that job has been kind of fulfilled, then it’s off to the races with our technicians and them assembling the product. 

So one thing I’d say just starting out is you have to be able to have people who like to wear a lot of hats. Some weeks we may need, you know, help in different areas. That’s one thing I think we do well here: Everybody is willing to kind of pitch in where it’s needed to get the job done. 

Julia:

Yeah

Britt:

We continue to do that as we grow. Each week just kind of looks a little different right now but in good ways. I think in our current culture on the manufacturing side is a willingness to learn and grow, but also still be creative. And so I think that might be a little unusual in manufacturing. 

A lot of times when you’re, you know, you’ve been manufacturing for a while, you’ve got kind of a steady process flow. Whereas here we’re creating new lines, new setups, depending on a client and their particular product. Sometimes the way we’re doing it today may not fit that particular product and you kind of need to see that soon and be creative and think through what’s the best way to, you know, change it up to make that work without crashing the quality system and making quality go crazy. 

So yeah, I think that’s been kind of the fun part too is it’s not just your day to day manufacturing. We’re really having to think quick on our feet and be able to change and be willing to change and be excited about change. 

Julia:

I think that, especially in manufacturing, it’s very much team effort. So it’s not like just one person making all the decisions. It’s, okay, what are you seeing on the line? How can we make it better? Everyone’s opinion is valued and really taken into account. 

Britt:

For sure. I mean, I can even think of recently in the past couple of weeks, we had 30 pallets delivered, like a full truckload. As soon as we’re getting them off the truck, you know, I had a game plan myself and we start taking off the outer plastic just cause sometimes that’s got stuff you don’t want to bring in in-house. And then immediately one of my manufacturing engineers was just like, “Hey, this is very inefficient, Britt. Like, there’s definitely a better way to do this.” And she was right! So taking a step back and thinking it through and being willing to change, because ultimately we all have a job to get things done and get it done in an efficient manner. 

I feel like I’m using the word efficient a lot, but it is part of our business. Which is, you know, we try to be cognizant of our clients’ budgets, so if we’re doing something and it doesn’t make sense and we can do it in a better way and not compromise quality, we always try to do that.

Julia:

Yeah, that’s the whole thing with manufacturing, right? You’re trying to do the best job you can in the most efficient way possible, especially with contract manufacturing where every minute is rolling and every hour is money spent. The quality of the product and the client’s budget are sort of top of mind. I think you sort of have to be a little bit more creative and you have to think outside the box and come up with solutions that are custom to them because if you try and squish everyone into the same way of manufacturing, it’s just not going to work and it’s not going to be budget conscious either.

Britt:

Right. Back to the culture piece, you have to be open to hearing feedback live and I think we’re really good at that. Being able to be like, okay, maybe this isn’t the best way to do this. Including myself, like if my team’s got better ideas, I want to hear it and generally their ideas are better than mine. So yeah, it’s good to hear.

Julia:

Speaking of improving the team and having good ideas and doing things efficiently, what have you seen work well and what have you seen not work well in terms of company culture? 

Britt:

I think what I’ve seen work is to not overthink it. You gotta take it product by product. You give it your best thought right out the gate, set up a line, and start manufacturing the product. But you can’t be afraid to change it up if you got it wrong because this is your first time building the product. Maybe you did a linear line because you thought it was going to be more of a one-piece flow, but you quickly realized the product actually needed more of a collaborative type U-shape just because of the size of the product. The thing that we have that works for us is all of our lines are on wheels, so we can change very quickly. 

From a team perspective, what I’ve seen work is involving the right people at the right time. So don’t, in a vacuum, go set up a line by yourself. That doesn’t make sense because, you know, it doesn’t matter what level you are or how high up the chain you are. Actually, the higher up the chain, the worse you are. Right? Like, you really need the manufacturing engineer who knows the product and you need the assemblers on the line as well. The person assembling it is going to say, “Okay, that’s great that one time you did it or those five prototypes that you put together to create my assembly instructions. I have to do that 150 times and that’s really not a great way.”

I’d say getting feedback early on from the people who are going to be involved and quality. I think that’s the other thing. I left them out, but we shouldn’t. Quality has great ideas. Specifically, there’s things that we don’t even consider or maybe overlook. [For example], calibrated equipment that we may have, but is it currently calibrated? Is it going out of calibration? Making sure that you’ve got everyone involved to be thinking ahead so that the client has success.

I’d say things that I’ve seen not work is when you only have engineering setting up a line. And it’s not that they don’t do a great job, they do. They thought of everything that they possibly could think of. But that’s not everything. And not any one person can do a collective thing by themselves. That’s the whole point of the team.

And then I just think always doing lessons learned after a build. Once you’ve done a first time build with a product, even getting with a client and telling them, “Hey, these are the things that worked really well, here are some things we saw that worked. but that took longer than we wanted and we think that a fixture could have improved this.” Kind of working with them on what the cost of a fixture looks like versus the time it took to do that. And doing what’s best for them. In some cases, they may be doing a design change that’s gonna change that anyway and so they don’t need a fixture. But just kind of communicating with them and improving the process after that first build. 

Julia:

When I think about the culture of manufacturing and what we’re trying to do at Blur, it’s like trust your team, trust your clients. There’s that level of trust all around and I think that open communication definitely helps with that. It just shows like, hey, we’re actually thinking about this and we’re trying.

Britt:

Yeah, I think that’s the thing too is we have a very open door policy here with our clients. They’re often here, sometimes to just be here and kind of just work alongside us even if they’re working on their own day-to-day activities. They may be from out of town and they just, you know, want a place to set up. But also when we’re doing builds or we’re doing new projects together, having them on site often has been really great because it kind of feels like they’re just a part of us. And it doesn’t feel like you’re doing some of this big back and forth where there’s lag times. It’s real live actions happening, and we’re just all working together. 

Even some things like working out some troubleshooting together, they may have more insight from a design perspective than we do from a manufacturing perspective. And that’s not to say that we can’t gain that knowledge over time, but when you’re early on, you kind of want the designer who knows that this little piece in the ICU is a tricky piece that they’ve seen in the past. And instead of us spending a lot of time trying to find that, they’ve already found that before. They already know this can be a problem. It gives us kind of a head start on problem solving and then it benefits everyone. We fix the problem faster, it helps our timelines, and it’s just good to work together, solving problems together. I feel like our best success stories here are our clients who are pretty much a part of Blur at this point. You know, you see them here. It’s nothing for them to be at Wednesday lunch with us. 

Julia:

Yeah. 

Britt:

And we love that! That’s what we’re trying to have here. 

Julia: 

I see clients around the building all the time. Would you say that’s different than maybe other contract manufacturers in terms of having the clients actually physically be in the space so often?

Britt:

Yes, I would say that’s very different. Even coming from a perspective where I used to have contract manufacturers myself at previous companies, you definitely scheduled way out in advance for a site visit. You may go there occasionally and pick up parts or something. That was kind of normal, but even that you still very much scheduled it somewhat in advance to give them time to prepare because they have other clients. 

Here, I mean, as we grow, I hope that we keep it the way we do now, where it’s nothing for me to get a text from someone that says, “Hey, I need to swing by in like an hour,” or they just show up. I think to some contract manufacturers that might be overwhelming, but I feel like here we welcome that. We’re like, great, you know? 

Client is here and how can I help you? And we try to have a very customer facing approach and want them to feel invited here because this is their product. You know, we want them to be just as involved as we are and I want them to see what we’re doing. So if they wanna come be a part of a manufacturing build, we like that because we want them to see their product in action.

We had one client who came and did just a full-blown photo shoot of us as we’re manufacturing and it was part of their launch plan. We were happy to be a part of that because they wanted to show their investors like hey, this is real. We’ve got a manufacturer. They’re building the product.

Julia: 

Yeah, that’s fun! Over the past four years and all the things you’ve learned, for someone who is maybe where you were four years ago just starting out leading a new team, what would you tell them? 

Britt:

I would tell them that you can’t expect to get it all right out the gate. And that’s okay. I think that you need to be prepared for that. You can do all the drawings and plannings and all the layouts that you want to and you can think through every scenario in your mind and then client X comes out and they changed all that. And that’s okay. You kinda have to be okay with that.

From a team perspective, I read the book a long time ago, Who Moved My Cheese? Have you read that book?

Julia:

No, I haven’t. 

Britt:

It’s a good book about change and how to manage a team with something that is constantly changing. But in the book, there’s four characters and there’s two that are just all about change. They’re ready for change at any given moment. The other two, one’s reluctant but willing to and then the fourth one really doesn’t like change. And so I think that you have to be able to explain the why to your team. I try to be very transparent and as open as possible. I want them involved in where we are because we are growing and I want them to know, hey, we need to make this change. Here’s why. But also get input from them. Maybe there’s something that I haven’t considered but I think having them understand where I’m approaching it gives them a good way of being able to provide feedback for us to, as a team, kind of move forward. 

Also I would just say, you know, making sure you’re hiring the right people. If you’re early on hiring a person who only wants to do, let’s say, shipping. That’s what they’ve done their whole life. You might not be shipping every day right out the gate. You know? And that’s okay, but you really want to hire people that are willing to, like I said early on, to change hats depending on the day. As you’re growing, then solidify those kinds of roles, you know, where it makes sense once you have a full time person there. 

I definitely made a couple of mistakes early on. I was fortunate that we moved from the building next door to up here and I got to kind of learn from the mistakes. The first pass that we took for setting up the floor was good and it worked. I’m not saying it didn’t, but being able to look at it after building product with it and then being like, “Oh, you know what? There’s a couple of other ways we could have done this.” And being able to change that. 

I’d say early on when you’re growing a company, the more open you can be with your team, the better. It helps them kind of understand how the business is growing and their impact on the business. 

Julia:

Right. Yeah, it helps with the motivation. There’s this book, it’s called Start with Why, and it’s all about that. Before anything, before the business goals, you need to [understand] why you’re doing what you’re doing because that impacts all the decisions that you make. And if you can focus on the why, then it’s actually easier to make decisions because it gives you a heuristic for like, “Okay, yes, we do want to do this or no, like this doesn’t align with our why, so we actually don’t want to do that, even though it might seem like a good opportunity.” I think understanding why you’re doing what you’re doing, that’s the core of motivation right there.

Britt:

No, I agree. I’ve always lived that way too. I’m willing to do pretty much anything for the company if I can, but I am more motivated when I understand why I’m doing it.

Julia:

Right. 

Britt:

Like, okay, cool, I’m mopping the floor today. Why? Because we couldn’t get our cleaning crew here and the FDA is showing up tomorrow. Cool, I’m mopping away. That’s what we’re doing. So, yeah, I think that just understanding why you’re doing something is motivation in itself. I’ll have to check that book out.

Julia:

Yeah, it’s a good one. And if you were to describe manufacturing in one word, what would it be?

Britt:

Alright, come speak into the mic a little bit.

Haven: 

Engaging. 

Tony:

Collaborative. 

Tim:

Enjoyable. 

Britt:

Synergy. 

Megan:

Satisfying. 

Julia: 

What are you looking forward to for the manufacturing team or what do you see sort of like coming in the future that’s getting you excited? 

Britt: 

Just growth. I mean, we have a lot of products in the pipeline that are going to hit soon that are currently in the process of the manufacturing transfer piece. Ironing out documentation and just seeing those new products come and how our portfolio is growing. And also just how, you know, we’re in our fourth year, most of the team has been here for three plus years at this point. 

Julia:

You’re established. 

Britt:

Yeah, it just feels like a lot of the process that we’ve been defining over the past four years, we’ve reiterated it enough times now that it seems to be working really well. And just seeing how the team has grown and how much they’ve learned. Early on I felt like I was in every meeting, you know? And part of that was just wanting to be, I guess, on some degree. But now it’s like, no, the team knows everything that needs to get done, they know the right questions to ask, and there’s a lot more ownership as a whole for us all. We kind of all own that we all want this to go well, we all want this to grow into more product lines, and it’s exciting see the team even every time we get a new client, how excited they get. Even the contribution of ideas for potential ways to get more clients. Just a lot of involvement in how we all want the business to be successful. And that’s been fun. 

And I just think that in 2025, it seems like we will increase our portfolio quite a bit and that’s exciting. We love new products. It’s fun to build something new. It’s also fun to see that we’ve got established products now, because you do want that consistency. And I think that between the two of those, I’m really excited. 

Julia:

So if someone wants to get in contact with Blur about a future manufacturing build, or they have a product that they think they’re ready to manufacture and they just need to chat through, what’s the best way for them to get in contact with us? 

Britt:

Well. Our contact info is on the website. They can reach out, my cell phone number’s there. They can reach out through email or really any social media; LinkedIn’s a good way. But I would say that they should try to get ahold of us and do an initial call with us and they can even, if they’re local, they can schedule a visit. If they’re not local, they can schedule a visit. And come check us out, just see the facility, come meet the team, tell us about your product, and tell us where you are with your product. Selfishly I want to manufacture it, but if you’re still in the design and development phase we can help with that as well. And then we can meet you when you’re ready. 

Julia:

Yeah, we’ve got a fun team. Come and say hello! And for those who don’t know, our website is blurpd.com. 

Britt:

This is fun. 

Julia:

Yeah, thanks for coming on today, Britt. 

Britt:

Yeah, it’s been a good time.