How to Turn a Negative Into a Positive

Talnea vs. The Pandemic Slowdown

Movies, coaches of professional sports teams, and even sporting goods retailers have all used this idiom in one form or the other — hell, my father said something along these lines to me when I was kid and having trouble with a bully.

“It’s not getting knocked down that makes you, it’s how you get up, b’y!” ~BARRY’S DAD

Enter the latest and largest schoolyard bully, the global pandemic. You can’t prevent him from knocking you down, but you can sure as hell choose how you get up, and how you respond.

Some people will stand back up, and decide upon reflection that it just isn’t worth it to jump back into the fight…and that is 100% okay. If that’s where you are in your life and you’ve decided to transition to a new part of that life, I am happy for you.

For those companies that work with the oil and gas industry (whether directly or indirectly) dealing with the downturns has been a way of life. Sure, this is just one more ‘bully’ to deal with as we have dealt with before, but this one is also different. This one fights in a way that no one has seen before, and no one knows how to defeat, yet (I may be getting way too far into the ‘bully metaphor’).

What I am getting at is that at Talnea Machining & Manufacturing we got knocked down—the same as the rest—but we got back up and got back into the fight (ok, one more).

Over the past several months we’ve focused on making Talnea better and stronger by revamping and improving internal processes to make our shop more efficient.

Living and Learning During COVID-19

• We’ve enlisted ideas and recommendations from everyone in the business, regardless of position.
• We took the downtime as an opportunity to perform in-depth machine maintenance on all of our CNCs (even more than our yearly maintenance schedule).
• We investigated and invested in new tooling and technologies.
• We streamlined our internal workflows and have become even leaner on our overhead.
• We have NOT reduced our workforce. On the contrary, we have taken the time to increase training levels and improve each employee’s skillset.

In short, we’ve gotten up, dusted ourselves off, rolled up our sleeves, braced ourselves, and are more than ready for the future.

Whatever that future turns out to be, the new and improved Talnea Machining and Manufacturing is ready to take it on, and knock it out (ok, that’s the last one).