Video: Emerging Leader Britany Dittmer Achieves Goals with Fresh Ideas

Production Machining Emerging Leader Britany Dittmer, plant manager, Alco Manufacturing, talks about her goals of keeping her team motivated, her three leadership principles and her greatest accomplishment so far.

In the five years she has spent in the industry so far and at Alco Manufacturing, Product Manager Britany Dittmer has learned the intricacies of precision machining, how to lead the organization and how to achieve her goals. She is described as a hands-on leader who has earned the respect of her team of 200-plus through her drive and dedication.

Dittmer’s passion for continuous improvement has greatly improved Alco’s overall efficiency. Her process implementations have led the company to an increase in production throughput and have reduced work-in-process inventory by 50%. She also changed Alco’s building layout and developed a new process for parts washing and quality audits for higher productivity.

Her leadership qualities also shined as she shepherded training of the company’s new ERP system, of which she quickly became proficient. Dittmer developed software best practices for the system as well.

Beginning her career at Alco in August 2016 as a line inspector with no industry experience, Dittmer recognized the need for a more structured written training program after only one month at the company. She took the initiative to develop a job-specific program to train new hires using a process-targeted approach. The course was the catalyst for the development of Alco’s technical training program, which is now used for machine operators as well as quality inspectors.

Dittmer believes that operators on the shop floor know best and therefore she treats them with esteem and often asks their opinion about processes and practices. Photo Credit: Alco Manufacturing

“Britany is always the first person to ask why, which leads her to push us to new levels of success,” says her nominator, Troy Riley, VP of operations at Alco. “In my opinion, she is one of the top emerging leaders of our industry.”

“My future aspirations are focused on not only continuing to drive improvements in processes and efficiencies shop-wide but also to see my Alco family members grow and succeed as individuals,” Dittmer explains. “It is my goal to ensure they have the tools and help they need to progress in their careers, to accomplish objectives by meeting the company’s standards, and for me to ultimately have a blast while doing this.”

Learn more about Dittmer and the other 2021 Emerging Leaders in this article.