What separates a high-performing facility from one that's just holding it together? 

In this episode of Clocking In, host Mike Smith sits down with Lisa Colles, Senior Specialist of Engineering, Distribution, and Maintenance with decades of experience building elite operations at Eli Lilly, to answer that question from the inside out.

Lisa shares what it actually looks and feels like to walk into a facility that's firing on all cylinders, why safety and efficiency isn’t the trade-off most people think it is, and the one thing you can do Monday morning to get an honest read on where your operation stands.

Key Takeaways:

• Your facility should run the same on your worst day as your best. If it only hums when the right people are having a good day, you have people running your facility, not processes and that's a problem waiting to happen.
• Safety and efficiency aren't opposites. Slowing forklifts just 2–3 mph reduced incidents without killing productivity. Lisa’s team adapted by hauling more per trip. When you remove the trade-off mentality, humans will innovate to make both work.
• Monday morning, do a walkabout. Clean floors, clear pedestrian pathways, proper lighting, and PPE worn without being asked are your fastest indicators of whether your facility is truly high-performing or just getting by.

Highlights:

(0:00) Why most facilities are running on hope and don't know it

(02:44) The three-part framework for this episode 

(03:04) What Plankton from SpongeBob gets wrong about high performance 

(05:14) The real definition of a high-performing facility 

(05:41) Lisa's first job: no processes, no training, and forklifts nearly rolling off docks 

(10:03) How to read a facility's culture in the first 30 seconds 

(13:50) The systems that keep things humming even on a bad day 

(17:35) "I have to choose between safe and efficient" and why that's a myth 

(21:38) The vendor criteria most facilities completely overlook 

(23:10) Why your equipment has a memory  and you should use it 

(26:13) The Monday morning walkabout: where to start if you don't know where to start

Resources:

Lisa Colles’ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lcolles/ 

Robert Dietrick Company’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/robert-dietrick-co./

Mike’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-smith-92728864/ 

Download RDC's free 10-category, 50-point facility assessment checklist

https://rd-co.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/facility_checklist.html