🔍 Article co-created with Tomas G Zapata Mexico, General Manager at Maquiser Industria and Augusto Unzaga, host of Keru Podcast.
🎙️ This article was inspired by Episode 13 of Keru Podcast.
Keru Podcast is a podcast (in Spanish) created by Globalita.io, where we talk with those who lead Latin American industry from the inside.
When growth creates disorder: operational overload in mid-sized industries
Many mid-sized industrial companies in Latin America begin their expansion without structures that are truly prepared. While the market pushes to sell more, internal operations start to strain: saturated processes, exhausted teams, rising errors and critical decisions that depend on a single person.
Tomas G Zapata Mexico, at the helm of Maquiser Industrial Mexico, sums it up clearly:
“If every decision depends on my presence, I’m not helping Maquiser grow.”
This pattern is common in companies where the general manager keeps an excessive operational role. These are leaders with technical experience who, instead of enabling, absorb: they review budgets, validate designs, decide on purchases, authorize hires. Although this guarantees control, it blocks growth. When every improvement or every conflict escalates to the director’s desk, the organization loses speed.
The solution is not to “delegate more,” but to design a system that works without permanent supervision. This is where the parallel with the Toyota Production System (TPS) model becomes key: in this approach, the leader is not there to intervene in every micro-decision, but to develop people capable of solving problems on their own. The manager’s job is to build judgment, not to execute tasks.
At Maquiser, this change involved a concrete transition. Tomas G Zapata Mexico set defined blocks of operational presence —a maximum of two hours a day on the plant floor— and strengthened reporting systems:
“I learned that being informed doesn’t mean being present for everything.”
That decision not only freed up time to think strategically, but also raised the autonomy of the operations team. When the leader steps out of the center of the flow, the organization is forced to build internal muscle that previously rested on him. And that, although uncomfortable at first, is what makes it possible to sustain expansion.
The danger of promoting without preparing: poorly trained middle managers
Another common symptom in processes of accelerated growth is the creation of new hierarchical levels without sufficient preparation. The result is well known: a technician is promoted for operational performance, but without the management skills the new role requires. What was an excellent operator becomes a frustrated supervisor, unable to lead his former team.
“It’s not enough to say ‘from today on you’re a supervisor.’ If you don’t support them, you had a good technician and you created a bad leader.”
The solution applied by Tomas G Zapata Mexico Maquiser Industrial was not to stop promotions, but to institutionalize support. He established an operating principle: at least 40% of new positions must come from the current team, but only if they come with training and follow-up. Each new role involves a mentoring plan, feedback sessions and a clear definition of responsibilities.
This approach is aligned with leadership development practice in Lean Manufacturing, where the motto is: “Promote from within, train intensively.” It’s not about rewarding with a title, but about preparing the new leader to sustain their performance in a different function. Training is not optional: it is part of the system.
“If you don’t prepare the people you promote, the risk is high: you lose a good technician and gain a bad leader.”
As the complexity of the operation grows, having solid middle managers stops being desirable and becomes indispensable. They are the ones who absorb minor conflicts, who interpret business priorities and who multiply —or block— the organization’s culture. In companies operating under demanding conditions, such as sustainability in metalworking manufacturing, this middle layer is what makes it possible to scale without the system collapsing.
Oversized projects: when the customer isn’t understood
One of the costliest mistakes in business growth management is starting projects without having precisely defined what the customer needs. In companies that work on custom solutions —as is the case of Maquiser Industrial Mexico— this risk is critical. A poor initial reading can lead to weeks of design and manufacturing for a system that doesn’t meet the customer’s real expectations.
“If you’re not clear from the start, you can spend months developing something the customer didn’t want.”
This kind of misalignment usually arises when the technical area jumps ahead to the solution without validating the problem. The intention is good —to give a fast response—, but without a shared diagnosis, the likelihood of error multiplies.
Here, the most powerful tool is the Six Sigma methodology, specifically the “Define” phase of the DMAIC cycle. Before designing, before automating, before programming, you have to clearly define the problem you are trying to solve. What hurts the customer? What result do they expect? How will we know if we achieved it? If that conversation isn’t documented, everything else rests on assumptions.
At Maquiser, the sales area was repositioned as the voice of the customer within the organization. This involved important cultural changes: sales has the right to stop technical decisions if it perceives a deviation, and actively participates in project progress reviews. This practice is inspired by the Japanese Obeya model, where all areas talk around shared data, without dominant hierarchies.
“The sales area doesn’t play for us, it plays for the customer. And if they say something is wrong, we have to listen to them.”
This adjustment prevents technical errors, reduces rework and —above all— strengthens the relationship with the customer. In sectors such as sustainability in metalworking manufacturing, where the differentiator lies in the precision of the solution, this clarity of roles is fundamental.
Scaling without fracturing: sustainability in metalworking manufacturing
An industrial company that grows without caring for its operational base becomes a fragile structure. It can increase sales, open new markets or adopt technology, but if that growth comes at the expense of unstable processes or exhausted people, the real cost shows up later.
Tomas G Zapata Mexico puts it clearly:
“You can close out a delivery well, but if your team ends up exhausted, the real cost shows up the next day.”
At Maquiser Industrial Mexico, this reflection led to a redefinition of the concept of sustainability. Not only in environmental terms, but as sustainability in metalworking manufacturing: a model that makes it possible to maintain the production pace without wearing down the team or forcing the systems.
This approach aligns with the principle of Kaizen: improving continuously without creating fatigue or imbalance. Growth cannot rest solely on people’s effort. It must be backed by stable processes, balanced workloads and a systemic view of performance.
To achieve this, Tomas G Zapata Mexico drove concrete adjustments:
- Reducing the number of parallel projects to focus resources on fewer fronts with greater depth.
- Measuring not only productivity, but operational stability (for example, the number of priority changes in a week).
- Introducing visual boards on the plant floor to anticipate bottlenecks and redistribute workload preventively.
These actions were not designed by outside consultants. They came from the team itself, in line with the participatory improvement logic proposed by the Lean model. Sustainable solutions are not the ones that require more budget, but the ones that best solve the essentials with what you already have.
Leading without absorbing: how to build teams that work without the director
In many mid-sized industries, the general director becomes an involuntary bottleneck. Their presence is so necessary that it ends up blocking decisions, slowing down flows and undermining the team’s confidence. The transition toward a more autonomous organization requires a change in the figure of leadership.
“If I get involved in the processes every day, I end up losing sight of strategic decisions that are also urgent.”
This role adjustment is not intuitive. Many managers fear “losing control” when they let go of tasks. But in reality, what is lost is overload. And what is gained is the ability to anticipate, to look at the business from another perspective, and to think long term.
Tomas G Zapata Maquiser Industrial understood that leading is not controlling, but creating the conditions for others to solve problems. That’s why he systematized his presence on the plant floor under the Gemba Walk approach, a Toyota Production System practice that involves walking the production floor with a logic of strategic observation: questions are asked, patterns are detected, conversations are held with the team, but there is no intervention unless necessary.
This kind of presence makes it possible to detect hidden failures, build trust and communicate priorities, without falling into micromanagement. It is a way of staying connected to the operation without blocking it.
In addition, he set clear limits: a daily strategic focus block (one hour without interruptions), cross-functional meetings every two weeks, and a monthly review of indicators with the entire staff. This allowed the organization to function as an autonomous system, with distributed decisions and clear responsibilities.
Culture as an operating system: developing leaders, not putting out fires
A key pillar of business growth management is the consolidation of a robust organizational culture. It’s not about putting values on a wall, but about making decisions consistent with those values every day. And, above all, about developing middle leaders who multiply that culture within their teams.
“I don’t know of any good captain who was forged in calm waters.”
At Maquiser Industrial Mexico, culture is trained. Every new promotion comes with a mentoring process. Every conflict is used as a learning opportunity. And every improvement comes from the team, not from an external manual.
This model is inspired by the Japanese practice of Hoshin Kanri, a strategic alignment tool in which overall objectives are translated into concrete goals for each hierarchical level, and in which each person knows how they contribute to the larger purpose.
In addition, an Obeya-style approach was adopted: the key areas (production, maintenance, quality, sales) meet regularly to review shared data, discuss deviations and make integrated decisions. It’s not just about “handing over reports,” but about creating collective intelligence in real time.
“If production and maintenance don’t argue every now and then, they’ve probably stopped pushing each other.”
This kind of healthy friction is a sign of a living organization. The general manager’s role is to facilitate those spaces, ensure that conflict is productive and that resolution is based on data, not on hierarchies.
Consolidate before replicating: how to grow without multiplying errors
One of the frequent mistakes in industrial expansion is believing that a second plant should replicate the first one “as is.” But if that first plant has unstable processes, a weak culture or unclear roles, what gets replicated is the problem, not the success.
Tomas G Zapata Mexico is clear about it:
“Real growth happens when you can open another unit without needing to be present all the time.”
That’s why, before thinking about new locations, Maquiser’s focus was on consolidating what already existed: documenting processes, standardizing practices, building a layer of leaders who can sustain the operation without direct supervision.
This principle follows the logic of Standard Work, a key methodology in Lean Manufacturing. Only what is documented and validated can be replicated with quality. Everything else is operational risk.
In this model, growing is not opening new plants out of enthusiasm or demand. It’s doing so when the current system is strong enough to multiply without losing control. When teams are reliable, indicators stable and customers satisfied. Then, yes: you can scale without fracturing.
Keru Podcast is a podcast (in Spanish) created by Globalita.io, where we talk with those who lead Latin American industry from the inside.
Are you preparing your company to grow with method, culture and operational sustainability, or are you just surviving the volume?
J. Tomás G. Zapata is a Mexican industrial leader with more than 18 years of experience in manufacturing, maintenance and B2B services. He was General Director at Maquiser Industrial S.A. de C.V., where he led processes of operational transformation, commercial expansion and continuous improvement in technically demanding environments.
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