Characteristics of a Demand Planner
Demand planners are more in demand than ever – with today’s short product cycles and volatile demands. The demand planner is part mathematician, part diplomat, and full-time communicator and manager....
View Article“Best Sourcing” Focuses on Value
A long-held tradition of seeking the lowest cost for any and all materials, components and even products is giving way to a new appreciation of value and total cost of ownership in sourcing decisions...
View ArticleData Analysis is for Every Company
Every business, no matter how small, should be involved in data analysis, according to this post. While many small businesses will not be able to apply data analytics on a large scale, basic data...
View ArticleCollaborate – Inside and Out
Many companies rightly focus on collaboration with supply chain partners as a means of improving efficiency and effectiveness but internal silos also present an opportunity for internal collaboration...
View ArticleDon’t Forget About SPC
Statistical process control (SPC) is a long-standing mainstay of quality management in manufacturing. Most companies know about SPC and many employ it in the plant. SPC is the use of statistical...
View ArticleDoes Lean Hurt Productivity?
General Electric management announced on April 9 that it plans to move a substantial amount of work out of its Lawrence Park Township plant (in Erie county in western New York) to a new plant in Fort...
View ArticleFive Reasons to Adopt PLM
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) has proven its value in companies large and small by simplifying and shortening each phase of the product development process. Smaller organizations, however, have a...
View ArticleThe Seven Wastes – Part 7: Defects
The “Seven Wastes” is a key concept in lean manufacturing. First identified by Toyota’s Taiichi Ohno, the seven wastes include most of what value stream mapping reveals as non-value-adding activities....
View Article10 Reasons Why Lean Projects Fail
Despite the enormous popularity of Lean, and the admirable gains in productivity and waste reduction that many companies have experienced with lean, the track record for successful implementations is...
View ArticleThe Seven Wastes – Part 8: Talent
The “Seven Wastes” is a key concept in lean manufacturing. First identified by Toyota’s Taiichi Ohno, the seven wastes include most of what value stream mapping reveals as non-value-adding activities....
View ArticleFour Manufacturing Myths; Part 1
The Washington Post published an opinion piece on April 30, 2013, written by two Kinsey & Company directors, under the title “Dispelling myths about manufacturing”. The myths concern low cost / low...
View ArticleeCommerce Options
Manufacturers interested in launching an eCommerce initiative are faced with a dizzying array of terminology and options that may frustrate their efforts to get their program up and running as quickly...
View ArticleAttracting Talent to Manufacturing
Everyone is aware of the exodus of experienced production workers (as they retire) and the dearth of bright young minds entering the manufacturing world. Want to know how to attract the next generation...
View ArticleIt’s Not Just the Money
Companies around the world are cutting back their financial-incentive programs so business leaders may be looking for opportunities to reward talented employees by emphasizing nonfinancial motivators...
View ArticleSmall Companies Can Do Big Business
Small companies can find opportunities to supply big businesses but often struggle with how to secure the business in the first place and how to succeed as a supplier in this environment. The major...
View ArticleDoes Continuous Improvement Really Improve?
Activities labeled as ‘continuous improvement’ are often just routine maintenance or problem solving actions that just restore the status-quo. There’s no real improvement and no bottom lime benefit....
View ArticleForecast and Prediction
Forecasting is a difficult process for most of us. We all know that nearly every forecast is wrong (I would say that every forecast is wrong but even a broken clock is right twice a day) and it’s no...
View ArticleExtending Lean Benefits to the Supplier Base
Material costs make up the majority of cost-of-goods in many industries. Lean efforts and achievements usually focus on factory operations – the labor and equipment aspects of manufacturing. The...
View ArticleB2C E-commerce Features for B2B Business
As more manufacturers are developing ecommerce capabilities to provide customers with their channel of choice, they are faced with a challenge of providing the kind of online experiences visitors have...
View ArticlePower to the People
When all the hype and excitement, fear and trepidation, sweat and tears, not to mention money, time and effort are all in the past and your new plant, new system, new machining center, or new (fill in...
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