At the Extended Supply Chain Conference in London recently (as reported by AMR’s Kevin O’Marah), an informal poll indicated that 62% of highest ranking supply chain professionals report to the president/CEO/GM. This is up from 51% last year. While not a scientific survey, this indicates a growing recognition of the importance of supply chain management to the health and success of the organization. An additional indicator: only 8% report to the head of manufacturing – down from 15% last year. I think this second data point is equally significant. In Kevin’s words: “Looks like companies are steadily migrating away from an old-school industrial model, where supply chain serves the factory, toward one where supply chain includes manufacturing”.
My heart is in manufacturing but we can’t let ourselves focus only on our own issues and challenges. No factory is an island – suppliers and customers are critically important to everything we do in manufacturing and Supply Chain Management is the mechanism for coordinating, collaborating, and working effectively with those trading partners.
This blog is focused on Lean and Green concerns and those most certainly extend beyond our four walls. Most manufacturers have made significant Lean improvements within the plant but fewer are working toward a Lean supply chain. Supply chains link co-dependent entities.
Anything we can do to help our partners get leaner helps us and vice versa. The same goes for green efforts. Concerns like recyclability and the reverse logistics of getting products and materials back up the chain to where they can be reprocessed, re-used or properly disposed of all require joint effort and planning and are more successful when all parties are cooperating in the effort.
The supply chain doesn’t work for manufacturing; manufacturing is one link in the chain. While the bulk of an organization’s internal resources might be dedicated to production equipment and labor, in most industries materials are by far the larger portion of cost-of-goods-sold. By the way, everything we do is focused on making what the customer wants and needs, isn’t it?
Who does your head of supply chain management report to?
Visit www.daveturbide.com for more articles on Lean, manufacturing and Supply Chain.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Green Collaboration
A recent local newspaper article told the story of a small group of manufacturers in Athens, GA that has started getting together on a monthly basis to brainstorm how they can help each other improve in the areas of waste reduction, energy conservation, water conservation, carbon footprint, etc.
This is a really good idea. Because the companies are likely in different industries, they can approach the issues from different perspectives and bring new ideas to the table that will benefit the other participating companies.
Since they share a local presence, by joining together they can have more influence on government agencies and other resources (recycling contractors, trash collection and landfill, etc.) through their larger collective voice and buying power. There could be some common suppliers, especially for indirect materials and supplies that can be approached as a buying group or consortium. They could encourage carpooling or vanpools among neighboring plants rather than just company-by-company. They might even share facilities that are not in constant use like conference rooms or meeting facilities.
It’s possible that they may find ways to more directly help each other. Scrap or by-products from one company might be useful to another. They may be able to share resources like wastewater processing facilities or power/heat cogeneration.
By sharing ideas across different industries, energy and resource saving practices can ‘cross-pollinate’ much in the same way best-in-class benchmarking can bring innovative breakthroughs from one industry to another.
Not all of these ideas are strictly ‘green’ – some are just about saving money. But that’s another kind of green that companies are always interested in.
Plus it’s so easy – traveling from one local company to another for a face-to-face meeting is a short walk, not a plane ride. Read similar articles at www.daveturbide.com
This is a really good idea. Because the companies are likely in different industries, they can approach the issues from different perspectives and bring new ideas to the table that will benefit the other participating companies.
Since they share a local presence, by joining together they can have more influence on government agencies and other resources (recycling contractors, trash collection and landfill, etc.) through their larger collective voice and buying power. There could be some common suppliers, especially for indirect materials and supplies that can be approached as a buying group or consortium. They could encourage carpooling or vanpools among neighboring plants rather than just company-by-company. They might even share facilities that are not in constant use like conference rooms or meeting facilities.
It’s possible that they may find ways to more directly help each other. Scrap or by-products from one company might be useful to another. They may be able to share resources like wastewater processing facilities or power/heat cogeneration.
By sharing ideas across different industries, energy and resource saving practices can ‘cross-pollinate’ much in the same way best-in-class benchmarking can bring innovative breakthroughs from one industry to another.
Not all of these ideas are strictly ‘green’ – some are just about saving money. But that’s another kind of green that companies are always interested in.
Plus it’s so easy – traveling from one local company to another for a face-to-face meeting is a short walk, not a plane ride. Read similar articles at www.daveturbide.com
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Do You Miss Trade Shows?
Microsoft Dynamics has scheduled a virtual user conference for May of this year. Infor held a similar event for its user community last fall. While this a great opportunity for users to catch up with product changes and plans, learn more about software functions and processes, and hear about other users’ successes and experiences, it is not really a suitable substitute for an actual in-person conference.
While better than nothing – in these days of greatly reduced budgets and travel restrictions – I’ve always felt that attendees learned at least as much, and often much more, from the informal discussions that take place over lunch, in the aisles of the trade show, and in the lounges and hallways around the conference venue.
While both companies feel, justifiably, that their virtual events were successful (Dynamics did a virtual conference in 2009) if you talk to insiders privately, they generally share the same sentiment. Face-to-face really is a superior and more beneficial experience.
This is not intended to criticize Infor and Microsoft for doing their conference virtually. While many of the other software suppliers just canceled their conferences altogether, these companies are making a sincere effort to reach out and communicate with their user community in a cost-effective and efficient manner. Bravo! I hope that when the economy recovers to the point where we can get back to reasonable business travel, these companies will hold a real in-person conference. You (and your user community) will be glad you did. And for those vendors that canceled and did not try the virtual approach ... maybe you missed an opportunity to connect with your user community despite the current economic realities.
While better than nothing – in these days of greatly reduced budgets and travel restrictions – I’ve always felt that attendees learned at least as much, and often much more, from the informal discussions that take place over lunch, in the aisles of the trade show, and in the lounges and hallways around the conference venue.
While both companies feel, justifiably, that their virtual events were successful (Dynamics did a virtual conference in 2009) if you talk to insiders privately, they generally share the same sentiment. Face-to-face really is a superior and more beneficial experience.
This is not intended to criticize Infor and Microsoft for doing their conference virtually. While many of the other software suppliers just canceled their conferences altogether, these companies are making a sincere effort to reach out and communicate with their user community in a cost-effective and efficient manner. Bravo! I hope that when the economy recovers to the point where we can get back to reasonable business travel, these companies will hold a real in-person conference. You (and your user community) will be glad you did. And for those vendors that canceled and did not try the virtual approach ... maybe you missed an opportunity to connect with your user community despite the current economic realities.
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