Do we practice what we preach? We can talk all we want about best practices and green resource management, and few will ever know if we have achieved success in that area. Nor should they. The improvement programs you undertake are aimed at better performance, lower costs, and becoming more competitive, and as long as the result justifies the effort and expense, it doesn’t matter what you call it or who knows about it.
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Monday, May 10, 2010
2 Big Questions
Sometimes, it’s helpful to step back and ask the ‘big question’: Why do we have xxx? Or why do we do yyy? It’s easy to get wrapped up in the details and lose sight of the overall objective. Let’s look at a couple of answers.
...Keep Reading This Article on www.daveturbide.com
...Keep Reading This Article on www.daveturbide.com
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Do You Get It?
I placed an order with Staples on the Internet the other afternoon and there was an email waiting in my in box the next morning saying that the order had already been shipped and I could expect my merchandise the next day. I placed an order with a different company two weeks ago and I'm still waiting for that shipment to arrive. Whereas that might have been acceptable, or at least expected, a few years ago, my expectations have certainly changed. Staples gets it. The other company is headed for trouble.
This is a really obvious example of how a market has changed dramatically. Market changes are not always that dramatic and not always that obvious. What worked for the last ten (or twenty or fifty) years may not continue to work in the future. The Internet has played a big role in changing markets but it’s the companies that have exploited this technology that have made the difference, not the technology itself. Who would have ever thought that a retailer could make a thriving business just selling coffee, and charging several times the going rate for it as well? Who could have predicted that someone could build a multi-billion dollar business delivering letters and small packages overnight – competing with the established, relatively reliable and very inexpensive postal service – charging eight or ten dollars to deliver a letter in one day that the post office would deliver in a couple days for less than a dollar? And the list goes on.
It should be pretty obvious that change is coming and possibly from an entirely unexpected direction. Every business must be continuously aware of market forces and competition and be ready to adapt to meet the challenges head-on. Or, better yet, think far enough ‘outside of the box’ to be the one driving its competitors out of business. Best-in-class benchmarking – looking outside of your own industry for best practices – can sometimes be the source of game-changing ideas.
Companies that don’t ‘get it’ – don’t recognize the changing landscape at the earliest opportunity and take positive action to counteract it – are doomed.
Do you ‘get it’? Are you willing and able to recognize the first signs of change? Are you willing to abandon long-held ideas, processes, products, methods, and marketing approaches?
This is a really obvious example of how a market has changed dramatically. Market changes are not always that dramatic and not always that obvious. What worked for the last ten (or twenty or fifty) years may not continue to work in the future. The Internet has played a big role in changing markets but it’s the companies that have exploited this technology that have made the difference, not the technology itself. Who would have ever thought that a retailer could make a thriving business just selling coffee, and charging several times the going rate for it as well? Who could have predicted that someone could build a multi-billion dollar business delivering letters and small packages overnight – competing with the established, relatively reliable and very inexpensive postal service – charging eight or ten dollars to deliver a letter in one day that the post office would deliver in a couple days for less than a dollar? And the list goes on.
It should be pretty obvious that change is coming and possibly from an entirely unexpected direction. Every business must be continuously aware of market forces and competition and be ready to adapt to meet the challenges head-on. Or, better yet, think far enough ‘outside of the box’ to be the one driving its competitors out of business. Best-in-class benchmarking – looking outside of your own industry for best practices – can sometimes be the source of game-changing ideas.
Companies that don’t ‘get it’ – don’t recognize the changing landscape at the earliest opportunity and take positive action to counteract it – are doomed.
Do you ‘get it’? Are you willing and able to recognize the first signs of change? Are you willing to abandon long-held ideas, processes, products, methods, and marketing approaches?
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The Hot Dog Vendor
Once upon a time in a town not unlike this one, there was a hot dog vendor. He had a good cart, and every day, he bought the freshest hot dog buns and only the very best hot dogs. The hot dog vendor was up early and worked until after dark making sure everything would be spic and span for the next day. Once the cart was loaded with all the essentials, he would make his way down the intersection that had good traffic, there, he would display his wares for sale, he even had a small sign that read “The Very Best Hot Dogs”.
As time went on, his customers told friends and neighbors about his hot dogs, and every month, he sold more and more. Eventually, he found that his cart was no longer big enough to handle the volume of business that he was doing, so he made a deal with the land owner at the intersection and built a hot dog stand. The day before the stand opened, he cleaned his cart, wrapped it tightly in plastic, and put it into storage.
The stand was a hit, business kept growing, and the stand got bigger too. The hot dog vendor decided to put up bigger signs, one to the west of his stand about a 1/4 mile, and one to the east of his stand the same distance, and once again, business grew. He increased his bun and hot dog orders, hired some help, and was quite prosperous.
While all of this was going on, his son was away at the University, studying economics. When his son returned home, he was distraught with his father, “Father” he said “Don’t you know that the economy is a mess, the dollar is weak, our country is in great debt, you’re risking everything you worked for with this silly expansion!” His father responded, “Son you must be right, after all, you’ve studied at the University”!!
The hot dog vendor proceeded to take down the big signs, and soon he realized that business was slowing down, he cut his bun and hot dog orders, laid off the extra help, and sold half of his stand. Over the next few months business got even slower, so he sold the other half of the stand and dusted off the old hot dog cart. When his son visited some time later, he said ...“You were right my son, the economy is a mess, thank you for setting me straight”.
As time went on, his customers told friends and neighbors about his hot dogs, and every month, he sold more and more. Eventually, he found that his cart was no longer big enough to handle the volume of business that he was doing, so he made a deal with the land owner at the intersection and built a hot dog stand. The day before the stand opened, he cleaned his cart, wrapped it tightly in plastic, and put it into storage.
The stand was a hit, business kept growing, and the stand got bigger too. The hot dog vendor decided to put up bigger signs, one to the west of his stand about a 1/4 mile, and one to the east of his stand the same distance, and once again, business grew. He increased his bun and hot dog orders, hired some help, and was quite prosperous.
While all of this was going on, his son was away at the University, studying economics. When his son returned home, he was distraught with his father, “Father” he said “Don’t you know that the economy is a mess, the dollar is weak, our country is in great debt, you’re risking everything you worked for with this silly expansion!” His father responded, “Son you must be right, after all, you’ve studied at the University”!!
The hot dog vendor proceeded to take down the big signs, and soon he realized that business was slowing down, he cut his bun and hot dog orders, laid off the extra help, and sold half of his stand. Over the next few months business got even slower, so he sold the other half of the stand and dusted off the old hot dog cart. When his son visited some time later, he said ...“You were right my son, the economy is a mess, thank you for setting me straight”.
Monday, March 29, 2010
The Supply Chain Moves Up
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.
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.
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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