October 5, 2015 I am in Las Vegas for APICS 2015, and I went to see LOVE (the Beatles Cirque du Soleil) this evening. The show had amazing sets, color, songs, acrobats and much more. Much of the show had as much color as this Beatles-inspired picture below. My [...]
CLAREMONT, Calif., Oct. 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Lisa Anderson, president of LMA Consulting Group, will speak to APICS 2015 attendees from manufacturing, operations, distribution and supply chain on Priming Your Supply Chain for The Amazon Effect on Tues., Oct. 6 at 8:00 a.m. at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, [...]
Systems transactions are often treated as an afterthought but are critical to building a stable foundation for your business. As mundane as system transactions seem, I continually find that whether or not they are deemed a priority can make the difference between a successful operation or not. The bottom [...]
Though reducing inventory is generally advisable special situations arise when stocking inventory makes good business sense. Certainly reducing inventory on hand is typically preferred as you can accelerate your cash flow. It is one of the key focus areas of my consulting practice. I have found that reducing inventory [...]
Inventory accuracy depends on so many moving parts. But a top-to-bottom understanding of the process combined with speedy adjustment responses would dramatically improve accuracy, thus, boosting business results. How many times have we heard this? Or, perhaps your inventory resource will keep looking until he/she finds it; however, it [...]
Must you compromise quality for speed? Reducing lead time will increase customer satisfaction and avoid the Amazon Effect. My recent research report on the Amazon effect says that 67% of manufacturers and distributors feel customer service gaps when compared to Amazon-like offerings. One of those key areas is lead [...]
Keeping up on the latest supply chain trends can be invaluable for your career and your company success. I’ve never believed in “jumping on the latest bandwagon”, just to be in the cool crowd and to have the opportunity to work with the trendy topics. However, [...]
I've been thinking about the power of Amazon since I facilitated an APICS tour of their San Bernardino 1.2 million square feet facility on Friday. It was quite impressive from several viewpoints: 1) warehouse automation. 2) simplicity 3) how they treat their people. 4) the power of continuous improvement. [...]
Look beyond your immediate customers to their customers, and so on, for cross-supply chain opportunities that could spell win-win-win for all I find that cross-functional teams can be some of the most valuable teams that generate winning ideas. By taking a diverse team of people with different backgrounds and [...]
Believing you understand your customers’ needs can differ vastly from what they actually want. In the end though, the customer gets what the customer wants, whether from you or your competition. As I thought about an appropriate topic, I was reminded of the importance of starting with your customer. [...]
