Maneuvering in today’s fast-paced business environment requires actionable information, which data mining provides. Locate your data to make your next strategic move. As I've been putting together a SIOP (Sales, Inventory and Operations Planning) executive meeting presentation, it made me think about data mining. In this case, there is [...]
Collecting lots of data isn’t enough to improve service levels. A successful manager tracks relevant metric trends and puts the information into action. One of the keys to success for any business is to watch metrics trends. In my experience, if a client watches key trends, they tend to [...]
Complexity abounds in manufacturing management; can you rise to the challenge? Complexity abounds! Supply chains are extended. Risks must be mitigated. Rules and regulations are increasing. Talent is in short supply. 95% of business is outside the U.S. yet expanding internationally brings challenges and complexity. Customers are demanding more [...]
Warehousing is often overlooked for its simplicity, but it’s one of the strongest links in your supply chain. Warehousing is an often-overlooked area of the business. We store and ship. How hard can it be? Well, there are plenty of ways to dramatically improve your warehousing service and efficiency. [...]
You can't give attention to work priorities to grow a more profitable business if you aren't collecting data, measuring variables and tracking trends. I refer to one of my core service lines as "Eagle Eye" since I've found that selecting the right priorities to work on is half the [...]
Build successful teams that are cohesive and self-improving. It's rare for significant results to be achieved by individuals in today's economy; teams have substantially greater success. What do good ones have in common? One clear purpose - Typically, a team has one purpose since it's formed specifically for that [...]
Published in "The ACA Group" website, November, 2010 Polling my clients and contacts, I've found there's no exception to the rule that customer loyalty is no longer a nice-to-have; instead, it must be an assumption in today's "new normal" business environment. A perfect storm is brewing - just as [...]
It's obvious that no matter your career, project management skills are critical to success. What better way to get things done? Focus on critical path - It's easy to get caught up in 1000's of tasks on your project plan. Instead, focus all your efforts on just the critical [...]
Today's international business climate is becoming more and more competitive and tough to stand out in the crowd. Additionally, more and more plant operations are moving to Mexico, China and other countries where there are lower wage rates, less intensive laws (workers compensation), etc. To succeed in today's environment, [...]
After working with many companies on a wide range of business issues, one common element permeates through all of them - the need for improvement with data integrity. It is much more than a "systems" topic; it is cornerstone to your business success. The integrity of data (whether manual [...]
