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 [...]
Businesses with growth ambitions have to gauge the current capacity of every facet of their facility to plan future productivity. Capacity is a critical element for any business – and especially those interested in growth! A good place to start is to understand your capacity, which can mean different [...]
June 22, 2015 If you are related to aerospace, you've probably heard the GREAT news that the world fleet will double in size over the next 20 years. Based on which news you read, the estimates are between 32,000 and 37,000 planes. Now that is growth! The same type [...]
June 15, 2015 According to a recent KPMG survey on the Global Manufacturing Outlook, executives are thinking about innovation. 81% are altering their business models to to encourage collaboration with customers, suppliers and other partners to "improve the value of their innovation investments". Speed is critical. Thus, a key [...]
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. [...]
I've been thinking about the value of SIOP (sales, inventory and operations planning). Not only can it be a great way to gain bottom line results (capacity to support business growth, improved margins, accelerated cash flow), but it also can help align the functions of an organization. I've facilitated [...]
Published November 21, 2014 I just left an executive SIOP (sales, inventory & operations planning) meeting with a client. We are rejuvenating the process to gain alignment and to spur a rapid improvement in on-time delivery (which will be followed by a reduction in lead times). I've been working [...]
Planning is essential for business management, but by really embracing it and getting into a planning mindset you can figure out innovative, improved strategies across all segments of your company. Developing a planning mindset can be invaluable to not only planners but also to any supply chain management employee/ [...]
