Daily Insights, Trends and Solutions for Professionals, Experts, Students and Society
Manufacturing production delays can be devastating for the core business and others that rely on the manufactured products for their own processes. A delay in one manufacturing plant can have ripple effects across a whole supply chain, which is why it is so important to prevent these delays.
Doing so starts with understanding why they happen. Below we explore some of these reasons.
Continue reading “5 Reasons for Manufacturing Production Delays!”First, a “Prime Objective” of the Shasta EDC is job growth in the manufacturing and technology sectors, including the use of collaborative robots. This is our key focus. However, the recruitment, retention, and expansion of our companies is equally important.
There is obviously a symbiotic relationship between employer and employees. However, from time to time there are talent gaps that emerge and technologies that force us to rethink our approaches to business.
Data shows that the number of manufacturing jobs are declining, and the jobs that remain are shifting to a mixture of the traditional and tribal knowledge around manufacturing and a blend of technical knowledge that helps to augment current manufacturing with the practical application of emerging technologies.
Continue reading “Collaborative Robots: Making Manufacturing Jobs More Valuable”As a new business owner, it’s up to you to help your company reach the top of the industry and beat competitors. Of course, such a thing is easier said than done, especially when you consider how competitive most industries can be. Many other companies have developed tactics to get the attention of their (and your) target audience for years. It might seem like a lofty goal if you want to beat competitors with a new business due to the odds stacked against you.
However, just because there are long odds doesn’t mean you don’t have advantages over the industry. You have examples of successful businesses to use as your roadmap, allowing you to benefit from the trial and error of your competitors. Here are a few best-practice methods to beat competitors to help you get started.
Continue reading “How to Beat Competitors With Your New Business!”At Supply Chain Game Changer we believe in sharing experiences and expertise from people in every industry and from across the globe. As such we have introduced our “Seasoned Leadership in Action” Interview series at Supply Chain Game Changer. This interview is with Ron Emery, Continuous Improvement Consultant, Author and Entrepreneur.
Continue reading “Seasoned Leadership in Action™ – An Interview with Ron Emery, Continuous Improvement Consultant”The agile approach is one of the most popular methodologies among project managers these days. This agile project management approach has been shown to be quite beneficial in supporting companies in developing profitable products/services.
This is primarily due to agile’s emphasis on teamwork and the priority it places on client happiness. Another reason agile is so effective is that it involves project roadmaps and continuously revises them to meet the customer’s growing needs.
Continue reading “7 Reasons to Switch to Agile Project Management!”
In this age of acronyms one of the terms that I have heard more of in recent years is “VUCA”. In short VUCA stands for “Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity”.
It seems to be a phrase designed to capture multiple synonyms for change and chaos, or the conditions associated with chaotic situations. Disarray, turmoil, pandemonium, unpredictability, confusion, and vagueness also capture that sensation of being in an environment that is out of equilibrium in some manner.
In both the personal and professional parts of our lives we are faced with these kinds of challenges each and every day.
Let’s explore more of what VUCA means and how we can better deal with these types of circumstances.
Continue reading “What is VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) ?”How many times have you looked at your Distribution Centre operation and thought about how you would re-layout and streamline the process flow if you had the chance?
When you are starting with a new, empty facility it is clearly much easier to layout the operations to make the best possible flow of materials and processes. But when you have an existing operation which has evolved over a long period of time, you are likely faced with utilities, equipment, infrastructure, walls, and paradigms all of which have resulted in a rather inefficient flow of materials and people and processes.
This was the situation we had in one of our Distribution Centres. In this particular Distribution Centre the current layout of the operation had been the result of many iterations of adding new customers, new products and new processes over time with the associated fluctuations in demand for everything.
Yet with the launch of our Global Process Excellence project we had unleashed our employees to make the improvements they had imagined could be made for a long time.
Continue reading “Streamline your Entire Distribution Centre or Warehouse at One Time!”Often, business representatives think about improving their business and those points that can increase efficiency. However, you need a special service that can increase efficiency. Going to noltic.com, you can see the key to success – the Salesforce service.
Continue reading “Why Does a Business Need Salesforce?”We launched the Global Inventory Turnover Breakthrough project on April 1st. It was not a joke. Our challenge was to improve Inventory turnover from 6.3 turns to over 8.6 turns within the year. This was a level of achievement that the company had never before reached, let alone thinking about going from Worst to First.
But we had the Call to Action. Our Inventory turnover was perennially the worst in our industry. Our Inventory levels were consuming an enormous amount of cash as well as creating a lot of expense in carrying charges. And this had the effect of driving our Return on Invested Capital to very low, unattractive levels. Further there were ongoing complaints that even though we had a lot of inventory we never had all of the right material that was needed.
We had the motivation to turn this situation around. What we didn’t know is that we were about to make history and go from Worst to First!
Continue reading “Achieve Breakthrough Results! Go From Worst to First!”When it comes to business, there are many things to take into account. You want your company to develop, so you’ll focus on improving your market strategy and training your employees so that you can receive maximum success rates. However, you probably didn’t take into account that the way in which you organize your business and your space is just as important.
There are many tasks and processes to see to at your business. for each day you’ve cut your work cut out for you, but there are usually other, additional things that you’ll have to manage throughout the day.
Continue reading “Organize Your Business for Efficiency and Success!”Many businesses use some form of Total Cost of Ownership model to support their Procurement and sourcing decisions. In fact these models are not just used casually, but they often are designed to inform and make optimal sourcing choices.
But many dynamics that we have experienced in the last few years suggest that these models are less than optimal. From chronic global Supply Chain breakdowns during the pandemic through to disruptions caused by outsourcing and single points of failure, sourcing decisions have been exposed as being less than ideal.
What is the current nature of these Total Cost of Ownership models, and what needs to change to make their use more robust and responsive?
Continue reading “Total Cost of Ownership Procurement Model Failure – What’s Missing?”Your sales reps do a lot more than just selling stuff. They have meetings to attend, reports to write, customer queries to resolve, leads to convince, rude and angry customers to pacify, and a myriad of non-revenue generating tasks that are imperative for smooth business operations.
Since sales reps wear multiple hats, it only makes sense to lend them a hand. Offering sales apps is how you do it.
Continue reading “6 Reasons Sales Reps Need a Sales App!”A winery supply chain is like no other in the food and beverage industry. The acts of nature that can cut a grape harvest in half and the threat of floods that can destroy an entire field add to supply chain disruptions.
In addition, the warehousing of wine is a sensitive compendium of targeted movements to produce the wine itself. Another factor to consider is the distribution of wine, which requires thoughtful and secure planning.
Continue reading “Optimizing Your Winery Supply Chain!”Most of us create, use, present and work with at least one spreadsheet each and every day. Spreadsheets have proven invaluable. And many businesses even observe, and complain, that they are run on spreadsheets.
Yet there was a time not that long ago when most people didn’t even know what a spreadsheet was. In the early 1980s I was given one the first IBM Personal Computers to use, along with the spreadsheet software Visicalc. Spreadsheets forever transformed my productivity and skill set.
Continue reading “Spreadsheets – A History and a Future!”
Nothing can be accomplished and no vision can be realized without leadership. But even the best leaders know that any goal that they are trying to achieve will inevitably mean some level of change. They need Change Management.
This change may manifest itself in changing business processes, changing job responsibilities and roles, changing organizations, changing infrastructure, changing products and services or even completely changing direction.
While change is inevitable change usually does not come easy. There is no end to the number of challenges, hurdles and barriers that will be put in front of you.
This all requires Change Management, or as we prefer to say, Change Leadership. In this “Featuring” series article we present our best articles on the matter of Change Management and Change Leadership!
Continue reading “Featuring Our 12 Best Change Management Articles!”
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