Lean Process Improvement Archives - Supply Chain Game Changer™

Is Just In Time Past Its Time?

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Featuring Our 10 Best Inventory Management Articles!

The prospect of having a Just In Time (JIT) Supply Chain system has been the goal of innumerable businesses and industries for decades. And for those who have implemented Just In Time processes it has been the backbone of their entire operating structure.

But the global pandemic exposed the fragility of the Supply Chain in virtually every industry. We quickly ran out of healthcare supplies, toilet paper, and more. The extent of disruption has spread to lumber, steel, computer chips, automobiles, furnaces, and any number of additional products.

The fundamental principle of just in time delivery based on real time demand, combined with the unrelenting focus on inventory levels and faster inventory turnover, has created an operating paradigm that is great when things are going well, but which has proven to be ill-equipped to handle disruption the likes of which the pandemic has created.

Does that mean that a Just In Time philosophy has outlived its usefulness? Is JIT past its time?

Global Process Excellence™: Defining the Roadmap for Best In Class Results

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Global Process Excellence ™ : A Journey From Disarray To Best In Class!

“Global Process Excellence™” was to be the platform on which we would propel the company’s Operations upward toward Best In Class status. Our Call To Action objectives were clear:

We had a clear requirement to improve our profitability
We needed to respond to customer expectations for increased value and a consistent, exceptional customer experience in all Distribution Centres
We needed to lean out the operations and improve our productivity
We needed to create Best in Class capabilities
We needed to enable profitable growth on the back of an enhanced Operating model, capacity and capabilities
And we needed to unleash the tremendous experience and expertise that resided within our employees

Now we needed to formulate our Roadmap: the Approach, the Mandate, a set of Ground rules, and a process of Governance to bring together everything that would now be called Global Process Excellence™.

10 Signs You Should Reboot Your Lean Program!

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Lean in the Back Office … Why is it so difficult?

How many people make a New Year’s resolution to adopt a Lean program and “Lean” yourself out only to abandon it shortly thereafter?

One of the top New Year’s resolutions is to start exercising. In January the local gyms are filled. But by February those gyms are much emptier and many of those well meaning people are still at home.

What do you do when your Lean program at work suffers the same fate? How do you know when your improvement program needs to be improved?

4 Ways to Run a More Sustainable Business!

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Start Your Business’ Sustainability Journey in 5 Steps!

A business owner has many responsibilities. They have to make sure profits are made while also ensuring that their employees are paid, taxes are filed, and so on. However, there is one aspect that has grown significantly in terms of importance and visibility in recent years: running a more sustainable business.

A Don’t Touch Supply Chain Strategy Must Now Dominate The Future!

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A “Don’t Touch” Strategy will Dramatically Lean out your Supply Chain!

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The overarching strategy for limiting exposure to, and spreading of, the Coronavirus is that of Social Distancing. We are all instructed to keep 6 feet apart from anyone, wear masks, and avoid any social gatherings and don’t touch. How does this relate to a Don’t Touch Supply Chain strategy?

Even with social distancing, the global lockdowns, temporary closures of many businesses and disruptions of economies everywhere there are still Supply Chains in action, as disrupted as they may be.

Truckers are still moving goods to points of consumption and essential services such as grocery stores are still in operation, providing the basic goods we all need to live. Everyone involved in these Supply Chains is abiding by the social distancing and protective mandates we all are adhering to.

How can Supply Chains be changed in the future to make them more robust and resilient and less disrupted by any future catastrophes, and god forbid, a future pandemic?

One approach is to develop and deploy Don’t Touch Supply Chain strategies!

Create a Responsive Supply Chain to Handle Peaks and Lulls!

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What is Demand Sensing?

Creating a Responsive Supply Chain in advance of the peak shopping season is a no-brainer. While the season is usually described as the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, responsive processes have a lasting effect.

A Responsive Supply Chain offers greater flexibility with labor management, streamlines warehouse operations, reduces dock constraints, and much more. Managing the balance between peaks and lulls is essential, and supply chain leaders are starting to focus more on building responsive, proactive strategies well in advance of the peak holiday shopping season.

As noted by Inbound Logistics, “Many manufacturers start assembling products, mapping out product specs to determine capacity needs, and working with their transportation and distribution partners on reliable and cost-effective logistics solutions up to six months in advance.”

To stay competitive, leaders need to understand the value of a responsive supply chain and what best practices to follow to build responsiveness intuitively into the supply chain.

Effective Ways to Streamline Your Business!

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For a Successful Business Improve Supply Chain!

Business effectiveness is a difficult metric to define, let alone track. But it is something that can be keenly felt, whether by managers overseeing a project or by the staff working against institutional inefficiencies.

Data suggests that new businesses are three times less likely to scale well than to stagnate or fail – with inefficiency in growth often a key part of the equation.

In what ways might you streamline your business, with success in mind?

The Humble Label – Too Many Are Used!

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The Green Supply Chain: True Sustainability or Just One Big Marketing Stunt?

We need to move away from the printed label!

I retired from a multi-national supply chain management company to become a co-owner of a label manufacturing company, which was a real culture change for me.

In the past discussions were held with a Director or Vice President of Supply Chain or Procurement or even the Chief Operations Officer about the design or re-design of the Supply Chain. In my new position, I get to meet the buyers or an executive in charge or procuring labels. In some companies they are categorized as “Consumables”.

There is very little high level attention paid to labels due to the low cost of the labels which can be a few cents to less than a cent. Many buyers feel that the labels are such insignificant parts of the product and place very little time and attention in the sourcing and procurement of the labels.

Global Process Excellence ™ : A Journey From Disarray To Best In Class!

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Global Process Excellence: Defining the Roadmap to Achieve Best In Class Results

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My first Management job was on the Manufacturing floor on 3rd shift. It was company policy … anyone’s first Management job was in Manufacturing. The principle was sound: to really understand how the business operated you needed to be at the very core of what it did, which in this case was Manufacturing. Only then could you really learn the business and how to work with people.

So as I started a new job further along in my career, with responsibility for Distribution Centres around the world, I knew that I was not going to learn what I needed to know from behind a desk looking at Powerpoint slides with pictures and statistics. I needed to go to each and every facility and learn about the operation right from the floor.

Value Stream Mapping the Current State Process!

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Value Stream Mapping the Future State Process!

We had to begin the transformation of the company’s business processes to support the new business objectives. This would mean value stream mapping the current state process. Specifically the company was going to carry a dramatically different set of products which required a new set of capabilities in Strategic Planning, Merchandising, Marketing, Procurement, Inventory Management, Retail Operations and Logistics.

That scope defined the set of processes we needed to change first. The overall goal was to enable the transformation of the company which would manifest itself in higher revenue, improved growth and profitability, greater customer satisfaction and superior employee engagement.

We decided to attack this by introducing the Lean technique of Value Stream Mapping to the organization. We had to start with mapping the Current State process.

Full Case Fulfillment – The Retail Holy Grail!

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The Supply Chain Detective™ and the $25M Robbery!

The retail company I had joined had just invested $25 million to automate their Distribution Centre. They automated the process of fulfilling orders in individual units, or eaches, instead of case fulfillment.

As I learned more and more about the system and the operation it became obvious to me that the entire paradigm that went into the $25 million investment was wrong. They wasted at least $20 million by perpetuating individual unit.

They could have save a lot of time and money by changing their fundamental operating model to one of case fulfillment – the Retail Holy Grail!

5 Ways to Successfully Action Agile Management for a Project!

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7 Reasons to Switch to Agile Project Management!

Big projects require big thinking and a tight knit ship. Every team has its strengths and every team has its flaws. Agile management moves to highlight these in an intricate way and find a way through with fast impact.

To successfully action agile management for any project, there are five clear steps to take. This guide has the information you need.

Using Lean Management for Inventory!

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The Agile Supply Chain! Why Agility is Trumping Lean!

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What is Lean Management for inventory?

What techniques are applied to make it successful?

More firms are implementing lean inventory management techniques to reduce costs, improve flexibility and have more time to focus on their customers.

Lean supply chain and inventory management enable Small Medium Businesses (SMB) to improve efficiency and increase profits.

Warehouse Fulfillment – Move Material to the People, Not Vice Versa!

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Keys to Success in Warehouse Management/Order Fulfillment! (Video)

“Here Come The Bots!”

Wow! This was the headline caption on the presentation I was about to see. I had just joined the company. I had just spent the last few years in Retail. I had done a lot of research on how to improve efficiencies and productivity in Online/E-Commerce Fulfillment Distribution Centres. And I had lived through the agonizing process and resource challenges of fulfilling E-Commerce orders during the Holiday season, which is far and away the busiest time of the year in Retail.

Struggling with Process Ownership? Is it a Failure to Communicate?

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Never Automate a Bad Process!

Does your business struggle with process ownership? Are your process improvements not “sticking”? The failure of an organization to have in place well-functioning process owners is a common occurrence these days.

The root causes (if anyone cares to do a full postmortem) are numerous. We’ve heard it all before; “the organizational structure won’t allow for it”, “incentives are misaligned”, “leaders don’t understand what it takes to be a process owner” etc. I’m sure we can all relate to some or all of these statements.