Business Archives - Page 2 of 8 - Supply Chain Game Changer™

A Tale of Two Companies: Different Quality Management Beliefs!

Design in Quality First!

Company 1

The CEO came in to my office carrying a product and said, “The label is off centre on this item. It has a quality defect.” I responded, “Is that actually a quality defect? Quality is a measure of conformance to a standard, and we have no standards.” The CEO didn’t quite understand the distinction. Certainly the item was mis-labelled. But there was absolutely no Quality management process in the company.

Company 2

I toured all of the company’s facilities around the globe. It seemed like we had a tremendous amount of resource working on quality. But they were spending 100% of their time on inspection. A report subsequently confirmed my concerns. Over 10% of our entire direct workforce was spending the vast majority of their time doing 100% inspection. We had a Quality management system but it’s only principle was to inspect in quality.

Whichever the situation was, proper Quality management objectives required something to change in both cases!

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

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!

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.

The History of Supply Chain Management! (Infographic)

What Exactly Is Supply Chain Management? 10 Different Definitions!

Over the last 100 plus years of the history of SCM (Supply Chain Management) has evolved from an initial focus on improving relatively simple, but very labor-intensive processes to the present day engineering and managing of extraordinarily complex global networks.

We will take you through the last 60 plus years below and end the post with an amazing infographic.

Shipping With Amazon: Cutting out the Middle Man!

Competing against Amazon? You Need A Blue Ocean Strategy!

In February, 2018 it was reported that Amazon was going to launch its own delivery service: Shipping With Amazon!

Effectively Amazon has declared that they are officially entering the logistics business. The “Shipping With Amazon” service, albeit currently on a much smaller scale, competes with the logistics service and delivery capabilities offered by UPS, FedEx, and UPS.

But these are incredibly large, well established logistics companies. And they are also the major delivery service suppliers to Amazon.

So why would Amazon choose to go into this space?

Change Leadership Success: Attack on all Fronts!

The Change Leadership Process … And Guide!

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Have you ever tried to make large improvements for some aspect of your business only to find that after a period of time you feel like you are pushing on a balloon?

Have you ever lead, or participated in, a project with some very lofty targets only to find that you come up short of your goal because of unforeseen circumstances or unaddressed factors?

Have you ever got into a project only to find that someone else’s objectives seem to be in conflict with yours, and these competing objectives ensure that you will not succeed?

Stuff happens!

Easy Tricks to Ensure Your Business Will Succeed!

Creating a High Performance Organization! (Infographic)

Starting a business can be downright terrifying. There are hundreds of unknowns, from how your business will be received to making the right decisions for your brand. One of the biggest concerns amongst entrepreneurs is whether or not their business will succeed and is worth pursuing – will it succeed?

Though no plan is guaranteed to be a winner, there are simple ways to ensure that a business you’re investing your time, money, and energy in will be a success. These range from simple testing measures to advertising methods!

We’ve broken down how to ensure your business reaches success as quickly as possible.

The Hidden Value of Your Intuition! It’s a Game Changer!

Creating the Culture to Break Barriers!

Imagine there was a super tool available to you at all times that would provide you with the insight to know the best direction moving forward, motivating you to take action!

Imagine this “super” tool would also give you the ability to see things differently, communicate powerfully, generate innovative ideas, and make quick decisions without getting caught up in the details and massive amounts of information.

Do you want this tool?

You already own it!

The Internet of Things (IoT) – Welcome the Digital Supply Chain!

The Coming Evolution of the Digital Supply Chain!

Over the last 5 years there has been an explosion of smart and connected devices. Gartner is predicting that by 2020 there will be 37 Billion connected devices and more than 4.3 Zetabytes of data generated by these devices. The Internet of Things (IoT) is well upon us!

Quick adoption of health devices like Fitbit and smart thermostats such as Nest are bringing more and more connections and opportunities into the consumer world. As such many home appliance and consumer goods companies are looking at how they can take advantage of this trend and transform their interaction with their consumers and customers.

In order to understand how this is starting to evolve and how it will impact and change the digital supply chain, let us consider 4 user cases that are emerging with early adopters in this space.

Supply Chain Personified! The Link Between Your Company Silos!

What Exactly Is Supply Chain Management? 10 Different Definitions!

How many parts of your company act as independent Company Silos? How many functions in your organization conduct themselves like they are islands?

One of the main problems in a functionally organized company is that those functions over time can become isolated from each other. The responsibilities, metrics, skills, strategies and mandates for each function can cause people to put their functional focus ahead of the greater company objectives.

But the Supply Chain team is uniquely positioned to bridge all of these silos and islands. Supply Chain is truly the link that can hold your company together!

10 Great Lessons Learned in Business!

Leadership Techniques To Inspire Your Team!

In reflecting back on over 1,000 sessions and almost 10,000 hours of working hands-on with entrepreneurial leadership teams, I’ve observed and learned some great business lessons that will help you and your leadership team.

My hope is that these leadership lessons will serve as constants for you as you build a great company, and that they’ll give you insight, something to shoot for, peace of mind, a wake-up call, and a few aha’s.

Enjoy.

Supplier Collaboration is a Win-Win Strategy!

How to Create Collaborative Innovation with Suppliers!

Suppliers are an intrinsic part of the Supply Chain. It does not matter what business you are in, what products you make, distribute and sell, or what part of the world you are in. And it doesn’t matter where in the Supply Chain you are. You can not accomplish anything without collaboration with your Suppliers.

Yet I have seen, like many of you, Suppliers treated in many different ways. No matter what the circumstances are poor treatment of Suppliers is never appropriate. Given that Customers fundamentally need their Suppliers to be successful why do people treat them badly? And how do we ensure there is a healthy and productive relationship between Suppliers and Customers?

Working together with your Suppliers is always a formula for success!

The Target Canada Story and the Brand Impact of the Supply Chain!

Brand Protection – The Definitive Role of the Supply Chain!

The responsibility for protecting and promoting your product or company brand is often thought to be generally held by the Marketing Department. But in reality the Supply Chain organization has an enormous role to play as the Supply Chain can positively or negatively impact your brand in many significant and different ways. This was the case with Target.

One of the most pronounced examples of the role of the Supply Chain in serving and protecting your brand is found in the story of Target Canada. Faced with unprecedented plans for expansion in Canada Target had to close its entire operation only two years after beginning operations.

The performance of the Supply Chain was a central element leading to this massive failure and damage to the Target brand.

How AI, Machine Learning and Automation Will Impact Business!

The Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Over the Next Half Decade!

We are living in exciting and innovative times with futuristic technology literally at our fingertips to impact business. But for the longest time, small to medium sized businesses were not serviced by the latest tech trends enterprises have been able to benefit from. That is, until now.

In this article, we’ll explore these technology trends and how they will impact business in the future.

Our 2017 Top 10 List! – Part 2

It’s been a tremendous first year at supplychaingamechanger.com. Our goal has always been to share experiences and expertise. And in the second half of 2017 we had an ever increasing number of articles contributed by industry leaders all of whom have been very generous in sharing their intellect and insights. This is our second 2017 Top 10 List.

Our readers and contributors come from all over the world. They include individuals new to Supply Chain as well as Industry leaders and everyone in between. And they work in many different industries and vocations. But they all have a common interest in Supply Chain, Operations, Business, Leadership, Change Management, Human Resources, Transformation, and Technology.

Most importantly they all have an interest in learning and sharing.

As we end this first year we wanted to publish our 2nd Top 10 List. Our first Top 10 List covered the Top blog posts from the first half of 2017 so our 2nd Top 10 List will cover the second half of 2017.

Thank you for your tremendous, ongoing support.

So here is our 2nd Top 10 List of 2017…