October 5, 2015 I am in Las Vegas for APICS 2015, and I went to see LOVE (the Beatles Cirque du Soleil) this evening. The show had amazing sets, color, songs, acrobats and much more. Much of the show had as much color as this Beatles-inspired picture below. My [...]
Originally published on PR Newswire on October 1, 2015 CLAREMONT, Calif., Oct. 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Lisa Anderson, president of LMA Consulting Group, will speak to APICS 2015 attendees from manufacturing, operations, distribution and supply chain on Priming Your Supply Chain for The Amazon Effect on Tues., Oct. 6 at [...]
Being a systems pragmatist is critical in not making assumptions about your processes, but rather review every production step to uncover any issues that were not being addressed. When the idea of The Systems Pragmatist service line popped to mind, I was thinking about the critical importance of systems [...]
Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) offers companies a chance to partner with customers to better manage inventory and costs. Once the partnership proves fruitful, expanded business opportunities occur. I recently participated as a panelist with Michael DeCata, CEO of Lawson Products, for Industrial Distribution magazine's VMI (vendor managed inventory) webinar. [...]
Several of my clients are in the aerospace industry. In that industry, supply chain readiness audits are commonplace. These are especially prevalent today as growth in that market is substantial. Companies must be prepared for significant growth to support the doubling of the world's fleet in the next 20 [...]
One of those frequent and frustrating problems with growth can be space. Who has heard, "I've run out of space! What should we do?". Unfortunately it is not uncommon. The problem with this situation is that there are numerous causes and solutions - including this is exactly the problem [...]
Manufacturing and distributing product to meet customer demand can be like a puzzle unless you start using SIOP as a core process to run your business. SIOP (sales, inventory, & operations planning) taken to the best practice degree is often associated with integrated business planning. In some circles, they [...]
Though reducing inventory is generally advisable special situations arise when stocking inventory makes good business sense. Certainly reducing inventory on hand is typically preferred as you can accelerate your cash flow. It is one of the key focus areas of my consulting practice. I have found that reducing inventory [...]
July 24, 2015 I've been working with a client recently on a SIOP (sales, inventory and operations planning) program. We are gaining access to powerful information that will help them hire at the "right" time (not too early - and, more importantly, not too late when considering growth & [...]
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 [...]
