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Bill Gaw - EzineArticles.com Expert Author
Bill Gaw is the founder of Business Basics, LLC and a "been there, done that" lean business advocate. He is the developer of 6-training packages and 7-training modules published to help individuals and companies realize their full growth and earning potentials.
He is a graduate of Milwaukee School of Engineering and has earned professional certifications from both the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and American Production and Inventory Society (APICS). As a prior Associate Professor ... [More]
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- End Of The Month Crunch - You're Really Not Lean If You're Not Linear
[Business:Productivity] Manufacturers will never achieve their potential if they produce more than 25% of their monthly shipment plan in the last week of the month or more than 33% of their quarterly shipment plan in the last month of the quarter. Companies that live with the "end-of-the-month-crunch" are burdened with premium freight, internal expediting, overtime costs, and production inefficiencies that will crush their bottom line goals. This article show how effective upfront planning and timely execution can make the "end-of-the-month-crunch" a bad memory and eliminate those profit killers.
- Cycle Time Management - The 5th Basic of Kaizen-Based Lean Manufacturing
[Business:Productivity] If your manufacturing team can focus on only one kaizen project at a time, then let it be the reduction of total build/test cycle time. There just isn't any other more important success factor to pursue than Cycle Time Management. This article spells out a winning "how to" approach to cycle time management.
- Performance Management Success Via The Balanced Scorecard
[Business:Management] Financial numbers may tell us we're winning the war, but it takes performance management to show us how to focus our energy and efforts to win each of the battles along the way. This article describes why the use of a Balanced Scorecard is crucial in achieve positive performance management results.
- Infomation Integrity - Basic Number 1 of Kaizen-Based Lean Manufacturing
[Business:Productivity] MRPII/ERP and lean manufacturing objectives cannot be achieved when day-to-day production and manufacturing control systems are driven by inaccurate, untimely and uncontrolled data and/or documentation. To optimize systems and process results, we must focus on improving what I call "Infotegrity": "The ability to communicate data and documentation completely, accurately and in a timely manner." In this article, I share with you some of the techniques that will improve your "Infotegrity"
- Customer Connectivity - The Key to Optimizing Customer Satisfaction
[Business:Customer-Service] The reality of Customer Satisfaction is in the eyes of the beholder - the customer. The sooner we realize and accept our customers' perceptions of our products and services as reality, and accept it as our challenge, the sooner we will earn their confidence and become their permanent supplier of choice.
- Strategic Planning - Strategic and Tactical Planning
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Strategic planning is a business process that many companies employ to identify their critical success factors that set the course for future growth and profits. Lewis Carroll in "Alice in Wonderland" makes a good case for it: "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" said Alice. "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat. "I don't much care where...," said Alice. "Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat. This article defines why it's important to know "which way you go!"
- Resouce Planning - Balancing Required Resources To Customer Requirements and Forecasts
[Business:Strategic-Planning] The inadequate and untimely availability of resources is a major cause of manufacturers' failure to meet their delivery schedules and profit margin forecasts - material shortages, low productivity and poor planning are not always the only causes. This article addresses the issues that must be addressed if resource planning results are to be optimized.
- Production Linearity - Eliminating the "Hockey Stick Syndrome"
[Business:Productivity] Why is linear production so important? It's simple; "It's where the money is!" Scrap, rework, overtime and poor quality are all non-value-added costs that increased as a function of the famous "Hockey Stick Syndrome". That is, as we delay our production schedule completions toward the end of the month (or worse, to the end of the financial quarter), there is a tremendous pressure put on Manufacturing that produces shop floor chaos that generates significant non-value-added cost. This article address these issues and details some actions that can help eliminate the "Hockey Stick Syndrome."
- Supply Chain Managment And Point-of-Use Logistics
[Business:Outsourcing] Companies will never achieve their full growth and profit potential, let alone gain the benefits of their supply chain management system, as long as business leaders continue to talk about value-added supplier partnerships while continuing to treat their suppliers as adversaries. Material handling and inventory storage are two of manufacturing's high cost, non-value-added activities. The elimination of the stock room, as it is known today, should be a strategic objective of all manufacturers.
- Profitable Growth and the Basics of Lean Manufacturing
[Business:Productivity] In their efforts to draw closer to customers, many manufacturers have lost focus on what should be a company's primary success factor - profitable growth. In today's competitive manufacturing environment, it takes more than quick fixes, outsourcing and downsizing for companies to consistently achieve their growth and profit objectives. While these options may yield temporary financial relief, they will not lead the way to long-term growth and profitability. For companies to grow and consistently exceed bottom line expectations, they need to get lean. And, to get lean they must master the basics of lean manufacturing.
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