Tag Archives: Operations

October 18, 2012 · 1:16 PM

Building a Global Talent Pipeline: Finding, Developing, and Retaining Tomorrow’s Manufacturing Workforce

Good insights and takeaways for small business.  Operations and manufacturing

Excerpt:  Abstract: Manufacturers are caught in a global talent squeeze. In mature economies, skilled talent has become elusive, and in emerging economies the pools of qualified talent are increasingly cost-prohibitive. Manufacturers must think beyond boundaries to leverage creative talent sourcing practices, develop global talent competencies, and cultivate “glocal” (global plus local) employer brands and employee value propositions.

See introduction and download pdf here via Building a Global Talent Pipeline: Finding, Developing, and Retaining Tomorrow’s Manufacturing Workforce.

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· 1:05 PM

Deloitte | Is Outside-In Architecture Right for Your Company

Recommended for all small business with takeaways.   The overview and pros and cons provided by the debate are reference material for your decisions.   Leadership and management information technology and operations.

Excerpt:  Outside-in architecture connects partners, suppliers and other external parties to a company’s ecosystem. While this design is growing in popularity, does the ability to share information with third parties justify the cost of replacing your current centralized architecture?

Recently, increased competition has led some companies to embrace an emerging IT architecture model that supports information sharing among internal and external parties. Advocates of this “outside-in architecture” approach argue that it will soon become an essential element of business results. Yet this notion meets with resistance from companies that have invested heavily over the years in creating and maintaining a traditional, centralized IT architecture. Their reaction is understandable and it raises the question of whether companies should divert resources toward a new architectural model that has yet to mature and demonstrate its longer-term value to the enterprise.

Explore all sides below by clicking on each button:

Read full article via Deloitte | Is Outside-In Architecture Right for Your Company | Deloitte Debates | Eric Openshaw | Technology.

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· 12:56 PM

10 Ways to Trim Shipping Costs |

Small business  — need ideas of how to reduce the cost of shipping your goods?  –  good read.   Operations management

Excerpt:  Fred DuBois, for example, had been trying to cut the shipping costs at his Laptop Battery Express in Cleveland since he founded it in 2007. Free delivery service for about 50 battery orders a day was costing him as much as $500. He had been relying almost exclusively on FedEx Ground, but this summer, he realized that varying his carriers and using the U.S. Postal Service would cut shipping costs in half. Today, he says, he ships about half his orders with FedEx and the other half with the post office, saving about $250 a day.

To achieve such savings, consider these 10 ways to trim shipping costs:

Read full article via 10 Ways to Trim Shipping Costs | Entrepreneur.com.

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October 12, 2012 · 6:05 PM

NFIB Webinars: Expert Advice for Small Business Owners on Key Topics

This is a GREAT list of webinars on many of the issues and topics most entrepreneurs and small business owners need .     Lots of how-to included  Recommended

Excerpt introduction: Free small business webinars, from legal and tax advice to operations information, to help you run your business better.

Check out list of free webinars here   via NFIB Webinars: Expert Advice for Small Business Owners on Key Topics. National Federation on Small Business

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September 7, 2012 · 12:52 PM

Are You Growing Too Fast? – HBR

Important read for all entrepreneurs and small business owners.  How fast is too fast to grow a business and why too fast threatens or destroys the business.   Leadership, operations and management.

Excerpt:  Allen Printing had fallen into a familiar trap: unsustainable growth. Positive business conditions coupled with relatively easy credit can entice firms to chase high growth. However, high growth can easily overwhelm the internal controls of a small enterprise. Heffington, working with Steve Curnutte, a restructuring advisor, realized that as new orders poured in, it became difficult to establish the true cost of fulfilling them. And, because credit was readily available to cover the growing need for working capital, it was easy to ignore the sizable number of unprofitable and late paying customers. Whenever an economy is heating up–even now, as it does so haltingly–the temptation to focus solely on growth can seem irresistible. But, as Heffington learned, the tables can turn viciously when economic conditions deteriorate.

So what can an entrepreneur do?

Read full article via Are You Growing Too Fast? – Sandeep Dahiya – Harvard Business Review.

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· 12:46 PM

How to Find Out What Customers Will Pay – HBR

Good article on pricing your product or service.  The criteria should be “what the market will bear”.  Surprisingly, this is not the decision criteria most businesses use .  Read tips and advice.  Small business, revenue and operations

Excerpt:  So how do you find out how much your customers will pay? It’s simple: Ask them.

Of course, you can’t ask customers directly how much they are willing to pay — they’ll likely shade the truth (by giving a lower price) to their benefit. That said, there are a variety of ways to better understand how your customers think about your price. In my work, I often interview customers, seeking to identify “areas of disconnect” — profit opportunities — where customers view pricing differently than management.

Here are the “secrets” that I use to better understand how customers think about pricing:

Read full article via How to Find Out What Customers Will Pay – Rafi Mohammed – Harvard Business Review.

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August 24, 2012 · 7:00 PM

Supply Chain Management Definition and Solutions

Good basic description of processes involved and with takeaways for small business of how-to and complexities.  Operations management

Excerpt:  What is supply chain management? Supply chain management (SCM) is the combination of art and science that goes into improving the way your company finds the raw components it needs to make a product or service and deliver it to customers. The following are five basic components of SCM.

Read full article via Supply Chain Management Definition and Solutions CIO.com.

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· 6:55 PM

Difference between Operations Managers and General Managers

Small business and entrepreneurs need-to-know.  As your company grows, you will need the experts to help you manage.  Here is a good basic definition of the two roles and how they differ.  Human resources management and operations.

Excerpt:  In any organization, good leadership is required for growth and success, and is always cherished. For this reason, the position of a General Manager and Operations Manager are considered paramount. But what is the nature of the job of Operations Managers and General Managers that make them so important? What is the difference between Operations Managers and General Managers? Let’s look at the answers to these questions

Read full article via Difference between Operations Managers and General Managers | Operations Manager – Operations Management Jobs, Resumes, Duties Description and Resources.

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August 23, 2012 · 12:50 PM

How to Manage a Global Supply Chain

More great small business takeaways this morning — global supply chain businesses’ best practices.  Recommended.

Excerpt:  Executives at Flextronics, Lubrizol and A. Schulman reveal best practices that allow them to expand their operations globally, while bringing their customers along for the ride.

Read full article via How to Manage a Global Supply Chain | Supply Chain content from IndustryWeek.

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July 27, 2012 · 5:16 PM

The Game Buyers Play with Vendors – HBR

Here is another heads-up today, just in case you are not already aware.   Article defines today’s processes very well.  Operations and procurement

Excerpt: Once you figure out how you’re being played, the sales strategies are simple. If you’re a rabbit, you’ve got two choices. You can ask tough qualifying questions to try to become a serious contender for the business, or you can walk away and not waste your time. If you’re an advantaged player, you should bluff. The only question is whether you want to bluff hard, …

Read full article via The Game Buyers Play with Vendors – Reed K. Holden – Harvard Business Review.

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July 13, 2012 · 12:16 PM

The Future of Global Business Services – Survey Findings: PwC

Small business operations takeaways.

Excerpt: In February- March 2012, HfS Research and PwC jointly conducted a survey, The Future of Global Business Services, to identify the drivers and results of organizational efforts to improve business support services. Prior to this study, little relevant research had been done on how organizations maximize the impact of their shared services, Global Business Services (GBS) and outsourcing strategies.

Read introduction and download paper via The Future of Global Business Services – Survey Findings: PwC.

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June 18, 2012 · 4:50 PM

13 Tips for Faster, Cheaper Shipping : AMEX

In order to be competitive today, you need to have fast shipping and often offer free shipping.  The article gives you tips and ideas of how to better manage your shipping operations.

 Excerpt: Most businesses are paying too much for shipping. Is yours? We recently asked Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) entrepreneurs: What’s one tip to improve your shipping and delivery execution–without breaking the bank?

Here’s what they said:

Read full article via 13 Tips for Faster, Cheaper Shipping : Money :: American Express OPEN Forum.

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· 8:58 AM

Improving Business and Operations Planning – Why is Integrated Planning and S&OP an Issue Now?

Excerpt: A robust and mature S&OP process is absolutely critical to improving operating performance in critical areas such as: Customer service Inventory management Capex efficiency Profitable revenue growth Technology and data Companies that manage S&OP purely as a supply chain process are not seeing the bigger picture. Today’s competitive market pressures require that S&OP focus less on yesterday’s back order and more on how the company’s existing capacity can meet long-term plans.

Read full article via Improving business and operations planning – Why is integrated planning and S&OP an issue now? – Ernst & Young – Global.

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June 7, 2012 · 1:07 PM

Deloitte| Sustainability| Enhancing the value of life cycle assessment

Although business uses their local information…….an even bigger and helpful data set exists……  good read.  Data management and leadership operations.

Excerpt……..One compelling toolset that can be used to identify the areas of an end-to-end product life cycle that represent the biggest potential opportunities for additional value creation is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA has long been used to quantify environmental impacts, but if used in the right way it can also support broader business objectives including:

Read introduction and download paper…….via Deloitte| Sustainability| Enhancing the value of life cycle assessment.

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June 6, 2012 · 10:34 AM

Strategic Sourcing Profiler | Booz & Co

The excerpt below is their complete introduction page to access the “tool”…….. I felt their entire introduction was needed to best explain the tool  Booz & Co is offering.     Operations management and procurement.

Excerpt…….Today’s sourcing/supply management leaders face the daunting task of creating the capabilities required to deliver incremental value in an increasingly challenging environment.

To assist the senior procurement leader, Booz & Company has developed this Strategic Sourcing Profiler, which distills our knowledge from decades of client work on hundreds of assignments.

The tool enables you to pragmatically work through a standard set of diagnostic questions to assess the state of your current organization and highlight the key challenges that must be addressed to win in your environment.

After completing the questionnaire, we offer a view on the current state of your procurement organization and compare your profile to what we have observed for your industry. We will also offer material which is intended to explain the nature of your challenge and provide a view on how to structure an agenda for success.

This tool is based on a calibration of your organization’s procurement activities, engagement with the businesses, talent management, and risk planning, and should take approximately 10 – 15 minutes to complete.

Answer questions to receive a “read”    ..via Strategic Sourcing Profiler.   From Booz & Co

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