|
WebProWorld Marketing Forum |
Stanford:
SEMs Are Getting Screwed
Search engine marketers that don’t know what they’re doing are getting ripped
off in keyword auctions, according to a new study released from Stanford Graduate
School of Business. The researchers claim pay-per-click engines like Google and
Yahoo! have modified an older...
Are
all businesses suited for the web
I have a client who owns a new taxi company and would like me to help him boost
his business. Although the contract will not take effect till next year as there’s
still a lot to do, I have been doing a lot of thinking on this one. There are
a lot of private taxi companies in my...
Marketing
My Website
I recently started a website for a business I was running over the summer brokering
used cars to people who have no or bad credit. During the summer I worked as a
lifeguard and I would do all my work during breaks and it would make me around
$500 extra each week so the market is there...
|
|
| Recent
Articles |
Unleashing
The Power Of The Service Supply Chain
Manufacturers are starting to embrace the aftermarket for increased revenue, stronger
customer relationships and more dynamic lifecycles. Recognizing multi-million
dollar savings and increased customer...
Cisco
To Launch new RFID Solution
Cisco announced what it refers to as an Intelligent Foundation for Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) to help enterprises introduce RF technologies into the supply
chain. The RFID Solution includes Cisco Application Oriented Network (AON) for
RFID, Cisco Services for RFID, a Cisco Wireless Location Service, and supporting...
Connecting
the Lease Enterprise Through Lease Management Software
Information Technology has improved the leasing process, parts at a time. Every
company has evolved some manner of maintaining customer information. Accounting
software has kept the back-end humming. The sales force...
Best
practices in Inventory Management
In today's competitive environment, inventory management can no longer take a
traditional approach and be a secondary priority for process improvement. With
the demand for faster production schedules, shorter lead times...
Self-service
with Online Inventory Management Systems
Would it help your business if your customers had the ability to check your inventory
for themselves? Could they then order directly if they knew that you have inventory
ready to ship?
Move
Warehousing Responsibilities to Your Vendors
In the current competitive business environment, it is essential to utilize all
the avenues available to you to increase profitability. Logically, this can be
accomplished in two ways: reduce costs or increase revenue...
|
|
01.20.06
Lean Logistics-Understanding
 By
Thomas Craig
Supply chain management was designed to take waste out of supply chains-waste
as to excess inventory, time and cost.
Supply chains are meant to pull, not push, inventory through the supply chain.
This is exactly what lean logistics is also about-removing waste and variation
from supply chains; it is what Kanban, Pull, is about with Lean Logistics.
Wholesalers, manufacturers, retailers, distributors, suppliers, 3PLs and every
party involved in the supply chain feel the pressure to reduce and balance cost,
time and inventory-to be lean. This is true with domestic supply chains; but it
is especially true with global supply chains.
Articles titled "Japanese Automakers Taking Market Share from Big Three" or similar
titles are misleading. The article would lead the average reader to think that
the "Japanese" as a culture somehow have a secret that is allowing them to take
over the automobile industry.
However, many in the automotive industry are aware of two critical points. The
first is that it is not the "Japanese" who are building the cars that are winning
the car wars, as these cars are being built by North Americans in Canada and the
United States. The second key point is that it is not the "Japanese" that are
reducing manufacturing costs and increasing quality, but rather it is the "Lean
Manufacturers". With all of this in mind then, the newspaper article should headline
"Lean Manufacturers Taking Automobile Market Share over Mass Producers". This
headline would be more appropriate and more accurate.
Lean Logistics has many challenges. Global Lean Logistics especially has the challenge
of the additional time required for shipments to move door-to-door over the long
distance. In addition, there are many parties involved with each shipment. Some
reports say that up to seventeen parties can be involved with one shipment-suppliers,
truckers, freight forwarders, terminals, customs brokers, railroads, ocean/air
carriers and more. Bringing lean across such an extended, multi-transactional
supply chain is daunting. Often the parties are working together and at odds with
each purchase order/shipping transaction.
As the competitive environment changes the way companies do business, companies
are embracing Lean and Six Sigma initiatives to support cost reductions and quality
improvements. Although Lean and Six Sigma programs were initially separate initiatives
in most organizations, today's firms see that Lean and Six Sigma do not compete
with each other, but rather the two complement each other and provide for dovetailing
of continuous improvement activities.
Turn Key Reseller Web Hosting - Host
UNLIMITED sites!
But what does this have to do with Logistics? The quick answer is "everything
". Once we are grounded in Lean and Six Sigma principles, the logistician will
realize that Logistics, Lean and Six Sigma form a natural union. This union leverages
the strengths and weaknesses of each discipline to create a cultural and operational
model that will aid the logistician to solve age-old issues, while improving operations
at all levels.
To truly understand Lean Six Sigma Logistics, the best place to start is to know
about the Logistics, Lean and Six Sigma.
What is Logistics?
There are as many definitions of "Logistics" as there are logisticians. This is
not a bad thing! Logistics is so far reaching, so integrated into businesses that
it is hard for one definition to ever meet the challenge of summing up what we
do in a few short sentences.
Although logistics does span the entire scope of any business, it is fair to say
that any definition of logistics will need to involve the management of inventory.
Whether inventory is in the form of hard goods (materials-people) or soft goods
(information), logisticians manage it.
What is Lean?
Lean Logistics concepts are deeply rooted inside the lean manufacturing of Toyota
Production System. Jim Womack summarizes the key principles of the Toyota Production
System as Lean Manufacturing in his book "Lean Thinking". Lean Manufacturing has
now been abbreviated to simply being called ‘Lean". Lean and Six Sigma joined
forces in Michael George's book "Lean Six Sigma".
In its purest form, Lean is about the elimination of waste and the increase of
speed and flow. Although this may be over-simplification, the ultimate objective
of Lean is to eliminate waste
from all processes. At the top of the list of known wastes, according to Lean
theory is the elimination of inventory. More simply, any inventory should be eliminated
that is not required to support operations and the immediate need of the customer.
Lean and the Logistician
The impact of Lean on the logistician is significant, as the goal of Lean is eliminate
waste (inventory) which will decrease work in process inventories which in turn
will decrease process and cycle times and ultimately increase supply chain velocity
and flow.
Read
the rest of the article.
About the Author:
LTD
provides logistics consulting for strategic and tactical needs. The scope of capabilities
is broad--supply chain management, outsourcing, transportation, warehousing, inventory
management, and more for both domestic and international needs. Clients include
retailers, wholesalers/distributors, manufacturers, logistics service providers
and 3PLs. |
