Ellery

Seen and Not Heard, Speak Only When Spoken To, Why It’s Good to Listen

In the old days (as late as the mid-20th century), many parents told their kids that children were meant to be “seen not heard” and that children can only “speak when spoken to.” This rule prevails among many families, never mind if it’s the 21st century and some people say we should be more liberalContinue reading “Seen and Not Heard, Speak Only When Spoken To, Why It’s Good to Listen”

How to Save Money When Renewing the Dreaded City Business Permit

Every time we enter a new year, many of us reflect on the past and make resolutions for the future. When the first working day arrives, however, we face reality. One of those realities is the dreaded city business permit renewal. Town and city governments in the Philippines require enterprises to register before they canContinue reading “How to Save Money When Renewing the Dreaded City Business Permit”

Four (4) Guidelines for Available Transportation

Many small business enterprises don’t put too much thought into deliveries. For those who are into e-commerce and sell one or very few items via the Internet, the enterprise’s flow of work is typically receiving orders, preparing the items, and booking & delivering via a 3rd party service (e.g., Grab, Lalamove). Many enterprises have seenContinue reading “Four (4) Guidelines for Available Transportation”

Lessons Learned from E-Commerce

December 28, 2020. We ordered the food but couldn’t find the riders to deliver them. Our family of cousins, uncles, and aunts couldn’t be together for New Year’s Eve. Reunions and parties were not allowed in lieu of ongoing restrictions brought on by the CoVID-19 pandemic. Instead, we ordered food from a food shop andContinue reading “Lessons Learned from E-Commerce”

Behold The PSI: A Basic Tool for Supply Chain Planning

The PSI or Production-Sales-Inventory is a basic spreadsheet template for supply chain planners. It looks like this: The PSI typically has three sections: production, sales, and inventories. Production represents the in-flow of an item or what’s going into inventory. A basic example is finished goods input coming from a manufacturing operation’s output. We can alsoContinue reading “Behold The PSI: A Basic Tool for Supply Chain Planning”

Why Shifting from the Month-End Surge to Delivery by Demand is Common Sense

“We just have to live with it,” the General Manager replied. The GM was responding to my comment that month-end surges in sales orders were causing inefficiencies in the company’s logistics operations. I was presenting an operations assessment report to a company that distributed name-brand computer printers and accessories. One of the key observations fromContinue reading “Why Shifting from the Month-End Surge to Delivery by Demand is Common Sense”

A Letter to the IE: More than Ever, We Need to Lead the World to Productivity

Dear Industrial Engineer* The year 2020 ended without a happy ending. The SARS-CoV-2 virus had not gone away. It continues to be a global threat going into 2021. Political and enterprise leaders have done all they can to defeat the virus. There was hope. Thanks to record-breaking world-class collaboration efforts, vaccines have become realities andContinue reading “A Letter to the IE: More than Ever, We Need to Lead the World to Productivity”

How Important Productivity is to the Value Chain

The fast-food restaurant drive-thru I go to every Sunday morning hasn’t been serving the liquid creamers that accompany the coffee I order with my meals. At first, they said the creamers were out of stock. A week later, they said they can only serve one (1) creamer instead of the two (2) that should comeContinue reading “How Important Productivity is to the Value Chain”

Logistics Solutions Can Be Simple

A medium sized retailer of health food items imports products from abroad. The retailer prides itself with a very well organised warehouse and a crew of workers that swiftly repack the imported products and send them to the retailer’s stores all over the country. The retailer’s sales department, however, has constantly complained about lack ofContinue reading “Logistics Solutions Can Be Simple”

How to Deal with Insults

I was insulted the other day. A senior director on the board of trustees of a high-rise building said I lacked technical education and experience. For a person who is an engineering graduate and has been in business for almost 40 years, that sounded very much at least like an insult. It’s not the firstContinue reading “How to Deal with Insults”