It’s Bad When We Turn Away Customers, Very Bad

Customers are the lifeblood of our businesses. If we don’t have customers, our businesses die; it’s that simple.  Yet, many of us who are business owners turn away customers for any number of reasons.  Sometimes, the reasons are due to the limits our businesses have.  Restaurants turn away customers because they have no more tablesContinue reading “It’s Bad When We Turn Away Customers, Very Bad”

About The Supply Chain Engineer

Supply chain management has figured prominently in organisational priorities since Keith Oliver in a reported conversation with a Philips manager, Mr. Van t’Hof, coined the term in the 1970’s, and it has become even more so at the onset of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.  Supply chains are operational relationships made up of activities that transformContinue reading “About The Supply Chain Engineer”

The People First Proposal

I would like to propose organisations put people first when it comes to their priorities.  Organisations may say they already do but based on my observations, they aren’t.  Two (2) banks asked me one day to update my business’s account information.  They gave me a pile of forms for my business accounts’ signatories to fillContinue reading “The People First Proposal”

Why We Need Engineers

I spent fifteen (15) minutes one morning pounding several pills into powder.  The powdered pills are medicinal supplements for my pet cat, to fight against liver ailments.  One of my cats tested for high SGPT, an enzyme when found high in a blood test, indicates problems with the liver.  The vet prescribed the cat neededContinue reading “Why We Need Engineers”

Appreciating the Value of Veteran Employees

When I was a young industrial engineer at the food production division of a multinational company, the accounting department asked me to find out why there was a large reported loss of refined coconut oil. They’re the ones we always look for when we need something.  I went to the production manager and he toldContinue reading “Appreciating the Value of Veteran Employees”

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”

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 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 also callContinue reading “Behold The PSI: A Basic Tool for Supply Chain Planning”

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”

Ten (10) Examples Towards Building Better Supply Chains

For years, experts have cited the urgent need for supply chains to adapt and get better.  In 2005, Paul Michelman via the Harvard Business Review wrote: “Threats to your supply chain, and therefore to your company, abound—natural disasters, accidents, and intentional disruptions—their likelihood and consequences heightened by long, global supply chains, ever-shrinking product lifecycles, andContinue reading “Ten (10) Examples Towards Building Better Supply Chains”