Managers of a large food condiments manufacturer bragged that their finished products Inventory Record Accuracy (IRA) was 99%. They added that they met this level constantly, not just when I as a consultant was there auditing the manufacturer’s supply chain operations. How do you compute the IRA? I asked the warehouse manager. The warehouse officeContinue reading “Inventory Record Accuracy: A Step to Supply Chain Improvement”
Tag Archives: operations
What Do You Want from Supply Chains?
There is no straightforward answer to this question. Supply chains have multiple stakeholders. These stakeholders consist of individuals and enterprises which serve as the links of the supply chains. Every enterprise also has an internal supply chain, which makes the people of the enterprise stakeholders to the larger supply chain. Stakeholders, therefore, would differ onContinue reading “What Do You Want from Supply Chains?”
What’s the Metric for Resilience?
Many executives insist their organisations need to be resilient. Given all the adversities and disruptions businesses had experienced, it’s understandable to believe resilience is vital. Resilience is “an organization’s ability to adapt to and recover from disruptions, such as natural disasters or market shifts, while maintaining core operations and continuing to function.” But how doesContinue reading “What’s the Metric for Resilience?”
Make It Visible
The planet Earth and its Solar System reside in the Milky Way galaxy, a spiral collection of a 100 to 400 billion stars. Yes, that’s billion, not million, and far more than a thousand or hundred. We can only see only a few thousand of stars in the night sky and only so much moreContinue reading “Make It Visible”
Banks Have Supply Chains, Too
I went to the bank to cash a check. The teller said there was no cash available. She also said the automatic teller machine (ATM) also had no cash and was off-line. The teller, however, told me to wait. She then left the bank, went next door to a rival bank, and withdrew cash fromContinue reading “Banks Have Supply Chains, Too”
Knowing Your Inventory ABC’s
A business owner asked me: how can I manage my company’s inventories more efficiently? The business owner imported soap, luggage, and cell phones, in short: assorted merchandise. He shipped in and kept hundreds of items in inventory, in which he had trouble keeping track. Sometimes he had too many items in storage or had tooContinue reading “Knowing Your Inventory ABC’s”
Productivity: They Still Don’t Get It
Leading global consultancy McKinsey defines productivity as Gross Value Added (GVA) per work-person and reports that the world needs productivity growth on top of balance sheet profitability. McKinsey still doesn’t get it. The world doesn’t need labour productivity, it needs supply chain productivity, which is how fast and how much organisations sell merchandise and collectContinue reading “Productivity: They Still Don’t Get It”
The Need to Change the Supply Chain
When a parcel arrives at my doorstep, I see myself at the end of a supply chain process—a process which involved multiple operations from procurement, manufacturing, to logistics. But I could care less. What mattered is I got my parcel and the items I ordered. The individuals in the respective supply chain processes which enabledContinue reading “The Need to Change the Supply Chain”
Four (4) Starting Points to Getting the Reliability You Want
MANILA, Philippines, October 3, 2019. An electrical transformer (rectifier) at the Light Rail Transit Line 2’s (LRT-2) commuter railway tripped and caught fire. The fire knocked out train service from downtown Manila to the eastern suburbs of Marikina and Cainta. Thousands of commuters from workers to students were forced to find alternative transportation. The dayContinue reading “Four (4) Starting Points to Getting the Reliability You Want”
Elements of Productivity
Our objectives stem from our business priorities, which usually consist of: How managers perform against objectives relative to meeting their business organisations’ priorities define their productivity. The mistake managers make is classifying productivity as a mere performance measure. As much as it does make visible how well the enterprise performs, productivity is more an attributeContinue reading “Elements of Productivity”
Ellery's Essays 