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”
Tag Archives: supply chain
“Where’s My Order?”
“Where’s my order?” I heard the lady say to the server at the diner. A family of four had been waiting for their food. Their appetizers and some entrees arrived but not all. The lady who was apparently the wife and mother of the family was impatient. “Please cancel the order if you cannot serveContinue reading ““Where’s My Order?””
Pursuing Productivity Amid Adversity
The year 2025 arrived and what many businesses dreaded came true. Newly inaugurated American President Donald Trump and his economic hawks swooped and threw global trade into turmoil. Arguing unfair trade practices from many nations, President Trump imposed tariffs on billions of dollars of imports from Canada, Mexico, China, and the European Union (EU), withContinue reading “Pursuing Productivity Amid Adversity”
Missing in Supply Chains: Productivity
If there’s one thing I find missing in every business news story I’ve read, it’s: productivity. If there is an article about productivity, it usually is in the context of labour efficiency or how much output workers churn out over a given period. Some media writers define productivity as to how many tasks we completeContinue reading “Missing in Supply Chains: Productivity”
What Do We Do with ‘Bad Orders?’
One of the most irritating things in supply chain management is handling returned items from customers. We spend plenty of our precious time & resources trying to get rid of them. ‘Bad orders’ or BO for short are otherwise known as unsaleable merchandise or trade returns. BO is a commonplace term in the consumer goodsContinue reading “What Do We Do with ‘Bad Orders?’”
Avoiding the Wrong Supply Chain Strategy
One mistake enterprise owners make is to use the wrong supply chain strategy for their products. The effects can be costly. The following are some true-to-life cases: Many enterprise owners hire executives or engage consultants that have no knowledge or experience about the products they will work with. In many cases, the executives or consultantsContinue reading “Avoiding the Wrong Supply Chain Strategy”
Building the Supply Chain at Both Ends
A supply chain essentially has two (2) ends: the suppliers (e.g., vendors, service providers) and the customers (e.g., clients, consumers, users). We who manage our businesses work both ends at the same time as our suppliers see us as customers and our customers see us as suppliers. We multitask as both suppliers and customers. InContinue reading “Building the Supply Chain at Both Ends”
The Real Value of Demand Forecasting
“We start our planning with the forecast.” This is what I’ve heard in the last three (3) organizations I’ve engaged with. These three (3) organizations often started their Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) meetings with a comparison of forecast versus actual sales data. In most cases, the actual sales data didn’t come out close toContinue reading “The Real Value of Demand Forecasting”
The ‘Suki’ Way to Supply Chain Excellence
On a typical early morning at any wet market in the Philippines, groups of housewives & domestic helpers would be seen moving from one vendor’s stall to another to buy fish, vegetables, poultry, & meat. Most of what the stall vendors sell are fresh, or just delivered via dealers or transporters who retrieved the productsContinue reading “The ‘Suki’ Way to Supply Chain Excellence”
Collaboration: The Secret to Supply Chain Success
It’s hard to find a supply chain success story. Either there isn’t any or enterprises would prefer to keep it private, not wanting to share any secret they consider proprietary. Some so-called experts (ones like me who write blogs and claim they are) say companies like Apple, P&G, Walmart, and Toyota are supply chain successes. Continue reading “Collaboration: The Secret to Supply Chain Success”
Ellery's Essays 