Thursday, June 26, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Ask The Expert: lean Manufacturing by David Alschuler
Meet the Lean Manufacturing Expert
David Alschuler
Principal, Industry Directions Inc.
David has been an industry analyst in the enterprise software sector for 10 years and was a software marketing executive for the prior 15 years. He currently follows manufacturing software solutions for Industry Directions. From 1998 to 2005 he directed the Enterprise Applications research teams at Aberdeen Group. Before joining Aberdeen, David held executive leadership positions including: VP of Sales and Marketing at Xchange, Inc., a leader in customer relationship management; SVP of Sales and Marketing for Work Management Solutions, a developer and marketer of project and program management software for Fortune 1000 IT organizations; VP of Marketing for leading PLM vendor Parametric Technology Corporation; and VP of Alternate Channel Distribution for Computer Corporation of America.Please sign in or registerto ask your question now. As a registered member of Managing Automation, you'll have access to all of our industry experts, the entire Research library and tools such as the Custom Software Comparison and Business Assessment Tool.
Starting a Lean Education
Asked on May 21 2007 11:16:18:000AM
| Q | How do we sustain lean in a contract manufacturing environment? I know people are the key issue. How do we go about doing it? Please recommend some good books or videos on this topic. Thanks, Laurence Yap, Ipoh, Perak, NA |
| A | You have already pretty much hit this nail on the head. You need to start from the top of your supply chain and work down. Once your own teams are educated and effectively functioning, you need to develop a strategy for disseminating/engendering a commitment to lean within the top management of your supply partners, and support those partners by sharing your own expertise in the form of key staff to act as Sensei(s). And you need to have developed lean processes that can be passed to your supply chain partners. Clearly, firms who have significant leverage with the suppliers in their supply chains are in a stronger position to effect lean in their supply base. The discussions in the seminal books on lean by (a) Jim Womack and Daniel Jones, and (b) Jeffery Liker are still directly relevant and you should certainly start your self-education there. A more recent article by Eric Olsen and Mark Zetter offers a set of strategies to successfully implement lean across a contract manufacturing environment. They offer eight rules for companies seeking to implement lean supply chains, and I am hard-put to improve upon their advice: 1. Know what your customers value. Every company is capable of identifying a current value proposition in its marketplace. Outsourcing may bring this into better alignment with what customers want, or executives may find it damages the company's value. 2. Trade physical proximity for digital proximity. Lean manufacturers know good communication and contact with a supplier is critically important. Executives must plan for companies to increase investment in information technology and travel. 3. Outsource to lean companies. Language and culture can be huge barriers. If possible, identify companies with lean implementation programs already in place. Lean can become the common language and culture between companies. If your company is only in its infancy with respect to lean, seek out a more mature lean company from which to learn. Where possible, seek out a few of the best companies to deal with. 4. Avoid the quantity discount trap. Many otherwise lean companies seem to forget this lesson when they source in low-cost geographies. When procuring, or buying, in North America, they readily pay a premium to buy in small batches, just-in-time. If set-up or ordering costs are drivers for larger quantities, they seek to reduce them. The same applies in long distance sourcing. 5. Involve your customers in outsourcing decisions. Truly lean companies believe in transparency. Do not do or say anything that you would not want printed on the front page of the Sunday New York Times. Customers can provide a wealth of information and experience with respect to outsourcing. This also represents an excellent opportunity for companies to test theories about their value proposition. 6. Recognize risk. Every management strategy involves a degree of risk. In fact, customers pay a premium to suppliers who manage risk well. The mistake made by many companies when outsourcing is to not recognize risk as an explicit factor in the decision-making process. Lean companies identify risk in all forms of variability and work to reduce it. 7. Lean processes are easier to outsource. Understand your current processes. Invest wisely in making them lean. With fewer non-value-add activities; fewer defects, and less waste in general, management has a much clearer picture of what is being outsourced. The knowledge gained makes managing such outsourced products and processes easier. 8. Measure the right stuff. The big five lean measures still remain the same for lean outsourcing: first-time through quality; dock-to-dock cycle time, build-to-schedule on-time delivery, overall equipment effectiveness, and total cost. Translate these measures to the supply chain level to drive and monitor continuous improvement. |
Source: http://www.managingautomation.com/maonline/channel/expert/read/442
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
BNET Videos: Whiteboard - Explanation of Key Business Ideas
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What is WAP?
Wireless Application Protocol allows you to access the internet from your cellular phone. Burton Katz of Buongiorno explains how it works and says that ...
08-10-05 | Length: 00:02:51 -
What Is a Wiki?
Many people collaborate on projects via e-mail. But e-mail threads can be cumbersome, attached documents can get lost, and who has the latest version ...
08-02-05 | Length: 00:03:43
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
BNet: Best Practices Videos - Learning Online
BNET Best Practice Videos
Best Practices Videos bring go-to management advice to life, illustrating the Do's and Don'ts of office politics, hiring, firing, mergers and acquisitions, and all the other high-stakes management and strategic challenges business leaders face every day-
Managing Millennials
They're smart, tech savvy, confident, and coming to a cubicle near you! Born between 1980 and 2000, Millennials are entering the workforce in the ...
04-09-08 | Length: 00:07:25 -
Present Like Steve Jobs
Apple CEO Steve Jobs is well known for his electrifying presentations. Communications coach Carmine Gallo discusses the various techniques Jobs uses to captivate and ...
03-14-08 | Length: 00:06:54
Talks Richard St. John: Secrets of success in 8 words, 3 minutes
About this talk
Why do people succeed? Is it because they’re smart? Or are they just lucky? Neither. Analyst Richard St. John condenses years of interviews into an unmissable 3-minute slideshow on the real secrets of success.
About Richard St. John
A self-described average guy who found success doing what he loved, Richard St. John spent more than a decade researching the lessons of success -- and distilling them into 8 words, 3 minutesWednesday, June 11, 2008
TED: Patrick Awuah: Educating a new generation of African leaders
Monday, June 9, 2008
Corporate Social Responsiblities of HRD
This is the phrase I often hear from people. The company I am with is in the same situation.
Forget about the reasons. What can you do?
If you have to spend five hours a month Extra, and you can change the community around you.
Would you do that?
What can we do?
- Teach the community (school, orphange, student leaders) how to study, living skills and soft skills like team building, communication and leadership skills.
Talk to your directors. Secure time. Squeeze a bit of your time for the needy in the community. You have the power to change the world.
Men always seek for higher calling and live a life greater than themselves. The joy that derives from such a joyful sacrifice is a marvelous journey to all.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Stop Wasting Time: Ten Things You Can Do to Make Yourself More Efficient
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/abelsp/stop-wasting-time-ten-things-you-can-do-to-make-yourself-more-efficient/
References on Branding
Brand Gap
Growing a Brand
Branding Masterclas Week Two
Brand Strategy
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Christopher Chew: E-Learning Blog
I am an Training specialist in my the training unit of my company and have been involved in eLearning initiative since 1997. I have developed elearning courses, conducted classroom training and coaching as well. Although I have been involved for sometime in training, I still consider myself a learner and learning new ways and method to deliver training.
His blog: http://chrischewcorner.blogspot.com/
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Gaming a serious indstry, but are we serious about it
Look at these few examples, the military using the hours simulation games to train new soldiers, flight simulators, NASA, there are world wide gaming tournaments almost as if the Olympics have been computerized- football, forget about next week when you can watch your favourite team but you can now play the game as if you were the player yourself, and the list goes on.
Gaming in learning industry- education, corporate training. That's something new... is it? Training is also another million dollar industry and people these days sitting through hours and hours of "lecture based" training- I wonder if they ever fall asleep. There are some companies I heard using games like Warcraft to strategy and communications- don't ask me how,I have't played the game yet. Simulation training people for systems are available today and it is simple to create. Software like Adobe Captivate or Macromedia Breeze or free softwares like Jing are available to capture systems simulation.
So who's laughing now? Isn't it time for you to jump in and play a game?
Monday, April 28, 2008
No Gamer Left Behind: Virtual Learning Goes to the Next Level
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Virtual Classroom Lecturers- my best experience
What really is a good example is that he leaves us with the feeling that we want to get started on our assignment. Makes it fun. Makes us learn.
Virtual Classroom Lecturers- my worst experience
Past 3 weeks I have attended what I can only say is my worst experience in virtual classroom as a learner. The lecturer does not like people to interrupt his sessions, he prefers it to be under his control. When someone interrupts like "hi", he burst out and say "Keep quiet". I seriously think this lecturer although he is supposed to be very an "e-friendly" person, this guy needs a lesson in how to how to facilitate and how to create an environment to learn. What he is doing reminds me of my secondary (or high school) strict-no-nonsense-with-a-cane type of teacher that all children tremble with fear and counts down the time that the class is over.
Probably what is so disturbing is that I m not sure how many people shut off during his session except when he says OVER like you can now speak and then we all suddenly turned on and answer his question. I just watch TV and copy everything he says and then wait for his OVER signal for me to really pay attention. This to me is a turn off and turn on type of teaching which maybe applicable to children (and I don't like it anyway) but in adult learning- it is the worst but the best case to show that this is NOT to be done.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Livelier eLearning
Excellent slide on creating eLearning courses. Changing the traditional snoring boring courses to creative, simple courses that everyone would like to take.
eLearning 2.0
What I liked about what Karrer shared was on slide 14, the movement from eLearning 1.0 to 1.3 and eventually about 2.0. This something I was planning to enhance to but need a plan to introduce eLearning 2.0 into the company. The best part I liked was eLearning 2.0 is free and immediate- cuts a lot of process and procurement to introduce it.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Creating eLearning Course- the FUN way
Jokes, video clips, even songs can be used to teach. With elearning, it gives you the flexibility and the power of media. Wouldn't you rather be playing a game or watching a movie than being stuck in a training room with a long winded trainer who seems to go on and on?
I am not actually fond of using quiz to test whether people understand because I find it boring and usually I find people giving me the quiz questions are really ridiculous- you can close your eyes and answer the question without much thought process. It's takes a very long time to create a very good question. A good question does not give away the answer, it makes us think about the correct answer.
Clinton to suspend campaign
This is a sad day to me. Clinton lose to Obama in US Presidential Candidancy. It is reported by CNN that "The Clinton campaign said she will make the announcement at "an event in Washington, D.C.," where she will also thank her supporters."I am confuse with the US citizen choice of thier President. They have made a big mistake in thier last two terms which cost the world so much. Now I think they are heading for another political and financial disaster.
She is my best choice of the world leader who can lead the world to restore its prosperity and peace. This hope is gone.
Monday, June 2, 2008
MIT
Open Courseware