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Sales forecasting time is here again
It’s an important step in achieving company goals. As we start a new calendar year, most businesses are thinking about the New Year to come in the form of a forecast of sales for the next 12 months. In...
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Regional Sourcing
The re-shoring phenomenon that you heard so much about over the last year or two is continuing, with varying impact on industries, producers and regions. The bulk of the headlines have dealt with the...
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Taking control of supply and demand
As an operations management professional, I live on the “supply” side of things. My orientation has always been toward focusing resources to produce what the marketing and sales (demand) side of the...
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It’s all about Lead Time
Lead time is arguably the most important factor in manufacturing and distribution. Lead time, to a great extent, determines how you set up your business, what inventory you carry and where/why, what...
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Inventory errors cause revenue losses
A recently released research report titled “Retailers and the Ghost Economy: $1.75 Trillion Reasons to be Afraid”, produced by the IHL Group and commissioned by OrderDynamics, a Big Data prescriptive...
View Article12-Week APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) public workshop
WHAT: 12-week APICS CSCP public workshop WHEN: Thursdays, 5:30 – 8:30 PM starting this Fall (Sep-Oct-Nov) WHERE: Portsmouth / Seacoast – New Hampshire INSTRUCTOR: Dave Turbide, CFPIM, CIRM, CSCP,...
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We don’t manage inventory
Inventory level is an important measurement for any company that handles, makes, buys, and/or sells physical goods. Nevertheless, we don’t directly manage the level of inventory. The amount of...
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Reconsidering Inventory Rationale
New ways to reduce stock and save The main reason for keeping inventory is to save time; that is, it enables a business to provide products or parts in less time than it takes to make or buy them. The...
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Being Demand Driven in an MRP world
One of the chief criticisms of Material Requirements Planning (MRP), the basic approach to planning that is the basis of virtually every ERP planning system in existence, it is a “push” approach,...
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Balancing Your Operational Choices
Keep both efficiency and effectiveness in mind One of the topics APICS magazine discussed recently was the evolution of lean manufacturing from efficient to effective. It got me thinking: We talk about...
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Planning and Execution
Companies use an ERP system to take care of the information management needs across the entire business (yes, I know ERP doesn’t do everything, but that is the general intention). For a manufacturer,...
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The value of being certified
A young gentleman contacted me the other day asking about CPIM certification classes. He was interested in a career change into manufacturing and wanted to know if certification would help him get a...
View Article5-Day APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) public workshop
The Granite State Chapter of APICS will be offering a APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) class in Portsmouth, NH on five Saturdays in 2016 starting February 13th. These are full-day...
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Should you reduce inventory?
The main reason for keeping inventory is to save time; that is, it enables a business to provide products or parts in less time than it takes to make or buy them. The technical term for that is...
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About Manufacturing 4.0
As usual, December and January blogs and newsletters have been full of predictions for the coming year. There seems to be a consensus, among pundits at least, that so-called manufacturing 4.0 will...
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Do you need a new ERP system?
You rely on your ERP system to help run your business – handle customer orders, plan purchases and production, track activities, manage inventory – and more. It’s not unusual, however, to find fault,...
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“Pulling” MRP
In the long-running debate about “push” versus “pull” in manufacturing planning and management, the two sides are typically exemplified by MRP on the push side and lean representing pull. The basic...
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Logistics, supply-chain mastery play key roles in achieving success
Two of the largest and most successful companies in the world achieved and maintain their success by mastering the supply chain. Wal-Mart took logistics to new heights, bringing big city, low prices...
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Demand management through S&OP
Manufacturing, distribution and supply chain management are all about recognizing and satisfying demand. This imperative comes together in a process known as sales and operations planning (S&OP),...
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Enjoy the seasons… all of them
Is your business seasonal? That is, does demand vary in a predictable pattern… busy in the Winter / slow in the Summer or vice-versa? Most manufacturing businesses are seasonal to some degree. While...
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