Procure IQ

Every since the Toyota Production System (TPS) made Toyota famous for efficiency, there’s been a lot of talk about six sigma, lean, and TPS for a reason — because efficiency is good, and quality (which can be obtained when the systems are implemented properly, like they are in Asia, and not like Toyota chose to implement them in the US and Europe) is even better. But do you know how much better quality is? More specifically, when you buy an inferior product, do you know how much this costs your organization? Chances are, poor quality products cost your …

Read the rest » Sourcing Innovation

As per Sourcing Innovation’s last strategy execution post, which outlined the secrets to successful strategy execution, successful strategy execution requires clear-cut decision rights and information flows, as per Neilson et al., and good business process mapping. Lean is not enough. Six Sigma is not enough. TPS / Operational Excellence is not enough. While these are very useful methodologies — as they can be used to streamline processes and operations once the organization has mapped out its current processes, identified the gaps, and developed revised processes that it believes will get it to where it needs to be; …

Read the rest » Sourcing Innovation

A recent article over on the Harvard Business Review blogs told us that we should stand by for the same old strategy mistakes, because you see the same ones over and over again every time a downturn starts to trend up again. Moreover, similar fundamental strategy mistakes are often made by supply chain organizations when the economy starts to improve. As a result, there are lessons to be learned. Three easy ones are: Too many supply chains. Many companies think they should have …

Read the rest » Sourcing Innovation

B2B Connex provides a web-based sourcing and procurement document management solution that is a great fit for all types of small and mid-size manufacturing organizations that need simple e-Sourcing and e-Procurement functionality at a low price tag. It’s basic portal solution, that plugs in to your existing ERP & MRP solution, can be acquired for as little as $30,000 (plus 20% annual maintenance) for a small operation. Mid-size operations are generally priced by the number of locations and users, but even their larger customers don’t pay much more than 100K. (Pure SaaS configurations and pricing are also available, …

Read the rest » Sourcing Innovation

I enjoyed this recent article in Industry week that noted technology can help manufacturers take lean to the next level because technology is a critical component of lean planning in modern operations. While it might be appropriate to start with the “technology agnostic” philosophy that so many experts cherish, you can only get so far on generic process improvement alone. For example, if a company is introducing a new product, the early-warning portal can be integrated with enterprise resource planning systems and other shop-floor applications and measurements to provide detailed information about additional materials that may be required …

Read the rest » Sourcing Innovation

ISO 14000 is the international standard for Environmental Management Systems (EMS). The environmentally responsible companion to the ISO 9000 standards for Quality Management Systems, it’s starting to get the attention of a few forward-thinking companies. But is it worth it? In other words, will it pay off, or should you just go lean?In looking for the answer, I stumbled upon a recent Practix from CAPS Research on ISO 14000 at Veris Industries. The Practix provides a fairly detailed case study of the implementation and concludes with the following results: The ISO 14000 process created a …

Read the rest » Sourcing Innovation

A recent article on the SSON did a great job of covering the Top Ten Tips for Implementing Six Sigma. Of these, five are absolutely critical to the success of your effort. Even though all ten are important, if you miss any of these five, plus the bonus tip, you can pretty much bank on a project failure. Go Six Sigma, Go Lean All The Way Half-way efforts don’t work and, in fact, will only make matters worse. You need to actively engage your entire team in end-to-end …

Read the rest » Sourcing Innovation

Share This on Linked In According to a recent article in Industry Week, the basic principles of lean — waste reduction, customer centricity and flow optimization — are fairly simple in theory but when it comes to putting lean principles into practice, even the most well-intentioned manufacturers can run up [...]

Read the rest » Sourcing Innovation

Supply Chain Digest recently ran a great piece by Jim Womack, the founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute who points out that while this may be the worst recession some of us can remember, recessions are part of the natural cycle (and severe recessions do happen every two to three decades and they are, in [...]

Read the rest » Sourcing Innovation

Consider this excerpt from a recent article on The Big Picture in Industry Week: We reviewed several conveyor delivery systems and settled on cutting-edge technology. It eliminated so many positions that the payback was very quick. Parts were routed through the department and into a sorting area to be automatically picked … we [...]

Read the rest » Sourcing Innovation