Practical perspectives on supply chains, smarter operations, and building a business that’s ready for what’s next.
Every forecasting method rests on history, which leaves new products in an awkward position. The usual response is to ask…
Read article : New Product Forecasting When You Have No Historical Data
Carrier selection in most manufacturers runs on a mixture of rate cards and reputation. Someone knows which carrier is reliable…
Read article : Carrier Performance Management With Data, Not Gut Feel
Hedging carries an air of financial sophistication that puts most mid-sized manufacturers off entirely. That’s a reasonable instinct in one…
Read article : Commodity Hedging for Manufacturers: A Plain-English Primer
Maverick spend — purchasing outside agreed contracts and processes — gets treated as a compliance failure. Occasionally it is. More…
Read article : How to Reduce Maverick Spend in Manufacturing Procurement
Plenty of manufacturers produce supplier scorecards. Fewer can point to a supplier whose performance improved because of one. The gap…
Read article : Vendor Scorecards That Actually Improve Supplier Performance
Overall equipment effectiveness is widely reported and frequently misused. It gets presented as a single number, tracked as a target,…
Read article : OEE Explained: Measuring What Actually Limits Your Output
Here’s a number worth calculating for your own operation: take a typical order’s total elapsed time from release to completion,…
Read article : How to Cut Production Lead Times Without Adding Headcount
There’s a version of every manufacturing business where the shop floor and the board are describing different companies. The floor…
Read article : Shop Floor to Top Floor: Connecting Production Data Across the Business
Scrap and rework occupy an odd position in manufacturing accounts. They’re measured, reported, and largely tolerated — treated as a…
Read article : Reducing Scrap and Rework With Predictive Quality Analytics
Consignment sounds close to free money. The supplier’s stock sits in your warehouse, you pay only as you consume, and…
Read article : Consignment Inventory: When It Helps and When It Hurts