It’s one thing to focus on eliminating problems between shipment and delivery, the typical point of supply chain visibility. It’s quite another to discover there is a small facility in some backwater country that is integral to your entire supply chain. Visibility into the high level participants in your end-to-end supply chain is an important component of risk management. This podcast gives you an overview of how to get started identifying the players and the primary points of risk. The post St...
Jul 21, 2021•5 min
It’s not shipping on time that matters; it is receiving on time. That is true for you, and for your customers. That means manufacturers can no longer accept the black hole of logistics and last minute challenges. Supply chain visibility refers to a system of real-time relevant data converted to information that is utilized to identify and solve near-term delivery problems. Awareness of problems is the first step in solving them. Whether it’s a truck that is delayed by traffic, inventory that is ...
Jul 15, 2021•5 min
Industrial Internet of Things is the digitization of important variables, with that data converted into information that creates faster and better decision making. Business leaders often believe the software development part is the most challenging, but that’s far from true. In fact, programming is the easy part of IIoT. The business decisions, the data to be collected and retained, and the actual integration of the information into decision making and directly into operations is the biggest cha...
Jul 07, 2021•3 min
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is by definition about the digitization of factors important to your business operations that is not currently captured as data. It could be temperature, speed, humidity, wear or any number of other factors. Digitization creates data, which must be converted into information if it’s to be worth the time and effort to capture it. That information must enable or make better and/or faster decisions than would have been made without it. There are any number o...
Jun 30, 2021•3 min
Saying your mission is to be the best at whatever it is that you do, using whatever technology you use, is meaningless to the outside world. Do you think anyone states that they want to be mediocre or lousy? So how would that empty statement really excite others to join and support your journey? It doesn’t. A case study: Over a recent lunch we discussed his mission statement. His website currently states: “Our mission is to produce the highest quality vinyl records from both a sonic and aestheti...
Jun 23, 2021•5 min
Mission, vision, and core value statements were once considered serious. And then fluff, because companies had them, but didn’t live them. Thank goodness we’re never too old to learn! I have come to realize that Mission Matters! So do vision and core values. Together they attract the people and partners you want, or chase them away. They provide a touchstone for how your organization intends to improve the lives of those it touches, or a source of derision. They give a consistent direction to st...
Jun 16, 2021•4 min
CEOs, COOs, and consultants like myself do NOT know everything. We shouldn’t pretend to, nor expect ourselves to. We do need to constantly focus on learning, thinking, and applying what makes sense. We all too often overemphasize the differences and underestimate the similarities of our operations with that of others. Becoming skilled at recognizing which differences truly matter in a specific circumstance and which similarities allow us to learn the most is crucial to the effective leader of a ...
Jun 09, 2021•4 min
Inconvenience and risk are present in our manufacturing businesses every day. Some should not prevent us from moving forward now; others represent to much potential risk — probability and/or severity — and require delay as we better understand and plan. You likely do much of this in your head daily, but may not realize that all your employees do the same things. You are not likely aware of what assessment process each uses. Worker accidents often emanates from failure to understand risk, or the ...
Jun 02, 2021•4 min
Last week’s podcast exposed my frustration with executives and journalists who claim to understand lean but obviously, to me and my opinionated thinking, do not. Today I will share a few of the critical distinctions that underlie my passion. First, when I hear the word “lean” I immediately think of the Toyota Business and Toyota Production Systems. The 1991 one book, The Machine That Changed the World, shared the findings of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s $5 million, five-year study...
May 26, 2021•6 min
The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times are fact-based high-quality newspapers. Each has acquired ‘political leanings’ in some of their writing, but for business articles they are widely respected. Each has recently published a poorly researched and factually incorrect article about the impact of the current supply chain upheavals on the preponderance of Just-in-Time inventory strategies in American manufacturing businesses. The error is in believing that their sources understood JIT and ...
May 19, 2021•6 min
When I was growing up in manufacturing a primary point of friction between leadership and production workers was “quality or quantity.” Leaders did not understand what was so irrational about their expectation; the two should not be mutually exclusive. The production workers, however, who worked with existing processes, couldn’t see why management would expect such a thing when their day-to-day experience was that a choice had to be made. Yet today, I see comments on LinkedIn about the requireme...
May 12, 2021•5 min
I wish we would all quit acting like everything was “normal,” implying steady and predictable, before Covid. It’s like we’ve all decided to recall “the good old days” the way octogenarians do. What has really happened is that we were comfortable with the types of ongoing constant change, something unexpected happened that impacted all of us around the world, and we act like all the ongoing constant change we now experience is something different. It’s not. Scientists figured out pretty darned qu...
May 05, 2021•6 min
As manufacturers are searching high and low for employees, it is crucial that we not make bad hiring decisions out of a sense of desperation. A warm body is not what you need. Today we’ll dig into how to attract candidates who can help you create a future that you can’t even predict well right now. Technology is the future of manufacturing, yet we need other than technologists. We need to identify those who can help us learn, change, and grow as an organization. Machines make better machines tha...
Apr 28, 2021•5 min
I hope you have a mission for why your manufacturing company exists, and that you have some kind of vision for what it should look like in a few short years to ensure you’re closer to accomplishing that mission. Your business is somewhere right now. You haven’t accomplished the mission so where you are now is insufficient for where you intend to be. That tells you that no matter where your company is right now, it has to be in a different place in a few months and an even better place 6 months a...
Apr 14, 2021•5 min
Today’s topic is “how fast should your company improve?” While the bottom-line answer is the same for most all manufacturers, it is worth first looking at the question by size of company. Small manufacturers face a challenge just getting orders in and out and all too often don’t focus on making significant improvements. That last part is why so many of them struggle to grow or to catch their breath. It’s the well-known conundrum of we’re too busy to figure out how to do it better. Mid-sized manu...
Mar 31, 2021•5 min
People want what they want when they want it. That’s hardly a crazy concept; just one most manufacturers don’t believe applies to them. But it does. The JIT concept has been saying that for a long time, but again, many manufacturers didn’t believe their customers really wanted or needed that. Here’s the thing: No one cares how hard your business is, or why you find it so difficult to provide what is needed or wanted at the right time. The more widespread this expectation becomes, and it is alrea...
Mar 24, 2021•5 min
While the integral role of supply chain, which includes inventory decisions, has become more obvious to everyone, and college degrees in supply chain are increasing, many manufacturers still see it as a renamed purchasing department. Effective procurement is an important profession, but it does not define nor integrate inventory strategies into the company mission, core values, and strategy. If anywhere at all, that is likely the responsibility of planning or scheduling, or supply chain. But do ...
Mar 17, 2021•4 min
Well, you’ve certainly had a chance to see just how strong your supply chain is, as well as how well your organization can plan and execute shifts in volume and mix. More importantly, you have likely seen weaknesses in the multi-level understanding of the supply chain, including towards the customer. As you’ve gained 12 months experience dealing with how this particular pandemic impacted your business, it’s important that you no longer let it absorb more attention than it needs to. Now is time t...
Mar 10, 2021•3 min
In a recent webinar, attendees responded to a poll by answering that uncertainty around Covid is one of the biggest concerns about 2021. It shouldn’t be! I started with responder poll results. I found the responses to this question: “My biggest concerns for 2021 are…” intriguing. The number one response was “continued uncertainty around Covid” while the 2nd most common response was “new regulations from Democratic administration.” Fifty percent chose the first, and 38% chose the latter. When I p...
Mar 03, 2021•6 min
Since IBM’s Watson, many have hoped that Artificial Intelligence, or AI, would be able to rummage through a pile of data, pick out what is relevant, and create some new learning that matters. That hope has been proven futile, at least with our current thinking and capabilities. That doesn’t mean AI is useless; we have learned through trial and error that one has to have a clear understanding of the question he is asking AI to answer. The more narrowly we define the question, and the more relevan...
Feb 24, 2021•5 min
I believe Operations should be responsible for customer retention and customer service. Marketing creates awareness, Sales brings in new customers, and it is operational performance — or lack thereof — that keeps them happy and wanting more. But regardless of where you locate the responsibility, it must be somewhere in your organization! Too many manufacturers have decided to outsource customer service to customers, and have given us lousy tools to use in servicing ourselves. Using automation as...
Feb 16, 2021•4 min
If your manufacturing business is not designed to ensure robust processes within speed, cost, quality, and agility parameters; if your business is not designed to endure for decades; if your business is not designed to thrive through ambiguity, then by definition, it is not designed to be profitable. That would seem to be a significant weakness, don’t you think? Design cannot be limited to products. Design your business for long term success, and then, as always, Finish Strong®️ The post Design ...
Feb 10, 2021•4 min
Manufacturers typically fall into three categories: those with proprietary products sold under their brand names, those who contract manufacture for others, and those who do both. Those who do both often provide private labeling for customers of products very similar to their current proprietary offerings. If you only offer what you’ve always sold to the same people you’ve always offered it to, you’ve got a short, narrow runway. Sadly, current conditions provide a perfect example of why consider...
Feb 03, 2021•5 min
An exception to our 6 minute limit, this 30 minute podcast addresses “what are current supply chain conditions internationally?” “What is the challenge with vaccine distribution?” and “what is China’s role in the supply chain now?” Australian, Irish and North American experts discuss these topics from their “feet on the ground” perspective. The insights are timely and valuable. This was recorded initially for the Dublin Ireland radio program Interlinks Tertulia on Supply Chain. Patrick Daly (Dub...
Jan 27, 2021•29 min
Now that approved vaccines for Covid-19 exist, why is it so difficult to get them from the manufacturers into the hands of those who inject, and then into the arms of those who want to be vaccinated? For those of us with years in the supply chain profession, it is maddening. Yes, there are complexities to this challenge, but so what? Nothing that we shouldn’t have been able to handle. So why are we fumbling this so badly? While it is frustrating to watch our government, and many others around th...
Jan 20, 2021•5 min
Some insist that “electronic Kanban,” an alleged “pull” system, and increased ERP responsiveness replace the pull of a visual gemba-based kanban. Not true. Whether push or pull, or something else, the goal is to have the right stuff in the right quantity at the right place at the right time. AND TO SEE AND ADDRESS PROBLEMS THAT KEEP THAT FROM HAPPENING EXACTLY THAT WAY. You can’t sit at your desk staring at the computer screen and do that! The post Push or Pull, Revisited first appeared on Fulcr...
Jan 13, 2021•4 min
There are those who say problem solving looks backwards and innovation looks forward. I would argue that sometimes effective problem solving requires innovation and sometimes creating a different future can benefit from leveraging problem-solving methodologies. To problem solve the future, begin to focus on the gap between “what is happening” and “what could be happening” instead of on the traditional problem-solving question of “what should be happening.” Ask “why can’t we?” Ask “why haven’t we...
Jan 06, 2021•3 min
When Sirius and XM satellite radio were first developed, the skeptics asked why anyone would ever pay for radio when they could already get it for free. The answer is the value placed on location independence. Network tv was surpassed by cable and then satellite, which has now been largely replaced by Netflix and other streaming services. What’s the attraction? Users want control over what they enjoy, as well as when and where. The days of traditional entertainment companies pushing their schedu...
Dec 30, 2020•3 min
The words “thank you,” said with honest energy mean a lot to the person receiving them. This has been one heck of a year for most of us. Constant change outside our influence or control in many cases, along with the changes that happen in our personal lives, and of course the changes every manufacturer must be making regardless of external upheaval. “Thank you.” “Thank you for being you.” “I personally appreciate your efforts to come to work, to stay safe, and to keep the health and safety of ot...
Dec 23, 2020•3 min
Everyone believes “things will be different around here when I’m in charge!” But different isn’t necessarily better, now is it? Consider these characteristics of very strong leaders that I’ve observed in recent conversations: I have been interviewing founders and leaders of a wide variety of international manufacturers over the past several months as part of writing my new book. Each has been a wonderful exchange with amazing people. This group of leaders is hardly an unbiased sample, as I am in...
Dec 16, 2020•4 min
