All Posts Tagged "forecast"...
Thinking Small
April 2013 Consulting.
Advice and Assistance for Manufacturers.
The assumption that bigger is better has been with us for many years and is built into many of our management systems and assumptions.
Business Planning for 2013 Poses Challenges
It’s that time of year again. Time for digging out the snow blower and shovels, time for making resolutions, and time for business planning for 2013. Uncertainties include pending changes in federal tax law.
A Time-Tested Technique
Material requirements planning (MRP) is the calculation of potential shortages and replenishment activity from the master schedule using the bill of material and inventory availability data. Developed in the early 1950s, the basic approach still is at the center of every enterprise resources planning (ERP) system more than half a century later.
Too Much or Not Enough?
Supply chain and operations management professionals have a love-hate relationship with inventory. In production, there’s nothing worse than getting ready to start a job and discovering that parts are unavailable. Likewise, from a customer service perspective, it’s impossible to fulfill customer demand without the right amount of the right inventory at the right time. People in our profession love having parts and products when we need them, but hate any amount of inventory that ties up company money; takes up space; and causes extra, non-value adding work to handle, store, count, and manage.
Are Lean and ERP incompatible?
October 2012.
Advice for Manufacturers.
In the earlier days of the spread of Lean Manufacturing, there was a perception among many that you have to make a choice – Lean or ERP.
Inventory, flexibility, and lead times
September 2012.
Advice and Assistance for Manufacturers.
Inventory is always a topic of interest for manufacturing people – there’s always too much overall, never enough of what you really need when you need it, and inventory ties up a lot of the company’s cash so it has the attention of executive management.
Large-quantity orders are not always the best choice
The assumption that bigger is better has been with us for many years and is built into many of our management systems and assumptions. When we ask for the price for a quantity of goods, we naturally expect that the
Deciding when to ‘push’ and when to ‘pull’
In manufacturing and distribution, there are differing approaches to inventory management characterized as either “push” or “pull.
WIP Inventory
March 2012. Advice and Assistance for Manufacturers. Raw materials and parts inventory is maintained at a level that is required to meet the needs of the plant based on the production schedule and adjusted by procurement considerations like lot sizing
Improve your business forecasting
This unusually mild and snow-free winter calls to mind thoughts of forecasts and how inaccurate they can be. Does your business depend on the weather? Demographics? Economic cycles? Some other outside factor that may or may not be predictable? If so, then accurate forecasts may be particularly challenging. Is there a cure for the bad forecast blues?
