Some Pros and Cons of Six Sigma
Six Sigma is a business strategy that seeks to identify and eliminate causes of errors or defects or failures in business processes by focusing on outputs that are critical to customers. It is a measure of quality that strives for near elimination of defects using the application of statistical methods. A defect is defined as anything which could lead to customer dissatisfaction. The fundamental objective … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Jiju Antony | Source: BetterManagement.com | Subjects: Management, Operations
Leaning Toward Utopia
The Toyota Production System has revolutionized industry. James Womack and Daniel Jones believe it can transform the world.
Content: Article | Author: Art Kleiner | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Operations, People
The Compliance Imperative
CEOs and CFOs must ensure that internal controls in outsourced activities are documented and tested each year.
Content: Article | Author: Bryan Mekechuk | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subjects: Management, Outsourcing / BPO
Michael E. Raynor
Dominating a market is a function of being able to deliver more performance than your competitors on the basis of competition. And doing that depends upon being able to closely integrate those elements in the value chain that drive performance along the relevant dimensions. Whatever does not drive that performance can be safely outsourced.
It is not enough to get this analysis right just once, however, … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Source: Deloitte | Subject: Outsourcing / BPO
Michael E. Raynor
In the outsourcing realm, core competence thinking typically manifests itself as a prescription for firms to outsource IT-intensive processes because the IT elements that drive process capabilities rarely qualify as a firm’s core competence. But outsourcing vendors make running IT infrastructures the focus of their business. For them, these activities are their core competence. This reasoning is encapsulated in marketing slogans such as “make your … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Source: Deloitte | Subjects: Competition, Outsourcing / BPO
The Perfect Order—Inside-Out or Outside-In?
Key performance indicators (KPIs) give management a tool to judge the health of the business. While the concept has proven itself, a key question should be “what do we measure?” The Perfect Order measurement has proven to be a powerful measurement of the business. Should The Perfect Order be defined from an internal point of view or from a customer point of view …inside-out or … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Olin Thompson | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subjects: Management, Operations
19 Steps to Maintain an Accurate Inventory: What You Must Know About Your Inventory
Your inventory is one of the biggest, if not the largest investment you have in your company. The only thing that comes close to it is your people. Furthermore, inventory acts as a buffer between unmatched supply and demand. It hides problems. This article offers valuable tips for maintaining an accurate inventory.
Content: Article | Author: Rene Jones | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subject: Operations
Creating Value through Strategic Supply Management: The 2004 Assessment of Excellence in Procurement
A.T. Kearney’s 2004 Assessment of Excellence in Procurement global research study of more than 300 companies confirms that senior executives expect procurement to go well beyond its traditional role. Rather than focusing solely on cost reduction, today’s business leaders see procurement’s greatest challenge as capturing value beyond cost from the supply market.
Content: Article | Source: Kearney | Subjects: Best Practices, Operations
Learning BPO Market
Outsourcing Costs
The China Syndrome
A five-dimension analytical model for deciding when (and when not) to purchase from the East.
Content: Article | Authors: Dermot Shorten, Mitchell Quint | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: International – China, Outsourcing / BPO
Call Center Market
Is Your Metrics Program Measuring Up?
Too often companies seize on the implementation of metrics as a panacea, and six months later, many of these same companies find that after expending time and money to put in “Scorecards,” “Dashboards,” or some other metrics flavor-of-the-month, they’re not getting expected performance gains.
Content: Article | Authors: Kate Vitasek, Mike Ledyard | Source: Supply Chain Visions | Subjects: Management, Operations
Reflections on the Bullwhip Effect
“The bullwhip effect” has become infamous as one of the worst and most widespread forces capable of paralysing supply chains. INSEAD Chaired Professor of Marketing Paddy Padmanabhan and Hau Lee and Seungjin Whang of Stanford present a study considered to be one of the Top Ten Most Influential Papers by the INFORMS Membership of Management Science in 2004.
Editor’s Note: this is just a description … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Hau L. Lee, Paddy Padmanabhan, Seungjin Whang | Source: INSEAD Knowledge | Subject: Operations
Designing the Factory Footprint for Competitive Advantage
Most companies wait until their costs are demonstrably out of line before they scrutinize their manufacturing topography. But a forward-thinking firm can reduce unit costs by as much as 40 percent of total acquisition costs by asking: How many plants should we have? Where should they be? What should their focus and mission be? Designing an appropriate manufacturing footprint is not an easy process, but … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Curt Mueller, Dermot Shorten, Michael Pfitzmann | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Operations
New Operating Models Explicitly Include Outsourced Services
The Outsourcing Institute
Published by The Outsourcing Institute, this site provides information and advice on outsourcing and related sourcing strategies. In addition it provides contacts and opportunities to network within the industry. Free knowledge resources such as case studies, surveys, reports and interviews cover the outsourcing of business processes, IT, sales and strategy. Membership to the site, which is free and merely requires registration, entitles you to even … [ Read more ]
Content: Online Resource | Source: The Outsourcing Institute | Subject: Outsourcing / BPO
Operational Optimization Framework
Demand-driven Supply Networks for Small and Medium Business
In the last year or two there has been much talk about demand-driven supply networks (DDSN). A simple search on Google for “DDSN model” will return pages of information about DDSN. Despite this and all the noise about small and medium business (SMB) in the enterprise applications arena, information about DDSN for SMBs is virtually nonexistent. The irony of this is that SMBs constitute the … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Sean Wheller | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subject: Operations
The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer
Toyota pioneered the idea of “lean production,” and Liker, a professor of industrial and operations engineering at the University of Michigan, does an admirable job of analyzing this seemingly simple but in fact complex and difficult-to-achieve lean production concept, which is rooted in a ruthless obsession to clear out waste. Liker clarifies Toyota’s 14 principles (many of which will be familiar to readers) by placing … [ Read more ]
Content: Book | Author: Jeffrey Liker | Subjects: Management, Operations