564 Posts Found

By getting lean, vertical, and global, a Singaporean contract manufacturer became the biggest tech company you’ve never heard of.

Content: Case Study | Author: Jeff Ferry | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Operations | Industry: Manufacturing | Company: Flextronics

Many companies are working with the wrong measures, many of which are incorrectly termed “key performance indicators” (KPIs). Companies with 20 or more KPIs lack both focus and alignment, and are underachieving. From my research, very few organisations really monitor their true KPIs. The reason is very few organisations, business leaders, writers, accountants, and consultants have explored what a KPI actually is. This article is … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: David Parmenter | Source: BetterManagement.com | Subjects: Management, Operations

If you’re in the supply chain business, right up there with Newton’s law of gravity stands Murphy’s other law stipulating that demand and supply, if left to their own tendencies, will always tend to diverge and get you in trouble.

Welcome to the world of predictive demand and supply planning whose mission is to predict imbalances as far in advance as possible, in order to … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Lonnie Childs | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Operations

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Asset management systems have used the concept of preventive maintenance for years as a strategy to avoid unplanned downtime. Preventive maintenance uses time-based rules to determine when a specific maintenance task should be performed to avoid unplanned downtime. But, applying the principles of lean manufacturing tells us that unnecessary maintenance is waste. Failure analysis reveals how assets fail and why. Numerous studies tell us that … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Olin Thompson | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subject: Operations

The globalization of services, as represented by the sustained growth of business process outsourcing (BPO), continues to thrive. In this special report prepared in collaboration with consulting firm A.T. Kearney, Knowledge@Wharton explores several emerging trends in the BPO landscape. Among them: new competitive models that BPO providers are using to drive growth; the shifting geography of BPO locations; and the challenges and risks that constitute … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Outsourcing / BPO

Today, there are literally thousands of outsourcing providers scattered around the globe looking to serve companies everywhere, with a primary focus on the US and European markets. The multitude of different outsourcing providers, each with their own message or business proposition makes the selection process very confusing and somewhat overwhelming. Many companies, especially small to midsize companies, do not have any experience with outsourcing. They … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: A.B. Maynard | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Outsourcing / BPO

International borders may be invisible, but many high-tech manufacturers these days are tripping over them. In search of growth, companies are expanding their capacity for cross-border trade. To be successful, companies must manage the risk and complexity inherent in global supply chain networks.

Content: Article | Authors: Cameron Plummer, Chris L. Remy, David Grasso, Frank O’Dea, Mattias Lewren | Source: Accenture | Subjects: International, Operations

HBS Professors Benson Shapiro and Kash Rangan bring us up to date on their pioneering research that helped ignite today’s intense focus on the customer. The key? Know your order cycle management.

Content: Article | Author: Sarah Jane Johnston | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Customer Related, Operations

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Regarding outsourcing:

I wouldn’t tell employees what’s going on until you’ve come up with an idea or solution for what you’re going to be able to do for them so they can land relatively safety. A person’s first question is never Why is this happening? but What is going to happen to me?

Content: Quotation | Source: CIO Magazine | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Outsourcing / BPO

This article discusses the challenges facing many organizations that are considering or have migrated into a multi-vendor outsourced enterprise. It will detail the employing and leveraging of IT Service Management best practices to address these issues and the impact of operating in such an environment. Lastly, it will detail a proactive approach to facilitate this outsourcing enviornment.

Content: Article | Author: Rick Leopoldi | Source: BetterManagement.com | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Outsourcing / BPO

Not all products are created equal, so supplier integration schemes must be flexible.

Content: Article | Authors: Dorian Swerdlow, Kamalini Ramdas, Tim Laseter | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Operations

Anyone who has visited a supermarket or mass merchandiser recently has an appreciation for the explosion in the variety of products being offered for sale. Consumer product manufacturers have added brands, extended lines and altered pack sizes, shapes and colors to lure consumer dollars. In introducing these new products and variants, companies have made their businesses more complex.

Designing, marketing, forecasting, pricing, producing and distributing … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Kearney | Subject: Operations

A new survey shows that consumer goods companies can streamline their operations without compromising customer service.

Content: Article | Authors: Jochen Grosspietsch, Jörn Küpper | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Best Practices, Operations

Working in tandem, buyers and suppliers can find better ways to cut costs and increase innovation.

Content: Article | Authors: Bill Jackson, Conrad Winkler | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Operations

Economists are blind to the loss of US industries and occupations, because they believe these results reflect the beneficial workings of free trade. Whatever is being lost, they think, is being replaced by something as good or better. They are unable to identify what the replacement industries and occupations are, but they are certain they are out there somewhere. It does not occur to them … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subjects: Economics, Outsourcing / BPO

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As offshoring of business processes becomes more widespread, companies need to make strategic choices on how best to offshore their business processes. This article suggests that transaction cost theory, which has been a powerful tool for analysing and understanding governance structure, can provide a useful framework to make these decisions.

Content: Article | Authors: Ramdas Chandra, Vandana Shankar | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Outsourcing / BPO

The perspective on outsourcing must shift from a focus on cost arbitrage to one encompassing a global search for resources and methodologies for leveraging resources. That’s the new basis for innovation. We’ve just started scratching the surface of the business benefits of managing global resources; companies that focus on building a core competence in managing remote delivery-that is, managing for innovation, influencing without ownership, and … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subject: Outsourcing / BPO