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Mind Your Core Business

Want IT to deliver shareholder value? Start identifying what’s core to competitive advantage and what’s only context, then build systems accordingly. But beware: What’s core today quickly becomes context tomorrow.

Content: Article | Author: Geoffrey A. Moore | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subjects: Outsourcing / BPO, Strategy

A New Framework: For Manufacturing Management Quality

All too often, say Professors Christoph Loch, Arnoud De Meyer, Ludo Van der Heyden and Luk Van Wassenhove, firms implement quality management efforts as isolated programs, which doesn’t translate into a competitive edge. In this working paper, however, the authors offer a systematic framework for manufacturing management quality, one which managers can translate directly into action and advantage.

Content: Article | Source: INSEAD Knowledge | Subject: Operations

Geoffrey Moore

Competitive advantage is a function of two variables: the amount of customer-valued differentiation between what your company offers and that of its direct competitors, and the sustainability of that differentiation over time. The greater the difference and the longer you can sustain it, the more attractive your prospects for creating above-average returns for investors.

From an investor’s point of view, any business process that creates additional … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subjects: Outsourcing / BPO, Strategy

Can E-tailers Find Fulfillment with Drop Shipping?

Consider this scenario: You establish a website and advertise products on it. When customers send in orders, you forward them to your wholesaler or distributor, who ships the orders directly to customers’ homes with your company’s label on them. You completely avoid the enormous costs and risks involved in inventory, warehousing, and fulfillment. Too good to be true? That depends, says a new paper by … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Industry Specific, Operations | Industry: Retail

Mastering the Supply Chain

There’s still no silver bullet when it comes to optimizing the connection between partners, customers and suppliers-but it’s a must to stay competitive. And it’s up to CEOs to make those big investments pay off. A Chief Executive Roundtable.

Content: Article | Author: Jennifer Pellet | Source: Chief Executive | Subject: Operations

Outsourcing Security

Without effective security, companies risk losing money and customer trust. With good security, companies have the power to maintain stakeholder value, customer loyalty, and competitive advantage. Faced with the complexity of providing effective security, many companies are turning to outsourcing.

This is Part 1 of a 3-part article.

Part 1 notes the benefits of outsourcing security.
Part 2 evaluates the cost of such an outsourcing.
Part … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Jim McLendon | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Outsourcing / BPO

Inventory Efficiency In The Supply Chain

Lowering inventories is one of the quickest ways to decrease working capital needs. Performance measurements, such as the old standby ROA (return on assets) and the newer EVA (economic value added), as well as other measures that gauge how efficiently capital is used, have become more common organizational drivers.

This article includes 25 questions to help assess your company’s inventory handling situation.

Content: Article | Author: R. Michael Donovan | Subject: Operations

The Hierarchy of Manufacturing

Follow the hierarchy from its lowest level upward with a little patience and some heart-felt caring and you will have created a solid pyramid of value in your manufacturing organization.

Content: Article | Author: John Albion | Source: CEO Refresher | Subject: Operations

Sustain the Gain of Change

You don’t make the investment in Six Sigma and take the time to train people, to select projects, and then to drill down to your costs of poor quality once. Six Sigma is ongoing; it’s a constant, “living” methodology that needs to continue as long as your business does.

Content: Article | Author: Greg Brue | Source: CEO Refresher | Subjects: Management, Operations

Yanking Your Supply Chain: Is There Still Too Much Slack?

Yes, many companies have effective supply-chain management programs, but there is still a long way to go to ensure that relationships with vendors operate at peak efficiency, say experts.

Content: Article | Author: John Case | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Operations

Less is more

Despite the fall-out from the collapse of Enron, companies are outsourcing everything from manufacturing to human resources. Simon London asks how far re-engineering will go.

Content: Article | Author: Simon London | Source: Financial Times | Subjects: Outsourcing / BPO, Strategy

Global sourcing: solution in search of a problem?

A recent study of firms in the Netherlands shows that regional differences still influence the sourcing strategies of European-based firms. The results also turn the tables on the ‘globalisation pundits’ who link international sourcing with higher profits.

Content: Article | Authors: Michael Mol, Rob van Tulder | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subjects: International – Europe, Operations

Is Your Organization Built for the Consumer?

Efficient consumer response is a “win-win-win” process for consumers, suppliers, and retailers, says Harvard Business School visiting scholar Dirk Seifert. In an interview with HBS Working Knowledge, he explains why.

Editor’s Note: I don’t see anything scholarly or particularly new and insightful about this concept, especially for those with some operations background, but might be of interest to others…of course your comments are encouraged…

Content: Article | Author: Martha Lagace | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Operations