Resource Management – serie

Lean thinking is too often narrowly focused on physical processes, causing serious shortcomings, which limit Lean‘s substantial benefits. Lean Performance ERP Project Management: Implementing the Virtual Lean Enterprise, Second Edition presents a lean business process design and implementation project management methodology that integrates strategy, people, process, information technology, and lean to manage the project implementation of the Virtual Lean Enterprise. This book uses a conversational tone to facilitate understanding of concepts. It demonstrates the need to connect Lean Performance with IT to achieve maximum lean benefits. It discusses the best business process methodologies and how to integrate them. The text also features a lean tool kit that requires participation from all departments of an organization.

Any supply chain improvement project, even if well conceived, has a good chance of failing, unless the accompanying information technology enables the design. Being prepared, understanding the risks and how to reduce them, will give you the edge you need. Combining a technology focus with practical advice, Making Supply Chain Management Work: Design, Implementation, Partnerships, Technology, and Profits gives you the tools to not only design new supply chains, but to design them effectively.The book begins with an introduction to SCM. It identifies and describes the five management tasks that are changing as organizations increasingly compete as parts of supply chains rather than standalone entities. Doing well in all five is a prerequisite for success. These tasks are:Designing supply chain for strategic management Implementing collaborative relationships within the organization Forging supply chain partnerships with other organizations Managing supply chain information Making money from the supply chainThe book provides insights into the special requirements for improving supply chains, and consequently improving competitiveness. The chapters show you how to streamline the supply chain change implementation process, including systems changes, reducing the risk of wasting your time and money on an effort that is going nowhere in an area vital to the survival of your business. Making Supply Chain Management Work: Design, Implementation, Partnerships, Technology, and Profits highlights what can go wrong and more importantly, gives you the tools to make it go right.

Supply Market Intelligence: A Managerial Handbook for Building Sourcing Strategies charts the course to success for executives who are seeking to lead their organizations to supply-chain maturity. This volume is intended for supply-chain executives who struggle with the challenges of an uncertain supply market environment and whose supply chain function is constantly buffeted by unexpected changes in customer requirements and commodity prices.The author offers a more effective path, describing an integrated approach to supply chain management based upon solid market intelligence. This path is derived from the authors' multiple engagements with organizations such as Suncor Energy, Bank of America, Shell Oil, Honda of America, General Motors, Boston Scientific, Visteon, Federal Express, Sonoco, Duke Energy, Caterpillar, John Deere, GlaxoSmithKline, and many others. He emphasizes that the elements of a successful plan do not arise from a simple vision, instead they require much hard work and a focused approach backed by solid leadership.This book begins by defining supply market intelligence and discussing opportunities, the establishment of a project team, and conducting an internal business intelligence assessment. The book then examines the development of business and market intelligence, supplier evaluations, and sourcing strategies. It also explores how to execute a sourcing strategy, manage a strategic supplier relationship, and redesign an organization for effective supply-chain intelligence and strategic sourcing. This volume offers a benchmarking maturity model tool that covers all facets of end-to-end supply-chain management.

Conducting "business as usual" is out of step with today's rapid-fire, global economy. Velocity Management in Logistics and Distribution: Lessons from the Military to Secure the Speed of Business alerts commerce to the new reality that it must be more flexible and responsive in managing the unpredictability of its environment, particularly when it comes to the supply chain process. This comprehensive resource explains how to successfully migrate towards velocity management, which espouses replacing traditional reliance on mass quantities of inventory with receiving what is needed when it is needed - providing businesses with the ability to rapidly meet customers' ever-changing requirements.The velocity management paradigm is based on the highly successful example set by the United States Army, as illustrated by the author, a renowned speaker and retired colonel with more than 26 years of supply chain and leadership experience. He explains how the Army went from being mired in a mammoth, archaic, Cold War logistics infrastructure to achieving a lean, agile, world-class supply chain network.Chapters detail how this transition can be accomplished in the business arena. They relay aspects essential to achieving a successful supply chain: maintaining security, achieving velocity, and applying military theories, practices, and lessons learned. This invaluable and timely reference concludes with a summary of key themes and their relevant application to modern supply chains.

Supply chain management (SCM) disciplines have produced a flood of new concepts, methods, and tools; if applied wisely, they will improve results. A resource that weeds out and consolidates this new information will lower the business risk of implementing change.Interpreting models and viewpoints from many fields into a supply chain context, Handbook of Supply Chain Management, Second Edition recommends a plan for acting on these insights, reducing confusion and making the work of supply chain managers both faster and more on target with the needs of their companies.This volume introduces or emphasizes the supply chain management topics that have grown in visibility or prominence since the publication of the first edition. These include: drivers of supply chain change; project management approaches for executing supply chain change; globalization and supply chains; the importance of spheres (businesses within a business) in designing supply chains; the contribution of backbone/enabling processes within an organization; and the "lean" and six sigma movements and their implications for SCM.Divided into four parts, this volume begins by providing an overview that traces the evolution of concepts that define SCM. It then establishes the role of SCM in improving operations and the ability of businesses to compete.Section II confronts management with "The Supply Chain Challenge," made up of five tasks that enable management to find solutions to problems and generate ideas for implementing a supply chain improvement project.Section III describes how to perform critical supply chain improvement tasks, including activities that create a plan as well as tasks needed to implement the plan.The book concludes with chapters devoted to case studies; each adds reality to theoretical frameworks. They illustrate successful and not-so-successful endeavors across the supply chain spectrum.

The Portal to Lean Production: Principles and Practices for Doing More with Less describes the steps, difficulties, and rewards of implementing lean production. The book moves beyond concepts to address practical matters. The authors provide enough information for you to begin implementing lean production within your organization.This book applies a model-the Portal to Lean Production-to illustrate principles and practices. The model reappears at the start of every chapter and serves to connect the concepts of each chapter with those in other chapters, and with basic lean production principles.This volume contains short vignettes that appear in every chapter of actual lean production implementations. Following these real-world examples, the text provides expanded coverage of topics to enable you to learn and apply concepts and principles. The authors enable you to see the context, application, and practical issues associated with lean production concepts and methods before learning details. The vignettes, based upon the work experience of co-author Avi Soni, help connect the concepts and tie them to practical examples.

The lifeblood of any business is the timely delivery of products and services. In the best possible world, if one plans accordingly, disruptions never occur. However, in the real world, disruptions do and will occur and the best business plans are those that anticipate and prepare for this inevitability, especially when dealing with international suppliers.Go beyond theory -- learn how to… Define and anticipate risk Build a resilient supply chainMobilize in the face of impending disasterMake a full and quick recovery Supply Chain Risk Management: Minimizing Disruptions in Global Sourcing provides a detailed road map for the efficient delivery of products and services, while taking into account the high probability of costly delays and stoppages. With candid input from suppliers, automotive and retail companies, and professional consultants, this work delivers a pragmatic approach to managing supply chain risk in an era of globalization. With Proper Prior Planning Potential Disasters Become Mere Inconveniences All executives and managers share a common goal of reducing costs, streamlining processes and increasing profits. Within these pages, you will discover a winning game plan for efficiently navigating the complexities of supply chain risk in today’s global marketplace.

Understanding inventory—its costs, its place in the supply chain, and what is considered its optimal level—is important to an organization’s profitability. Demonstrating how each link in the supply chain plays an integral role in the success of the whole, Rightsizing Inventory examines inventory throughout the entire internal and external supply chain.The book covers every aspect of inventory. Each chapter defines roles and responsibilities, identifies methods to improve collaboration, and presents the tools, techniques, and methodologies for each link.The book includes150 TIPS on "How to Rightsize Inventory,” and examines the areas of finance, accounting, sales, marketing, planning, purchasing, manufacturing, warehousing, transportation, distribution, facilities management, human resources, information technology, product engineering, process engineering, field service, quality, and the external customer. Providing a complete overview on inventory and its place in the supply chain, Rightsizing Inventory is an important resource for those involved in making that supply chain run smoothly and profitably.

The evidence is undeniable. By any measure, the US spends more on healthcare than any other country in the world, yet its health outcomes as measure by longevity are in the bottom half among developed countries, and its health-related quality of life has remained constant or declined since 1998. In addition to high costs and lower than expected outcomes, the healthcare delivery system is plagues by treatment delays as it can take weeks to see a specialist, and many people have limited or no access to care. Part of the challenge is that the healthcare delivery system is a large, complex, and sophisticated value creation chain. Successfully changing this highly interconnected system is difficult and time consuming because the underlying problems are hard to comprehend, the root causes are many, the solution is unclear, and the relationships among problems, causes, and solution are multifaceted. To address these issues, the book carefully explains the underlying problems, examines their root causes using information, data, and logic, and presents a comprehensive and integrated solution that addresses these causes. These three steps are the methodological backbone of this book. A solution depends on understanding and applying the principles of patient-centered care (PCC) and resource management. PCC puts patients, supported by their primary care physicians, back in the role as decision makers and depends on patients being responsible for their health including making good life-style choices. After all, the best way to reduce healthcare costs and increase quality of life is to improve our health and wellness and as a result need less care. In addition, health insurance must be rethought and redesigned so it is less likely to lead to overuse. For many people with health insurance, the out-of-pocket cost of healthcare are small, so healthcare decision making is often biased toward consumption. Effective resource management means that healthcare providers must do a better job of acquiring and using resources in order to provide care quickly, productively, and correctly. This means improving healthcare strategy and management, accelerating the use of information technology, making drug costs affordable and fair, reducing the incidence of malpractice, and rebuilding the provider network.In addition, implementation is difficult because there are many participants in the healthcare delivery value chain, such as physicians, nurses, and medical technicians, as well as many provider organizations, such as hospitals, clinics, physician offices, and labs. Further up the value chain there are pharmaceutical companies, equipment providers, and other suppliers. These participants have diverse and sometimes conflicting goals, but each must be willing to accept change and work in a coordinated manner to improve healthcare. To overcome these problems, strong national leadership is needed to get the attention and support from the people and organizations involved in healthcare and to make the comprehensive changes that will lower healthcare costs, improve healthcare quality, eliminate delays, increase access, and enhance patient satisfaction.

The global sourcing of ingredients has created complex supply chains, significant management challenges, and additional regulatory compliance requirements. This places tremendous pressure on food manufacturers, many of whom lack the knowledge, concepts, techniques, and procedures to comply with these increased requirements. Providing a roadmap for

While many students, parents, educators, and organizations who hire their graduates hold US universities in high regard, the cost of higher education has risen much faster than the rate of inflation. High costs, in turn, have severely limited access to higher education for large portions of the US population or caused graduates and those who fall short of graduation to face substantial student loan debt. This book examines the root causes of these underlying problems and offers a comprehensive, easy-to-understand, high-impact solution. The book identifies actions that improve higher education outcomes including lower tuition costs, better access for student from low and middle income homes, faster throughput, fewer dropouts, and better job opportunities for graduates. It links a real and implementable solution to the underlying problems and their root causes. Upon finishing this book, readers should understand why the performance of higher education needs to improve and have solid ideas about how to fix it. The book focuses on public universities, but the ideas discussed are also applicable to private for-profit and not-for-profit universities. The writing style is simple and direct.

Whether it's because of a lack of understanding, poor planning, or a myriad of other things, 50 to 60 percent of the IT effort in most companies can be considered waste. Explaining how to introduce Lean principles to your IT functions to reduce and even eliminate this waste, Lean Management Principles for Information Technology provides the tools and understanding to make better decisions, increase efficiencies, and make IT a major force in delivering sustainable improvements to your supply chain. The proven Toyota Production System principles described in this book have already helped many IT organizations double and triple their output. It introduces some of the most powerful Lean tools and techniques—including Six Sigma, value stream mapping, and spaghetti charting—and provides a methodology for implementing them to reduce waste in your IT environment. Discussing information production processes, IT systems, and change management through the lens of Lean principles, the book: Provides step-by-step guidance through the processes of implementing Lean principles in your IT supply chain management system Illustrates successful implementation across a range of industries and countries Examines how to use Lean methods to achieve ongoing improvement in IT personnelExplains how to implement Lean in the supply chain, while reducing IT cycle time and costsThe text reviews the major management challenges facing IT and illustrates solutions with stories, examples, and case studies of how Lean IT has led to unprecedented improvements in the private and government sectors. Demonstrating how to structure the components of your IT system in accordance with Lean, the book details the measures required to achieve and sustain a world-class Lean IT supply chain management system.

Applying his 30 years of supply chain experience and exemplary leadership, Joe Walden invites supply chain managers to step up and become supply chain leaders in pursuit of new levels of excellence. In addition to providing a roadmap to leadership for supply chain professionals, the book fills a gap in most university curriculums by serving as a practical manual on leadership. The book details the qualities considered benchmarks for measuring leadership success. It also provides a historical look at leadership in supply chain management complemented by original interviews with leaders in industry and government across three continents.

It is almost impossible to conceive of the concept and practical application of supply chain management (SCM) without linking it to the enabling power of today’s information technologies. Building upon the foundations of the first edition, Introduction to Supply Chain Management Technologies, Second Edition details the software toolsets and suites driving integration in the areas of customer management, manufacturing, procurement, warehousing, and logistics. By investigating the breakthroughs brought about by the emergence of new Internet-based technologies in information, channel, customer, production, sourcing, and logistics management, the author provides new insights into the continuously emerging field of SCM.New in the Second Edition: New model of SCMExtended discussion of the concepts of lean, adaptive, and demand-driven supply chain technologiesCustomer experience management and social networkingFundamentals of computing and their enabling power Basics of today's ERP/supply chain business solutionsIntegrative software tools that allow for new levels of collaboration, flexibility, and performanceThe new edition expands on emerging technologies that have provided all forms of enterprises with the capability to continuously automate cost, redundancy, and variation out of the process; enhance information creation and visibility; and expand the peer-to-peer connectivity that allows people to network their tasks, ideas, and aspirations to produce a form of collective open-ended knowing, collaborating, and experiencing. The information presented builds an understanding of how today’s technology-driven SCM provides new avenues to execute superlative, customer-winning value through the digital, real-time synchronization of productive competencies, products, services, and logistics delivery capabilities with the priorities of an increasingly global business environment.

The global sourcing of ingredients has created complex supply chains, significant management challenges, and additional regulatory compliance requirements. This places tremendous pressure on food manufacturers, many of whom lack the knowledge, concepts, techniques, and procedures to comply with these increased requirements. Providing a roadmap for leveraging existing investments in food safety regulatory compliance into superior inventory management, Food Safety Regulatory Compliance: Catalyst for a Lean and Sustainable Food Supply Chain explains how to implement Lean operating principles to determine what needs to be improved, in what sequence improvements must be addressed, how one improvement feeds another, and the prerequisites for each improvement.Based on the author’s experience working with hundreds of manufacturers, the book discusses cause-and-effect thinking, data accuracy, process simplification, process reliability, and workforce development. It includes how-to recommendations for implementing best practices to achieve these goals. These recommendations come together in the discussions on Batch-Process ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and also the Lean Management System and the useful techniques within it. The author also discusses the rapidly developing business requirement of sustainability, which is quickly moving from an optional, voluntary, and "nice to do" status to a "must do" status.The book can be read in whole or in part by everyone from the CEO to the factory floor supervisor; the language is nontechnical. But, to aid comprehension, each chapter concludes with an extensive quiz, and the appendix has definitions that will be new vocabulary for many. Normally large companies have the resources to fund the implementation of best practices, smaller companies less so. This book benefits both. In the case of the small- to medium-size manufacturer, it is a roadmap, and for the major corporation it is a tool to help assist their supplier community. It can help any organization achieve world-class excellence in operations and supply-chain management.

The global sourcing of ingredients has created complex supply chains, significant management challenges, and additional regulatory compliance requirements. This places tremendous pressure on food manufacturers, many of whom lack the knowledge, concepts, techniques, and procedures to comply with these increased requirements. Providing a roadmap for

Many organizations develop strategic plans that gather dust on bookshelves. Many other organizations employ Lean and Six Sigma methodologies to eliminate waste and reduce process variation only to find they are not moving the big bars that measure success for the organization. Driving Strategy to Execution Using Lean Six Sigma: A Framework for Creating High Performance Organizations details a framework for leveraging an organization’s Lean Six Sigma capability in a manner that drives their strategic plans to execution by linking their strategy deployment into the fabric of their day-to-day operations. Bolstered by real-world examples of successful strategy execution, leveraging, and Six Sigma, the book provides: An organizational framework for understanding the strategic processA model to follow in developing and executing short-range (5 years out) strategiesA model for longer-range visioning, scenario modeling, and strategy executionAn assessment tool for measuring an organization’s transformation to high performanceThe framework provides a proven methodology that takes a systems approach to creating high performance. It presents the core process of strategy development and SA&D with the governing process of driving the right metrics through a balanced scorecard approach focused on the organization’s value stream. It then combines this with the enabling process of change management and the creation of a culture of problem solving, waste elimination, and internal discipline to standard work.Anyone can write a book on the procedures behind "Strategy" without understanding the key drivers that give a strategy excitement, commitment, and fire. Here, Gerhard Plenert and Tom Cluley do more than that. First, they examine how to make a strategy meaningful and powerful. Then, they underline the critical piece to strategy development—the execution piece—which takes the glossy strategy brochure off the shelf and makes a usable and executable plan. The book focuses on how to build great strategies and includes examples of what makes them great. It demonstrates how a well-developed strategy generates excitement within an organization, offering you the tools to navigate and design a workable and achievable plan for success for your organization.

Businesses need to become more consumer-centric, efficient, and quality conscious. Yet global competition and supply chain complexity are increasing so rapidly that managers must reach across the manufacturing and service boundary to gather more universally applicable ideas. Vanishing Boundaries: How Integrating Manufacturing and Services Creates Customer Value, Second Edition addresses the unprecedented array of new conditions that today’s business managers must face. The book is a revision of the authors’ previous book, New Methods of Competing in the Global Marketplace, Critical Success Factors from Service and Manufacturing. The concepts underpinning the first edition continue to be relevant today and, in this revised edition, are complemented with coverage of additional emerging issues in today’s business environment. The basic theme of the book is captured in its title and illustrated with the addition of case studies of some of today’s most prominent companies. See What’s New in the Second Edition: The emerging relationship between risk management and supply managementRisk management, and its corollary, crisis management Trends in outsourcing, such as near-sourcing and in-sourcing Health care improvement programs to reduce cost and improve qualitySustainability – alternative energy infrastructure and the triple bottom lineIntegration of supply chain services to align goods, information and funds flowsAdvances in information technology, i.e., cloud computing, videoconferencingPresent, and potential, role of social media in attracting customers, servicing customers and building network trading partners.This second edition creates greater awareness of the benefits that businesses can gain by sharing techniques and methodologies across the manufacturing/services boundary. The book emphasizes that successful change management requires a holistic focus on three levels of an organization - its technology, infrastructure, and organizational culture. It includes solutions and implementation strategies for risk and crisis management, sourcing, healthcare, alternative energy infrastructure, integration of supply chain services, advances in IT, social media, and customer relationship building.

Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC) are among the largest and fastest-growing economies in the world. The enormous size of the customer base in these emerging markets is the strategic concern of global business firms. Successful market performance in these markets requires sound understanding of dynamic environmental factors and timely investment of appropriate resources. This book presents strategies for recognizing the challenges and optimizing the opportunities for building network capabilities and competitive advantage within the context of these emerging markets.Building Network Capabilities in Turbulent Competitive Environments provides a thorough review of the literature and an unparalleled abundance of fascinating case studies featuring Japanese, Korean, and indigenous business examples. To gather real-world information, research teams made numerous field visits to many firms in the BRIC markets to meet and interview executives and observe their manufacturing and supply chain practices. The information in this book is presented within a fully formulated theoretical framework of three core competencies: technology competence (capability to offer innovative products that fit these markets), customer competence (capability to understand and satisfy different customer needs), and linkage competence (ability to integrate technology and customer competence). The book also covers the concepts of product architecture and supply chain management to provide a more in-depth analysis of global firms operating in BRIC markets.

We live in a world where we try to solve similar problems in structurally the same way. But they simply are not optimally solved all the same. Supply Chain Optimization through Segmentation and Analytics addresses the issue of optimizing the planning and scheduling process and asks the question; "Is there a ‘one size fits all’ solution for planning and scheduling?" The answer is a resounding "No!" We migrated through EOQ, MRP, JIT, and TOC, each time hoping to find that one size fits all. Each of these systems looked at the facility as if it had one focused problem, either optimizing work schedules, materials movement, or machine utilization. But what if you have two, or possibly even all three of these problems? Then what system do you use? Or what if your critical resource is not labor, materials, or machinery? Then which planning and scheduling solution do you utilize? This book introduces the concept of segmentation as the planning and scheduling tool that facilitates the optimization of the supply chain. If you have one type of problem in a part of your supply chain, you use the solution that appropriately focuses on that problem. If you have a different problem in a different part of your supply chain, then you use a different and appropriate tool for that part of the supply chain, and so forth. Or, if your product is in different stages of its life cycle, it probably requires a different set of tools for each stage of that life cycle. In addition, the book discusses how to integrate planning and scheduling tools using a segmentation approach that results in a world-class supply chain environment. It clearly details the power of segmentation and offers a systematic plan for implementation in the supply chain. To facilitate this, the author covers the components of an integrated segmentation policy, including the analytics elements and the measures that define segmentation success. He helps you build a strategy and methodology for introducing segmentation principles that allow you to break free from "one size fits all" thinking.

You don’t have to outrun the bear … you just have to outrun the other guy. Often in business we only have to run a bit faster than our competitors to be successful. The same is true in risk management. While we would always like to anticipate and prevent risk from happening, when risk events do occur being faster, flexible, and more responsive than others can make a world of difference. Supply Chain Risk Management: An Emerging Discipline gives you the tools and expertise to do just that.While the focus of the book is on how you can react better and faster than the others, the text also helps you understand how to prevent certain risks from happening in the first place. The authors detail a risk management framework that helps you reduce the costs associated with risk, protect your brand and reputation, ensure positive financial outcomes, and develop visible, predictable, resilient, and sustainable supply chains. They provide access to a cloud-based, end-to-end supply chain risk assessment "Heat Map" that illustrates the maturity of the chain through the various stages. It should not come as a surprise to anyone that the world is a riskier place than it was just 15 years ago. A survey used to calculate the Allianz Risk Barometer recently concluded for the first time that supply chain risk is now the top concern of global insurance providers. For most organizations this new reality requires major adjustments, some of which will not be easy. This book helps you understand the emerging discipline called supply chain risk management. It explains the relevant concepts, supplies a wide variety of tools and approaches to help your organization stay ahead of its competitors, and takes a look at future directions in risk management—all in a clear, concise presentation that gives you practical advice and helps you develop actionable strategies.

The second edition of this popular textbook presents a balanced overview of the principles of supply chain management. Going beyond the usual supply chain text, Principles of Supply Chain Management not only details the individual components of the supply chain, but also illustrates how the pieces must come together. To show the logic behind why supply chain management is essential, the text examines how supply chains are evolving, looks ahead to new developments, and provides a balanced look at supply chains with a focus on both the customer side and the supplier side of supply chains.See What’s New in the Second Edition: Expanded coverage of current topics such as e-commerce, risk management, outsourcing and reshoring, sustainability, project management, and data analytics Increased emphasis on how customers are becoming more influential in steering product design Additional coverage of the use of data analytics to evaluate customer preferences and buying patterns A new chapter devoted to logistics and its increasing importance in supply chains Company profiles of organizations with effective supply chains that illustrate the main theme of each chapter A "Hot Topic" for each chapter, providing a description of a critical management issue to stimulate class discussion A complete set of instructor materials for each chapter, including presentation slides, test banks, class exercises, discussion questions, and moreFrom the point of distribution to the final customer, all the way back to the point of origin at the mine or farm, the text provides examples and case histories that illustrate a proven approach for achieving effective supply chain integration. This self-contained resource provides readers with a realistic appraisal of the state of the art in supply chain management and the understanding needed to build and manage effective supply chains in a wide range of industries. Most importantly, it emphasizes the need for building and maintaining collaboration among all members of the supply chain.

All too often, entrepreneurs start small businesses unaware of their need for a supply chain network. And, large companies are acquired and their product lines merged with little regard for supply chain network integration and rationalization. Written for practitioners by a practitioner with 40 years of experience, Supply Chain Construction: The Basics for Networking the Flow of Material, Information, and Cash presents an integrated, comprehensive blueprint for building and/or rebuilding an end-to-end supply chain. Emphasizing flexibility and strength, the book explores optimal ways to withstand product evolution, contingencies, organizational life cycles, and disasters for the long haul.Each chapter begins with a storyline describing the interpersonal relationships and intrapersonal conflicts that attend change. This is followed by a logical sequence of checklists, diagrams, maps, mathematical models, and spreadsheets for each topic. The author presents a 20-step blueprint that defines the supply chain network container and its product contents and includes example applications of the blueprint to nontraditional businesses found in small to medium-sized companies. He also includes decision factor charts for selecting the right suppliers, factories, and distributors; comprehensive examples of both forward and reverse supply chain network construction; and detailed explanations of inbound, midbound, and outbound logistics considerations. Just as a surgeon performing a delicate operation needs to understand the consequences of cutting into an intersection of the body’s internal organs, you, the supply chain practitioner, need to understand the consequences of cutting into an intersection of a network’s material flow, information flow, and cash flow. Covering the practical issues of highly integrated networks woven together by corporate relationships and enabled by information technology, this book shows you how to systematically build and/or rebuild a robust supply chain that not only ensures growth, but also solidifies the future of your company as a whole.

Although many books outline approaches for successful ERP implementations, the data shows that most ERP efforts yield minimal return on investment (ROI), with most projects failing. Directing the ERP Implementation: A Best Practice Guide to Avoiding Program Failure Traps While Tuning System Performance supplies best practices along with a proven roadmap for improving the odds of system implementation success.By adhering to the time-tested framework outlined in the book, your organization will be able to commit to the precepts and practices that lead to successful implementations. Supplying an innovative and fast-track, yet comprehensive, approach to ERP implementation success, the book provides practical guidance to help executive leadership do the right things along the ERP journey.Explains how to engineer a project plan, generate requirements, and obtain a results-oriented commitmentDetails the practical deployment framework essential for success and includes a variety of tools to position an organization for successDescribes how to ensure proactive involvement by the project team, executive sponsors, stakeholders, and working-level systems championsHighlighting the essential planning ingredients that are frequently omitted from ERP implementation start-ups, the book provides readers with the planning framework and proven foundational methods and principles to ensure smooth planning and systems deployment, product quality, and maximum ROI.The book covers everything from software selection and integration to common snags, traps, and black holes. Best practice tool sets include proven methods such as information workmanship standard, which defines quality; conference room piloting, which assists in matching teams to objectives seamlessly; education, training, and implementation framework, which addresses preparing the operating production environment; and project monitoring and deployment, covering project and risk management.

The evidence is undeniable. By any measure, the US spends more on healthcare than any other country in the world, yet its health outcomes as measure by longevity are in the bottom half among developed countries, and its health-related quality of life has remained constant or declined since 1998. In addition to high costs and lower than expected outcomes, the healthcare delivery system is plagues by treatment delays as it can take weeks to see a specialist, and many people have limited or no access to care. Part of the challenge is that the healthcare delivery system is a large, complex, and sophisticated value creation chain. Successfully changing this highly interconnected system is difficult and time consuming because the underlying problems are hard to comprehend, the root causes are many, the solution is unclear, and the relationships among problems, causes, and solution are multifaceted. To address these issues, the book carefully explains the underlying problems, examines their root causes using information, data, and logic, and presents a comprehensive and integrated solution that addresses these causes. These three steps are the methodological backbone of this book. A solution depends on understanding and applying the principles of patient-centered care (PCC) and resource management. PCC puts patients, supported by their primary care physicians, back in the role as decision makers and depends on patients being responsible for their health including making good life-style choices. After all, the best way to reduce healthcare costs and increase quality of life is to improve our health and wellness and as a result need less care. In addition, health insurance must be rethought and redesigned so it is less likely to lead to overuse. For many people with health insurance, the out-of-pocket cost of healthcare are small, so healthcare decision making is often biased toward consumption. Effective resource management means that healthcare providers must do a better job of acquiring and using resources in order to provide care quickly, productively, and correctly. This means improving healthcare strategy and management, accelerating the use of information technology, making drug costs affordable and fair, reducing the incidence of malpractice, and rebuilding the provider network.In addition, implementation is difficult because there are many participants in the healthcare delivery value chain, such as physicians, nurses, and medical technicians, as well as many provider organizations, such as hospitals, clinics, physician offices, and labs. Further up the value chain there are pharmaceutical companies, equipment providers, and other suppliers. These participants have diverse and sometimes conflicting goals, but each must be willing to accept change and work in a coordinated manner to improve healthcare. To overcome these problems, strong national leadership is needed to get the attention and support from the people and organizations involved in healthcare and to make the comprehensive changes that will lower healthcare costs, improve healthcare quality, eliminate delays, increase access, and enhance patient satisfaction.

From one of the world's leading consultants, authors and practitioners in the area of supply chain management comes the most extensive coverage of the subject to date. Bringing more than 18 years of experience in logistics, manufacturing, purchasing, customer service, and supply chain management in a wide variety of industries, William Copacino offers his unique insight and recommendations in Supply Chain Management.This important book provides an overview of all areas of supply chain management in a concise yet informative style. Any busy executive or manager looking to deepen his or her understanding of supply chain management will find this efficient reading.Ideal for manufacturers, service companies, suppliers, distributors and retailers in consumer product, electronic, automotive, pharmaceutical and medical product industries. Provides strategies, tools and techniques for both executives and managers in production, purchasing, inventory control, customer service, distribution and accounting. Academicians will find it fits the growing needs of students studying business and especially production/operations management.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) was once a "pie in the sky" concept that could not be fully achieved. A key barrier was the cost of communicating with and coordinating among the many independent suppliers in each supply chain. SCM is possible because of three changes: technology has developed that simplifies communication, new management paradigms have developed that are shared among supply chain members and simplify their coordination efforts, and the development of a highly trained workforce.Managers recognize that costs can be reduced while customer satisfaction is increased when production and inventory decisions are based on analysis of the total system of delivering products and/or services. Gradually, firms have begun to see themselves as a system of closely linked processes which deliver products and/or services to customers and to recognize that the entire firm is one link in a chain of firms that serve the customer. By increasing the integration in the entire supply chain, all the firms in the chain can increase their profits.Competition in the workplace has pushed firms to make SCM a reality. Those who master it gain a competitive edge. Therefore, SCM means money and jobs. The Basics of Supply Chain Management will give you the tools you need to master this crucial subject.Features

Computer systems have become an integral part of most companies. The newest of these is Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), a technology that provides on-line application software that companies rely on to manage their manufacturing processes. Applying Manufacturing Execution Systems is the book for everyone who has the responsibility of improving their company's manufacturing results. It shows how the current conditions on the plant floor can be optimized to improve production output using an integrated MES.Applying Manufacturing Execution Systems shows how MES benefits all types of manufacturing from discrete item production to process flow production. The concepts discussed are applicable in all production facilities where a number of variables, whether simple or complex, need to be considered in order to optimize production by effectively using the available resources of people, inventory, and equipment. The book emphasizes the application of MES in the real world of manufacturing that includes:

All Inventory is not created equal. Inventory classification is the backbone of distribution profitability. Important inventory management criteria such as customer service level, margin, days supply and EOQ can not be applied across the board by vendor or product category. Therefore, different types of items must be managed differently. Inventory Classification Innovation: Paving the Way for Electronic Commerce and Vendor Managed Inventory takes a quantum leap forward and explores inventory classification techniques used successfully in large multi-branch distribution for over 25 years. In his book Broeckelmann develops the innovative concepts of Type and Stock Code classifications.Type classification is based on the fundamental characteristics of an SKU - Cost and Demand. The author details a proven method of segmenting inventory by cost and demand to recognize the difference in SKUs; thereby allowing appropriate classification and the ability to treat different SKUs differently. Type allows implementation of the important inventory management criteria to classes of items that are homogeneous, independent of vendor or product category. Stock Code deals with the quantitative/subjective differences of how a product could be purchased and distributed in a multi-branch environment. Stock Code ignores vendor and product categories and allows purchasing and distribution based on item fundamentals such as 'required inventory' and 'central warehouse stock only', etc.Timing is critical. Don't rely on ineffective ABC methods, or worse try to reinvent the wheel for e-commerce. This book presents a new and unique method for inventory management and pricing matrix development to meet the needs of the virtual marketplace. You will find the techniques to start thinking beyond the one-size-fits-all approach of the ABC Inventory Method, and begin using the innovative Type & Stock Method. Inventory Classification Innovation truly paves the way for electronic commerce and Vendor Managed Inventory.