How to fix a supply disaster at a high technology factory

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You know the signs, the factory keeps missing production schedules and you keep depleting finished goods inventory. Its now so bad that you are missing vital customer orders and some customers are threatening to delist. This is a common story and here we use a scenario based on actual events to illustrate how an understanding … Read more

What is Stock Aggregation and how can it benefit my supply system?

What is Stock Aggegation - Header Image

Production variability and demand variability causes congestion in supply chains. One way to reduce this congestion is to reduce the variability by addressing its causes. Another and more subtle way to deal with congestion is by combining multiple sources of variability. This is known as variability pooling, and has a number of supply chain applications. … Read more

What is Queue Sharing and how can it benefit my factory or warehouse?

How Queue Sharing can Benefit your Factory or Warehouse - Header Image

Production variability and demand variability causes congestion in supply chains. One way to reduce this congestion is to reduce the variability by addressing its causes. Another and more subtle, way to deal with congestion effects is by combining multiple sources of variability. This is known as variability pooling, and has a number of manufacturing and … Read more

What is a flow line and how can it be manipulated to maximise performance?

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Capacity decisions made at the time of asset procurement have a huge strategic effect on the long term competitiveness of a manufacturing operation. This is particularly true in the process industry where most of the factories use Flow Lines.

In this article we explain how flow lines are designed as well as the supply chain system benefits of un-balancing flow lines, i.e. adding extra capacity upstream and downstream of a flow line’s bottleneck.

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Why use Contribution Margin and Octane measures rather than Unit Costing when comparing options for operational change?

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Activity Based Costing (ABC) has replaced older methods of cost accounting. Overheads are apportioned to products on the basis of how much of the overhead activities are actually required by the product. However, when comparing options for operational change we use Contribution Margin or Octane rather than Unit Cost (whether unit costs are derived from … Read more

The 4 key phases of good project governance

4 Key Phases of Good Project Governance - Header Image

Complex projects are both exciting and challenging. On one hand complex projects have no precedent and therefore this will be a time of professional growth for all involved. On the other hand complex projects depend on the creation of new knowledge and effective collaboration between subject specialists. This can present significant risk and requires a … Read more