February 25, 2017 Earlier this week, I went on a tour of the Toyota North American Parts Center and had the opportunity to see the Toyota Production System techniques up close. It is always amazing to see that no matter how many millions are spent on technology (which I [...]
Published in "Liquid Planner" website, October 3, 2016 Lean manufacturing has become a popular way to eliminate waste, reduce costs and improve efficiencies. This philosophy originated, largely, at Toyota and is used to better align customer needs with manufacturing operations. The challenge with lean is that, despite its attraction [...]
Demand planning delivers such useful information on client demand that even Lean devotees will find data on longer-term forecasts, seasonal products and trending patterns useful. Whether you are on the Lean journey or not, you need a demand plan! Prior to forming LMA Consulting Group, I was a VP [...]
Use a combination approach to inventory management planning to promote growth, increase profits, free up cash flow and improve operational efficiency. I've incorporated three planning method options into a presentation on inventory management best practices. I've been receiving more and more requests for this topic as executives experience the [...]
Sometimes the productive road to performance improvement is to just observe and ask questions. From observation, ideas emerge, issues pop out and you can take directed action to make positive change. It is interesting how effective the powers of observation can be! Take a step back and observe what [...]
One of those frequent and frustrating problems with growth can be space. Who has heard, "I've run out of space! What should we do?". Unfortunately it is not uncommon. The problem with this situation is that there are numerous causes and solutions - including this is exactly the problem [...]
Though reducing inventory is generally advisable special situations arise when stocking inventory makes good business sense. Certainly reducing inventory on hand is typically preferred as you can accelerate your cash flow. It is one of the key focus areas of my consulting practice. I have found that reducing inventory [...]
