Process Mapping ‘Process mapping’, or mapping the system of process, is a key early step in understanding an organisation. Lean manufacturing is a systems approach, and therefore a factory or organisation can only be efficient as a “system”. For more information about the power of process mapping, take a look at the online video courses …
Selecting the process batch size and transfer batch size has a huge impact on making your business operations more “Lean”. Batch sizes directly affect the quantity of work-in-progress inventory moving through your operations, it affects your system’s throughput time, changeover times and ultimately your customer lead times too. Prefer video?.. watch my YouTube blog version. …
What Does ‘Gemba’ Mean? ‘Gemba’ is a Japanese word meaning ‘the real place’. Gemba is the place of action, which is often, but not always, the workplace. It refers to where the value is being created, and it means more in Lean operations than just its translation. For more information about Gemba and the Gemba …
What is SMED? “SMED” is an improvement tool methodology for analysing and reducing changeover times and cycle times. It is a way of studying the current method, breaking it down into its sub-parts and systematically evaluating each of them through a process of sequenced steps in order to dramatically reduce the overall time of the …
“SMED”: A Lean Operations Superpower for Changeover and Cycle Time Reduction Read More »
The Risks of Third-Party Logistics Provider or Freight Forwarder When paying for help from a new third-party logistics partner / service provider, (for example a logistics broker, freight forwarder or haulage company), there are many risks that businesses need to be aware of and try to mitigate through some due diligence and research. A business …
How to Choose Logistics Providers (and not get screwed!) Read More »
Volume, Variety, Variation and Visibility The 4Vs are the 4 dimensions that fundamentally determine the nature of any business’s operations and allow us to categorise, compare and understand their nature, structure, challenges and approaches. Business operations vary wildly. To understand how we can apply and focus on the core operations-management challenges that affect all of …
The Challenges of Uncertainty in Operations and Supply Chain Management Uncertainty and variation pose significant challenges in all areas of supply chain management and operations management. This challenge is especially prominent with regards to the uncertainty and variation of “demand”. Uncertainty and variation of demand can cause: If you want to learn more about demand …
2020 was widely regarded as the year of uncertainty and unprecedented panic, and nothing wreaks havoc on supply chains better than a bit of panic! Supply Chains are very finely balanced (often far too finely balanced many will say with the hindsight of the past couple of years) and although this fine optimisation reduces costs, …
Supply Chain Management and The Great Toilet Paper Panic of 2020 Read More »
Inventory management is a big part of Operations Management. Not only does the quantity of inventory moving through a system affect various business costs and savings, but it also affects customer lead times, and therefore customer experience. So, does having more inventory mean faster or slower customer lead times? In this article we’ll discuss the …
Inventory Levels vs Lead Time: Work-In-Progress and Little’s Law Read More »
Inventory management has a big impact on the costs of running a business. When it comes to inventory management decision-making, the order quantity and order frequency are both important considerations. Master the essential of Inventory Management with my introductory video training course, here on Rowtons Training. So, is it more cost-effective to order a large …
How Much Inventory Should a Business Buy / Hold? – Inventory Management Read More »
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