Not all companies are built the same way – even when you factor for things like revenue, sites, employees, and industry. Any two given companies that look the same on paper today may treat their real estate decisions completely differently. The difference that I’m referring to is the business cycle: is a company growing, consolidating,…
When you have 10 tasks on your plate, nothing gets done. Narrow the list to 2 and they all get done.
Let’s say that you work for a typical organization that has lots of important things going on. If you were to create a list of things you could work on (just off the top of your head) that list would presumably be at least 10 items long – some more involved than others. 10 tasks spread…
Incremental changes versus New versions.
There is a sea change occurring in the software world where the legacy Microsoft Windows, Adobe Photoshop, and AutoCAD model is being up-ended. Each of these systems is relatively well known in part for their software release schedule. They produce software in versions that are not simply upgrades of the previous one. (To be fair,…
Achievement Unlocked: system live, data loaded, training 90+% complete, happiness temporarily abounds.
If only system go-live was the end. It’s only just the beginning. Now begins the long slog of customer support/service, bug fixes, feature enhancement, roadmap creation, sales demo building, technical documentation, etc, etc, etc, etc. Maybe I’ll give myself an hour of relaxation around dinner time today :).
Don’t put off the conversations that need to happen today just because they are difficult.
Just because things aren’t the way you wish them to be does not mean that you should start pretending them to be otherwise. Letting the world carry on without dealing with all situations is a recipe for the worst to come about – not the best. Putting off conversations is not a solution. Why am…
Agile Strategy within an uncertain Supply Chain
Given all the above uncertainty it is important to ensure timely, data driven decisions. These changes are always occurring to some extent; it just happens that they were accelerated during the Great Recession. Decision making is an important organizational process. Unfortunately, complex organizational supply chain rationalization decisions are not made every day at most companies. …
Hidden changes impact Supply Chain costs – Suppliers
Just as the change in consumer behavior impacts any given business, it also impacts their suppliers. Suppliers must change and adapt to the new world as well. Also bring in the shift in outsourcing behaviors. Manufacturers have recently sought low costs and control by manufacturing in low cost Asian geographies. But as cost uncertainty increases in…
While I’m on a Supply Chain kick. Seth Godin is as well.
Imagine my surprise to see one of my favorite non-CRE, non-industrial writers throw out LTL as a topic today. Access to information makes it possible to better use smaller spaces and it’s a global topic – not just industrial. And that’s Seth’s point. Trends that impact consumer trends (re: Uber, Lyft, Amazon, etc) can also…
Hidden changes impact Supply Chain costs – Customers
The significant relationship between each element of a supply chain is cost. Even the process of making decisions costs money. Every function in a supply chain is about balancing Space, Capital and Labor. The relationships between these three areas are delicate and often hard to predict. If a company does not regularly look at the…
Supply Chain decision making when faced with uncertain pressures
Companies are losing money by ignoring their supply chain. Most of them do not even realize that they are ignoring their supply chain. They have multiple teams analyzing everything that happens every single day. There are procurement, transportation and inventory groups that are responsible for the best bottom line they can achieve. Certainly the supply…