Press Release 25012012 Intoducing Carbon Footprint

Smith & Nephew article

Australasian PICS has expanded their education to include subjects such as Performance Measurement and Master Scheduling/RCCP. Are your people up to date on best practice Executive and Operational Sales & Operations Planning? Do they know what resources are available to make more profit for your business? Click on this link to find out more. Short Course Calendar 2012

On  March 14 & 15 in Sydney we will be holding a 2 Day “Breakthrough” S&OP course for senior executives.

This interactive workshop will provide you with practical tools and insights to improve your S&OP process and use the process to execute your company strategies.

Click on the link for more information.

Executive S&OP Flyer

Results Driven Education – Improved Project Success – prevent at least 15% of your transformation project benefits disappearing before you start.

Supply Chain Transformations – Change Management

An interesting article written by Kevin Farrington from 3pi.

CBAWhitePaper

A One Day Workshop will be held at the North Melbourne offices of apicsau on January 24, 2012. Yes, I know January is a tough time but on the other hand while customers are screaming and lost sales are occurring due to out of stock maybe it’s a great time to bring along your current strategies and review alternative approaches. Then take home this knowledge and simulate using our free software. Alternatively we can come to you and tailor the course to your company requirements.

Accurate and Balanced

PRESS RELEASE 28/06/2011

Australian University wins Global University Final of The Fresh Connection

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Last week leading Supply Chain universities from throughout the world gathered in Amsterdam for the International Student Final of The Fresh Connection. Representing Australia was the winner of the Australian University Competition, the University of Western Sydney (UWS), with their aim being to claim the title ‘The world’s best Supply Chain University’.

In what can only be described as a dominant performance demonstrating outstanding Supply Chain knowledge, UWS left the world in their wake achieving a remarkable Return on Investment of over 28%, this leaving main contender Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School from Belgium grasping at thin air behind them.

Representing UWS was Chris Fifita, Ali Leghaei, Markie Lugton, and Kate Smith who all study the Supply Chain Management undergraduate key program at UWS. “These students are a credit to themselves and to the University” says Lecturer Stephen Waters. “We are so excited to have achieved success like we did on an international stage. As a team we worked so well together and hope that other students in the future also have an opportunity to experience The Fresh Connection” says Ali Leghaei.

“We all got along with each other so very well. Collaboration and team work have been the most important factors of our success. Winning the Australian Competition was good, but this is amazing for us and the University” comments Markie Lugton.

In September the open corporate competition will take place in Italy with the team from Philip Morris a strong chance to provide Australian with a clean sweep.

Good Luck to Philip Morris, and congratulation to UWS.

The University of Western Sydney – ‘The World’s Best Supply Chain University in 2011’

WWW.THEFRESHCONNECTION.COM.AU

Contact

Matthew Gardner

matthew.gardner@apics.org.au

0449 088 771

Victorian companies dominated the final of the National Fresh Connection competition taking first, second and third places. All companies were apics Victoria members and students, many of them qualified CSCP and CPIM students. Please see attached brochure for more Fresh Connection events and some photos of the day. Well done to Matthew Gardner, Project Manager, for a great event.

Victorian Pride at The Fresh Connection National Final June 2011

Use The Fresh Connection simulation tool to highlight the need for not just Operational S&OP but also Executive S&OP.

Join the National Fresh Connection Competition starting on March 14, come along to our public workshops, let us help you conduct sessions at your premises, or include The Fresh Connection as part of your internal education programme.

TFC SC Comp Flyer_896KB

For more information contact Matthew Gardner on 0449 088 771.

Something from Wikipedia on Experiential Education.

John Dewy was the most famous proponent of experiential education, writing his seminal Experience and Education (1938). It expressed his ideas about curriculum theory in the context of historical debates about school organization and the need to have experience as central in the educational process, hence why experiential education is referred to as a philosophy. Dewey’s fame during that period rested on relentlessly critiquing public education and pointing out that the authoritarian, strict, pre-ordained knowledge approach of modern traditional education was too concerned with delivering knowledge, and not enough with understanding students’ experiences.^[4]

Dewey’s work influenced dozens of other prominent experiential models and advocates in the later 20th century, including Foxfire,^[5] service learning,^[6] Kurt Hahn and Outward Bound,^[7] and Paulo Freire. Freire is often cited in works on experiential education.^[8] He focused on the participation by students in experience and radical democracy, and the creation of praxis among learners.

John Dewey was an educator, but he was foremost a philosopher. His interests included political philosophy, metaphysics, epistemology, aesthetics, logic, and philosophy of education. Political philosophy was one of his many philosophical interests. He saw weaknesses in both the traditional and progressive styles of education. He explains in length his criticisms of both forms of education in his book, Experience & Education (1938). In essence, he did not believe that they met the goals of education, which he defined as obtaining freedom of thought. Dewey did not believe in freedom of thought in any kind of absolute sense.

Dewey advocated that education be based upon the quality of experience. For an experience to be educational, Dewey believed that certain parameters had to be met, the most important of which is that the experience has continuity and interaction. Continuity is the idea that the experience comes from and leads to other experiences, in essence propelling the person to learn more. Interaction is when the experience meets the internal needs or goals of a person. Dewey also categorizes experiences as possibly being mis-educative and non-educative. A mis-educative experience is one that stops or distorts growth for future experiences. A non-educative experience is one in which a person has not done any reflection and so has obtained nothing for mental growth that is lasting (Experience & Education, Dewey).

Come along to the apics workshops designed to prepare you for the National Supply Chain challenge.

Call Matthew on 0449 088 771 to register.

I thought I would put some suggestions together for Christmas presents for your spouse or your boss.

There are so many Sales & Operations Planning resources available that will help your company make more profit why not consider choosing one.

1. An S&OP audit covers both Executive and Operational S&OP including: Executive S&OP, Forecasting, Planning, Purchasing, Product Range review, Performance Measures, Safety Stock analysis, Data Accuracy, use of your ERP software system, and inventory optimisation.  It takes only 3 days of your time and includes FREE Sales Forecasting and Safety Stock simulation software, all for under $16,000 (for a short time only).
2. If you don’t need an audit but would like to improve your forecasting and reduce dollars tied up in inventory whilst increasing customer service, then why not buy one of the above software for $495 including GST (if applicable).  I’m happy to spend a day with you for a nominal fee to help you fine tune your sales forecasting or safety stock processes.
3. Want to buy a book or DVD but not sure what to get for your special person?   Why not get them something that will improve their organisation’s profit and their chance for promotion?   Check out the resources on my web page, http://www.heenan.com.au/products/ or products listed on my associates web sites and let me give you a quote.  I can generally get you a great price and the quickest delivery because I buy in bulk.
4. Need S&OP/ERP education? I have been educating managers for over 22 years so why not ask for a quote on an area that is causing concern; sales forecasting, planning, purchasing, S&OP?  I’m happy to provide you with references to check my credentials.

Speaking of credentials, Phil Heenan Consulting is an Authorised Education Provider (AEP) for APICS USA so if you need to APICS qualify your employees please contact us.  Phil has been appointed Australia’s first APICS CSCP Master Instructor and CPIM Lead Instructor so your staff will be in excellent hands.

Check out the APICS USA website, www.apics.org or
http://www.apics.org/Education/apics_recognized_instructors.htm
http://www.apics.org/membership/associates/APAC_education.html

Organisations as small as Northrup King Seeds, to well know Australian companies such as Kraft and Holden’s Engine Company, as well as International giants throughout Asia, Mars and P&G to name just two, have used Phil Heenan Consulting to improve performance through the 3 Day assessment process. Why not see if your company can improve.
Have a great Christmas and New Year and may you and your organisations prosper in the New Year.

Cheers

Phil Heenan

PS: Check out the ultimate supply chain experience: www.thefreshconnection.com.au

Supply Chain for Everyone

Monday’s New York Times featured the story “Supply Chain for iPhone Highlights Costs in China.”  With the release of the Apple iPhone 4, researchers took the product, opened up the case, and analyzed the contents for “teardown reports”.  What they found included microchips from Germany and Korea, another chip for Wi-Fi and phone reception from the United States, a touch screen from Taiwan, and more than 100 other components.

For the $600 Apple gets from consumers, the company pays $187.51 for the iPhone’s components, according to research conducted by iSuppli.

The article highlights rising costs in Chinese manufacturing.  “China is about to get far more expensive.  Soaring labor costs caused by worker shortages and unrest, a strengthening Chinese currency that makes exports more expensive, and inflation and rising housing costs are all threatening to sharply increase the cost of making devices like notebook computers, digital cameras, and smartphones.”

Author David Barboza writes that, while Chinese labor makes up a small part of the iPhone’s final assembly, price increases will affect Apple’s supply chain partners more acutely.  The manufacturers that produce chips, circuit boards, and plastic moldings count on inexpensive components from Chinese factories. Those factories have increasing costs, and they likely will pass them along to the other electronic component manufacturers.

“Apple can cope better than most companies because it has fat profit margins of as much as 60 percent and pricing power to absorb some of those costs,”  Barboza writes.  “But makers of personal computers, cell phones, and other electronics … deal with much slimmer profits margins according to several analysts.”

To illustrate the price challenges in southern China, Barboza discusses the supply chain of the iPhone 4, which was designed by Apple engineers in the United States, made with high-tech components from around the world, and assembled in China.

Competitive advantage

Right there, printed across the page in one of the most recognizable newspapers in the world are the words “supply chain.”  Further down in the article, the author writes about bills of materials, sourcing, and contract manufacturers.  This isn’t in a trade publication, it’s the business section of the New York Times. Here, one article symbolizes how supply chain and operations management has been catapulted to the forefront of business strategy.

What the New York Times dubs “teardown reports” is a similar concept to product benchmarking, which is defined by the APICS Dictionary, 12th edition:  “This benchmarking is used for new product design or for a product upgrade.  This often includes reverse engineering (dismantling) competing products to determine their strengths and weaknesses.”

Experts are taking the iPhone apart piece by piece to capture the secrets of the $600 price tag.  It’s clear the product has a diverse supply chain, but at about $188, it’s efficient.  If someone opened up one of your products to create a teardown report, what would they see?  Your skills as a supply chain or operations management professional may be on display for the world to observe.  Now is the time to look into how APICS education and certifications can help you and your company succeed in today’s fast-changing marketplace.

In other news

• McDonald’s Cuts Aggressive Smoothie Promos Ahead of U.S. Launch—The Wall Street Journal
• New look economy will be built on high tech and innovation (UK)—Nesta.org.uk
• Why S&P equity research likes logistics stocks—Investment News

Related APICS education

• Thinking Machines
  By Christopher M. Wright
  January/February 2009, APICS magazine
• Can Western Manufacturers Beat the Competition?
  By David Jacoby
  May/June 2008, APICS magazine
• Getting India on the Line
  By Rangarajan Parthasarathy, CPIM
  July/August 2008, APICS magazine
• APICS Dictionary, 12th edition
  

How APICS Operations Management Now relates to you

Operations management is everywhere.  Today, operations management professionals have unprecedented impacts on the global economy.  Consider these questions and how today’s edition of APICS Operations Management Now relates to you and your career.

• Do you think the increased media coverage of supply chain news will affect how you do business?
• How can your company’s supply chain avoid increased costs from different suppliers?
• If each component of one of your products or services was analyzed, and you were given a teardown report, what information regarding cost and suppliers would be revealed?Abe Eshenazi

  CSCP, CPA, CAE

  CEO APICS

I know they are having a few problems presently but there is an interesting article in the new APICS SMR References Sourcebook.  It’s a rather large book but very useful if you are sitting the SMR exam or want a book full of Strategic principles.  Here is the last part of the Toyota case study, page 28 article V-2.

“People often ask us, tell me one thing I should learn from Toyota.  That misses the point.  Emulating Toyota isn’t about copying any one practice; it’s about creating a culture.  That takes time.  It requires resources.  And it isn’t easy.  First, companies have no choice but to embrace contradictions as a way of life.  Most enterprises stop growing because they stick to processes and practices their past successes have generated.  However, old methods also lead to institutional rigidities.  Companies can overcome them by trying to reach new markets or by tackling fresh challenges.  Second, companies must develop routines to resolve contradictions.

Toyota uses numerous tools such as the Plan-Do-Check-Act model, the A3 reporting system, and the widely known ask-why-five-times routine.  Unless companies teach employees how to deal with problems rigorously and systematically, they won’t be able to harness the power of contradictions.  Third, companies must encourage employees to voice contrary opinions.  Top Management must be open to criticism and hearing opposing viewpoints if they want new ideas.

Should companies try to do as Toyota does?  We believe they should.  Toyota’s culture of contradictions places humans, not machines, at the centre of the company.  As such, the company will be imperfect, and there will always be room for improvement.  In that sense, Toyota’s model mirrors human creativity.  Can you say the same about your company?

Sales & Operations Planning: Costs & Benefits by Tom Wallace

Product and Customer Rationalisation.  A Practical Guide on ‘How to’ and the pitfalls.

Introduction

McPherson’s Housewares is an Australian listed public company with annual worldwide sales of 120 million dollars.  Major brands such as Wiltshire, Richardson Sheffield, Laser, Regent Sheffield and manufacturing plants in Hong Kong, Sheffield in the UK and Melbourne, McPherson’s is one of the world’s largest knife manufacturers for the consumer market.  In Australia, McPherson’s business is broken up into seven distinct product groups that includes brand leadership in garden cutting tools, silver and stainless steel cutlery, the Australian icon, Wiltshire ‘Staysharp’ knife and other knife products, the equally well known barbeque product the ‘Bar-B-Mate’ and various scissors, silver plated hollowware and silver photo frames.

In 1994 we realized that while our business was growing we were unable to control inventory and always had too much of the products we couldn’t sell and not enough of the product we wanted.  Our customer service was poor and McPherson’s was considered to be one of the worst suppliers in the industry.  Our accountants kept telling anybody that wanted to listen that stock turns were terrible (less than two turns per year on our major product group) and we needed to fundamentally change the way we did business.  I can remember a discussion with our accountant “You’ve got too many products, too much inventory”.  The reply “Consumers need a range, cut my range and the sales will fall.  Keep your nose in the figures and let me worry about the important things like getting the sales and growing the business”.  Sounds familiar doesn’t it.

More…

Phil was the main educator and business coach through Sancella’s business improvement journey.

Download the story here –> phil-heenan-did-most-of-the-education-and-assessments-at-sancella

Phil Heenan was the facilitator for the Foster’s Group 5 Day APICS Supply Chain Management course organised by Sanjay Bangalore, Senior Solutions Consultant, Business Process & Applications. Look out for these guys as they are truly a Class A group of people. Thanks Fosters for a great 5 days and for the Wolf Blass Red.

click here to download pdf

The major supply chain survey has now been released and can be obtained here:

http://www.heenan.com.au/apics-supply-chain-survey/

Click here to Download the PDF

Click here to Download the PDF

Masterfoods is a global fast moving consumer goods company.  The key business segments that Masterfoods Australia and New Zealand operate within include Petcare, Snackfood and Food. Within each of these business areas Masterfoods Australia has had prolonged and successful growth over the past few decades.

Along with many of our fellow suppliers the ever changing competitive landscape, market pressures, shrinking real estate, increased importance of Customer engagement and so on led to the initiation of a complete business review and instigation of a change program toward the end of 2004. More…

Authors:
Nicole Warren – Quality & Process Change Manager, Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) and Science
Peter Atanasovski – Quality & Process Change Manager, Bachelor of Engineering (Hons)
Mark Donato – Operational Performance Manager, Bachelor of Applied Science in Manufacturing Operations.

INTRODUCTION

Between 2002 and 2003, NAB faced an economic backdrop of declining interest rates, which resulted in a twenty per cent growth in home lending volumes. During this time, NAB Lending Services experienced an unprecedented level of backlog with managers unable to clearly monitor resource levels and pending work in the system. As a result, rather than reap the benefits of this surge in lending volumes, it exposed major flaws in operational capability. More…

In early 1990, Kraft Food Limited’s eleven Australian food production plants confronted several problems familiar to manufacturers around the world – high inventories, chaotic scheduling, poor forecasting accuracy, weak communication and ineffective planning.

Kraft’s senior managers were determined to reverse this situation and make their plants competitive in the global marketplace. “We wanted to provide a basis on which we could move into Total Quality Manufacturing,” says Dick Ridgwell, MRP II Project Manager. More…

Agribusiness in Australia can be a very challenging business environment given the harsh and varying climatic conditions that companies in Australia are required to handle.  From the high’s of a record crop size of 1.7 million tonnes, to the low’s of 300 000 tonnes and the worst drought in 100 years within a two year period.  These are some of the extremes that SunRice has had to manage in recent times, at the same time being able to achieve a record per tonne paddy return to growers.  How has SunRice been able to successfully and effectively manage the business to ensure the ongoing success of the company? More…

Sales and Operations Planning-The Executive’s Guide.

Wallace & Stahl. Available now.

The mission of this book is to tell busy executives what he or she needs to know about Executive S&OP. Written in clear, understandable language, this book can be easily read in the course of an evening or two-or on a plane ride from Chicago to L.A.

Sales and Operations Planning Standard System. With Reference Software

Christopher D. Gray: Coming soon.

The Sales and Operations Planning Standard System describes a simple set of software functions, primarily those in the areas of aggregate sales planning, aggregate supply planning, aggregate inventory or backlog planning, reporting and display of key performance and planning information, rough-cut (capacity and material) planning, and financial planning. It describes the activities that are part of a working sales and operations planning process, as well as an explanation of the assumptions and the experience that led to these functions.

By John Dougherty, Senior Partner Partners for Excellence

In a manufacturing or distribution company, bringing supply and demand in balance is a fundamental “law of nature” –it happens as a natural course of events, whether you want it or not. It’s only a matter of who will bring this balance about and when.

Too often, business companies don’t operate in just a “top down” approach. They start that way, but they constantly adjust and reconcile based on “bottom up” and “side in” input. The “bottom up” inputs are the tactical, short-term issues in manufacturing, distribution, sales, marketing, technical development, and human resource planning. As things change, adjustments to the timing and mix of the overall plan must change, while holding to the original business objectives (sales, profits, market share, etc.) for the year in total. More…

Article from IT Magazine on S&OP and Lean

Without doubt two of the hottest business practices around at the moment are:

• “Class A” Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) and
• Lean Manufacturing

A simple “yahoo” search reveals the enormous number of companies implementing S&OP and Lean, and the benefits they are actually obtaining.  There is even an S&OP specific “self-assessment” checklist for companies to do their own evaluation.  Let’s discuss Lean in a future article and focus on S&OP for this article. More…

Australia’s First Certified Supply Chain Professionals.

On June 17, 2006 in Sydney APICS Australasia held the first exam for the new “Certified Supply Chain Professional” (CSCP) qualification. Seven candidates from around Australia sat the 4 hour exam and all passed. Phil Heenan from Victoria was one of the “lucky” candidates and here are some comments that may assist other APICS members thinking about going for this new qualification for supply chain professionals. More…

How would you show the Production line on an S&OP supply & demand spreadsheet for a lean pull production line?

The title and definition of a production plan would not vary between a lean or not lean environment. A lean environment does not preclude making some product to stock. This is often called a supermarket. But in a pure make-to-order environment, when the finished product is never made without a customer order, the monthly production plan would be equal to the monthly sales plan. And its purpose is the same in the lean environment as in any other, that is to establish a rate at which a master schedule would be set to drive future material and resource requirements, that can be then communicated to the suppliers and manufacturing, so they can set up the resources in a way that will allow them to respond to a lean pull signal. More…

(Do Better Execution Methods Eliminate the Need for Planning?)

By John Dougherty

Planning!  That’s old fashioned!  “MRP, MRP II, they never worked well any way and you certainly don’t need them if you can execute (make and buy products) quicker and more reliably using World Class methods!”

This is a message you hear more and more often, and a lot of people listen.  Why?  Because not everyone was successful implementing planning tools, and even those who were have found that additional benefits can be gained from improving their method of execution. More…

By John Dougherty,  Senior Partner Partners for Excellence

In a manufacturing or distribution company, bringing supply and demand in balance is a fundamental “law of nature” — it happens as a natural course of events, whether you want it or not.  It’s only a matter of who will bring this balance about and when.

Too often, business companies don’t operate in just a “top down” approach.  They start that way, but they constantly adjust and reconcile based on “bottom up” and “side in” input.  The “bottom up” inputs are the tactical, short-term issues in manufacturing, distribution, sales, marketing, technical development, and human resource planning.  As things change, adjustments to the timing and mix of the overall plan must change, while holding to the original business objectives (sales, profits, market share, etc.) for the year in total. More…

More…