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

Supply Chain Transformations – Change Management

An interesting article written by Kevin Farrington from 3pi.

Accurate and Balanced

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 Pride at The Fresh Connection National Final June 2011

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).

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

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