Apparel companies have to cut their lead times in half if they want to stay competitive—a difficult task without the right product lifecycle management (PLM) solution. In this white paper, you’ll discover how PLM solutions can help your company achieve faster time-to-market. And you’ll learn how integrating PLM with your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system maximizes the capabilities of both.
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While no technology can prevent normal equipment wear or the need for maintenance, predictive analytics and the latest advances in predictive diagnostics are now helping plants to overcome their challenges by detecting impending problems early and allowing plants to take control of their operations. Download this white paper to learn how you can put these advantages to work for your organization.
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CFOs and CEOs face increasing expense burdens. Rising energy costs—one of the fastest growing expenses—can account for up to 80% of operating and maintenance expenditures. This paper explains how organizations can establish a strategy, program, and culture of managing energy usage of assets that is accurate, repeatable, timely, and cost-effective—financially and environmentally—to establish energy as an enterprise currency.
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This study captures the intentions, strategies, and performance of over 175 enterprises, and used two key performance metrics to distinguish best-in-class performance: compliance to corporate policies concerning travel and entertainment (T&E), and the cost to process a single expense report. Download this report to learn more about how best-in-class enterprises outperform their peers.
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Professional services organizations rely on their employees to drive business and deliver value to clients. A major factor for these companies is the speed at which clients are billed and the accuracy of information regarding billable time and travel. Download this Aberdeen report to learn why cloud-based expense management is ideal for professional services organizations.
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This Aberdeen report examines the connection between collaborative knowledge sharing and analytical activity. Based on direct feedback from 231 respondents around the globe, results demonstrate that best-in-class companies are leveraging collaborative tools and techniques to share decision context inside and outside their organizations, ultimately leading to substantially improved business performance. Download this report to learn more.
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With clear visibility into financial and operational performance information, financial executives can quickly identify variables that contribute to failed objectives as well as factors that enable success. This report provides guidance for implementing effective business performance management and the corresponding capabilities and enabling technologies that help improve financial and operational control.
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Why do you need a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system? What do you want to accomplish? What do you need from your software? Download this white paper to learn how to answer these and other crucial questions for ERP software selection success.
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The new face of competitiveness, much like today’s automotive products, requires the highest degree of efficiency and innovation. And the leaders are moving in the right direction at a high speed. Yet most companies cannot and will not want to undertake the journey overnight. Regardless of your company’s current state, every automotive company can take practical steps now. Download this white paper to find out what they are.
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As the market recovers, automotive companies have new issues to solve. How do you meet demand variability and increased vehicle complexity and differentiation, manage ongoing struggles with capacity, and maintain a fragile supply chain? New approaches are available to help auto companies meet these challenges, respond to customers, adapt to flexible production, and direct supply better and faster than ever before. Read about them now.
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First to market. Fastest to respond to customer demand. Fastest to innovate. Just consider how business is consumed with the demand for speed. We even create new terms and acronyms—such as fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) or quick-service restaurants (QSRs)—to reflect this dynamic. So how do you ensure your own enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution is enabling you to meet the need for speed? Download this white paper to find out.
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Let’s face it: There’s nothing sexy about enterprise resource planning (ERP). It’s been around forever. It’s big. It’s tough to use and maintain. It’s not flexible enough to do exactly what you want it to do. Or is it? Download this white paper for Infor’s perspective on the evils of “traditional ERP,” and how it may be hurting your business.
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Our global study of small and medium-sized discrete manufacturers worldwide revealed the industry is struggling with increasing complexity, global competition, rapidly changing business environments, and volatile raw materials prices. While manufacturers worldwide face similar challenges, this study clarifies how strategic initiatives and priorities vary by sector, geography, and job description.
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Enterprise resource planning (ERP) provides the necessary infrastructure that forms the operations and transactional system of record for manufacturers of all types and sizes. Now decades old, as it has become more pervasive, there is risk in perceiving it as a given and neglecting to measure its business benefits. This research explores best-in-class approaches to realizing the greatest business benefit possible from ERP.
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Throughout the 2000s, manufacturers were giving up on Lean. A “build it and we can sell it” attitude was adopted. Manufacturers responded to the 2008 economic collapse with aggressive cuts to inventory and head count. The worst is over. This research examines what’s changed and how to intelligently ramp up production and inventory, with an eye towards recapturing core Lean principles while also adopting a new technology.
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The recent economic downturn dramatically changed investment habits for mid-market manufacturers—and not for the better. Nevertheless, some savvy executives have been using the market lull of the economic downturn and stop-and-start recovery to get their corporate houses in order, stabilizing their processes, facilities, and business systems so they’re better equipped to manage rapid growth when it returns. Find out how.
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This white paper examines the impact on manufacturing operations of using disparate systems versus an integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. It documents the effect of each on core business areas and management teams: sales and supply chain executives, plant managers, vice presidents (VPs) of operations, and finance. It also explains how to eliminate inefficiencies associated with change management.
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The past year has taught executives everywhere that business will never again be “business as usual.” Manufacturers, in particular, must focus more than ever on satisfying customers while removing waste and unnecessary costs from their organizations. And they need to do so faster and better than their competitors. This white paper highlights how companies are doing just that by relying on strategic lean concepts.
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Today’s distributors have an opportunity to drive performance to new levels by investing in advanced inventory management. These companies can expect to increase inventory visibility while driving down inventory costs. Learn how these kinds of inventory management initiatives can help your company strengthen customer relationships, bargain for better terms with suppliers, and generate more profitable growth.
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Wholesale distributors that pursue growth while neglecting supply chain effectiveness are putting their long-term survival at risk—usually for no good reason. Supply chains have gained complexity in recent years, but solutions for achieving supply chain management (SCM) effectiveness have become both more accessible and easier to deploy. Learn how these solutions can help your company overcome its SCM challenges.
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Looking for the right ERP package for your small to medium business (SMB) can be a daunting task. Although a fair amount of information is available on the Internet about the actual software packages themselves, there is little advice on how to develop a good, simple strategy to evaluate and choose the right package for your company. This white paper is intended to provide some of that much-needed guidance.
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Many manufacturers and distributors have embraced the lean philosophy. But the tight controls necessary for success with Lean can leave companies vulnerable to supply disruptions, production problems, quality issues, and abrupt changes in demand. Learn how making your manufacturing operations and supply chain flexible can help reduce operational costs, increase cash flow, increase company value, and grow your business.
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A common issue for small to medium business (SMB) manufacturers is how to increase revenue and grow their businesses without significantly adding staff. Unfortunately, these companies often emerge from the startup phase saddled with inefficient, manual processes that require extra people to maintain them. Learn how to position your company for more predictable business growth, without a reliance on adding more people.
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A flexible enterprise resource planning (ERP) system can be the foundation for a complete overhaul of your business processes—providing numerous benefits over a set of disparate software systems. Find out how an ERP solution can help your company automate the movement of information, improve decision making, create disciplined workflows, and provide the agility needed to accommodate virtually any type of business change.
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Maintaining strong business performance and retaining loyal customers requires continual vigilance and assessment. Establishing metrics that focus on value-added and customer- centric performance allows manufacturers to stay close to the pulse of market changes and dynamics. Learn how performance tools such as dashboards and reporting can help your company monitor performance and enable better and faster decision making.
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The true indicator of a store’s potential is accurate incoming traffic data. But opportunities to act on that data and improve performance occur before shoppers ever reach the cash register. To achieve their true sales potential, retailers must schedule to shopper traffic. Find out how combining accurate traffic data with workforce scheduling tools can help retailers increase revenue and sharpen their competitive edge.
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Improving workforce performance can drive corporate performance. Even seemingly small changes in workforce productivity can have a huge impact on the bottom lines of large organizations. Learn how deploying workforce management (WFM) technology can transform your company’s operations, and provide data that improves core human resources (HR) applications like workforce planning, recruiting, and performance management.
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With an economic recovery underway, retailers are leveraging workforce management (WFM) tools to help them address their most pressing needs—cost reduction, return on investment (ROI), and measurably improved performance—while instilling practices that will serve them tomorrow and beyond. Find out how market leaders are leveraging the considerable benefits of WFM systems to gain a significant competitive advantage.
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Less than one third of manufacturers can boast world-class employee engagement (the ability to “secure a competitive performance advantage by having superior systems in place to recruit, hire, develop, and retain talent”). Discover how workforce management systems can help manufacturers more effectively measure employee performance, direct human resources (HR), and leverage talent in order to compete effectively.
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Because they are seeing fewer cost savings from other lean initiatives, many manufacturers are now seeking to optimize their workforces the way they’ve optimized other assets. In order to begin putting the workforce first, these companies are using workforce management (WFM) systems to handle human resources (HR) tasks and obligations, reduce labor costs, increase output, and make better use of in-house capabilities.
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London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) needed a workforce management solution that could accommodate the requirements of a 9,000+ employee organization with multiple unions and facilities. Learn how LHSC replaced its cumbersome and outdated timekeeping systems, with a solution that helped enhance payroll accuracy and efficiency, comply with labor and organizational rules, and advance the human resources (HR) agenda.
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An optimal workforce creates a shopping experience that is profitable for retailers and satisfying for customers. However, for many retailers, achieving optimal workforce supply across large and distributed operations is hampered by cumbersome and inaccurate labor budgeting and planning efforts. Learn about planning and budgeting techniques, and workforce management solutions that can help your workforce stay agile.
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Complying with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and other labor laws and regulations is a major challenge for employers. At the same time, non-compliance with these government regulations is becoming increasingly costly. Learn about solutions that are helping the world’s largest companies to effectively plan, deploy, and manage their workforces to achieve compliance objectives.
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When department store retail chain Burlington Coat Factory faced the challenge of efficiently handling workforce management processes across 417 stores in 44 states, it began seeking a replacement for its antiquated and cumbersome systems. Find out how the company chose a new solution that helped streamline time and attendance, improve payroll accuracy, and provide managers with easy-to-use reporting and analytics tools.
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In most industries, labor represents the greatest proportion of operational costs. By helping to optimize that labor, workforce scheduling can help companies reduce expenses. But for most companies, scheduling is still more burden than benefit. Discover scheduling techniques that best-in-class companies are using to achieve greater operational efficiencies, and increase satisfaction among employees and customers.
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Now that the economic recovery is under way, many food processors are investing in enterprise solutions. This special report explores how food and beverage processors are moving to a predictive maintenance model; the critical role of computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) in safety and compliance; how to “go green” without breaking the bank; and how to renovate processing plants for energy efficiency.
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Condition monitoring is a critical component of predictive maintenance. In this special report for the chemical processing industry, you’ll learn six steps to implementing a condition-based maintenance program; condition-monitoring techniques that can increase equipment uptime; how to protect your condition-monitoring program during the recession; and how to supplement your condition monitoring program to reduce downtime.
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Rich’s legacy IT systems could not interoperate with platforms and applications among departments, preventing a single, centralized view of the product development process and limiting collaboration. The company decided it needed a new product lifecycle management (PLM) system to integrate and accelerate PLM processes. Rich’s new system supports research and development (R&D), formula management, and more.
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As a result of publicized food contamination and product recalls, food safety regulations are under increasing scrutiny. Process manufacturers in the food and beverage industry may soon be facing stricter rules. But food manufacturers can prevent contamination by using existing technology to automate and ensure the effectiveness of the hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) food safety program. Learn more.
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Yes—process manufacturers do face extraordinary business challenges. You need to effectively respond to market imbalances, supplier failure, and increased regulation and quality requirements. You also need an IT backbone specifically designed for process manufacturing—integrating supply chain planning, product lifecycle management (PLM), and enterprise asset management (EAM). Find out how to adapt to the “new normal.”
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For many consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, the environment is too complex to implement a new business process without upgrading the IT systems that support that process. Taking a consumer approach to upgrading can help. You need to seek out solutions that fit your CPG environment, can keep up with continual innovation, and more. But you always need to be thinking ahead. Learn more about developing an IT roadmap.
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To reduce time to market and realize the full value of its intellectual property, Cadbury plc needed to ensure compliance with government regulations. The company launched a long-term data management strategy, which included storing all data in a central repository—a product lifecycle management (PLM) system. Find out how Cadbury not only ensured compliance but also improved its response to consumer and customer queries.
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Process manufacturers can no longer rely on purely reactive strategies to product safety. Now, reactive strategies such as lot tracking need to be incorporated into holistic strategies that include proactive measures to assess risk and prevent costly quality assurance (QA) events like product recalls. Learn how you can develop a product safety master plan that reduces risk, protects products, and improves profitability.
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To achieve operational excellence, process manufacturers must be able to control costs while meeting customer expectations. Best-in-class process companies provide visibility into manufacturing operations while using real-time interoperability between manufacturing systems and business systems. Discover how best-in-class process manufacturers accomplish this, as well as other characteristics that help them succeed.
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PepsiCo Italia needed an information management system to manage and track assets it loans at no cost to clients, such as coolers and fountains. It also sought to increase operational efficiency and trace every event involving every piece of equipment during the entire asset life cycle. Learn about the integrated enterprise asset management (EAM) system PepsiCo chose to supports all equipment asset management processes.
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Heinz Frozen Food Company was set on improving its manufacturing and maintenance process efficiency, and knew that implementing a new enterprise asset management (EAM) system would involve monumental change for employees. Heinz choose a Web-based system to help it gain better visibility into processes and work towards more progressive lean manufacturing and lean maintenance practices for greater efficiency. Learn more.
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Leading companies are reducing energy consumption and costs as a top-priority initiative—with benefits ranging from more efficient operations to increased shareholder value, improved environmental conditions, and new market opportunities. A global asset sustainability approach will give you opportunities to further lower costs while ensuring reliable operations in all your properties, plants, and equipment. Learn how.
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At Mohawk Fine Papers, a new Web-based enterprise asset management (EAM) system replaced a maintenance management system (MMS) to provide efficiencies for paper-making and converting equipment. Since implementing the new EAM, Mohawk has standardized its maintenance processes, streamlined work order flow, automated business rules, and achieved more detailed tracking of assets. Learn more about the EAM software’s modules.
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Are you responsible for managing energy in your plant or currently in the process of establishing a formal energy management program? Aberdeen Group surveyed 230 executives to understand the success companies are realizing by effectively managing energy. Energy management started as a cost-saving initiative, but is becoming a strategic part of the company’s larger corporate social responsibility program. Learn more.
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As you look for ways to get the most out of your existing operating assets, enterprise asset management (EAM) and computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) solutions are key. However, when it comes to researching, selecting, and implementing the right EAM/CMMS software, you need to avoid several mistakes. Discover 10 common errors you should avoid if you’re looking for a new or replacement EAM or CMMS solution.
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Pressures to reduce costs still outweigh all other business drivers that have an impact on enterprise resource planning (ERP) in 2009. ERP is more than a necessary infrastructure; it’s also a strategic weapon in streamlining and accelerating business processes—while providing visibility to those processes. Discover more about the overall value ERP brings to manufacturing, with Aberdeen’s annual assessment of ERP usage.
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Get insight into manufacturing production metrics and best practices in the US, and benchmark your operations to better understand how to improve in today’s difficult economic climate. The Manufacturing Performance Institute (MPI) presents its findings, comparing and contrasting the responses of plants that rate themselves closest to—and furthest from—world-class status. See how your manufacturing facility stacks up.
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According to a recent study, 82 percent of respondents are cutting budgets in response to the current recession. Companies are attempting to increase customer loyalty to reduce customer churn at a time when the customer relationship may be the only reliable source of revenue. Discover how operational business intelligence capabilities can help top-performing companies better focus on operational processes and performance.
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The role of the chief financial officer (CFO) is evolving, but due to pressures to meet financial reporting requirements, there’s still a strong pull toward “chief bean counter” responsibilities. But CFOs can find opportunities to become true business leaders. With help from technology, five key strategies can enable the CFO to have a significant impact on the direction and success of the business. Learn more.
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Spreadsheets can provide rudimentary business performance management (BPM) capabilities. But there are many reasons to leave them behind: improved collaboration among users with data security and audit capabilities, greater accuracy of analysis and reports, real-time information, and more. Discover other benefits, as well as how you should approach and carry out the transition from spreadsheets to a BPM solution.
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New economic conditions are driving companies to become increasingly cautious about the near future. But focusing on improving flexibility to dynamically account for change shifts focus away from budget accuracy—putting you at risk of falling short of shareholder expectations. To achieve best-in-class status, you must plan, budget, and forecast more efficiently for improved agility, accuracy, and corporate performance.
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With goals to decrease operating costs and increase sales, Hayward—a leader in the building materials industry—knew it needed to replace its 25-year-old software with an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that would enable business process re-engineering and more. The solution Hayward chose enabled it to more effectively manage its supply chain and generate bottom-line value to customers. Find out why.
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With rapid growth and revenues exceeding $100 million (USD), Quality Bicycle Products is under increasing pressure to meet demand. To keep driving growth, QBP realized its forecasting capabilities and performance would need to be optimized. To help meet the needs of these efforts, QBP began looking at an inventory and demand planning solution. Discover more about the supply chain management (SCM) solution it chose.
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Maintaining profitability was a major challenge for Tampa Tile because of the complexities of providing the construction industry with long-lead products, many of which are imported from Europe and South America. Its old enterprise resource planning (ERP) system no longer met its needs, so Tampa Tile looked for a new system that offered event management capabilities, in addition to inventory management. Learn more.
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The main business challenge faced by Wausau Supply—an American distributor of building materials—was its ability to provide next-day delivery to small lumber yards and to a greater number of conglomerates. But Wausau didn’t have an up-to-date system for back-office or logistics operations, and needed a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution with visibility into its inventory at all locations. Find out more.
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Like many distribution companies, Hydro-Scape needed to streamline and automate its business processes to increase speed and accuracy when serving customers, as well as boost productivity and profitability. The company chose an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution with distribution-specific functionality, including the ability to integrate data across the entire operation. Learn more about the distribution ERP.
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American Refrigeration Supplies (ARS) is a wholesaler of refrigeration and heating equipment, parts, and supplies. In a difficult economy, there is little margin for error with respect to how ARS manages its clients and vendors. Because a growing number of product vendors are using electronic data interchange (EDI), ARS was pushed to upgrade its distribution processes. Learn about the EDI solution the company chose.
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Endries International, distributor of products for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), aims to develop partnerships by helping customers meet their cost reduction, vendor consolidation, and productivity improvement goals. But Endries knew its old software wouldn’t enable long-term growth or manage business changes. With the new solution, processes such as demand planning are more accurate and efficient. Find out why.
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Falcon Technologies, Inc. (FTI) is a leading distributor of data and telecommunications products. After several years, FTI realized its legacy accounting system could no longer manage the growing business, and that it needed an industry-specific solution. The new system, with a few customizations, has allowed FTI to improve its efficiencies and productivity, resulting in a growth rate of over 50 percent. Find out more.
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Global sourcing, an erratic economy, and extended supply operations are just a few threats to the profitability and growth of your distribution environment. But if you extend the capabilities of your existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, you can better meet demands, maximize inventory, and increase operational efficiency. Learn how supply chain optimization is easier with an ERP for distribution solution.
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The US and world markets are facing dramatic economic challenges. You may be questioning whether the business practices that worked for you before will continue to provide the same levels of profitability. To improve your operations or profitability, you need to take advantage of new technologies. But to get started, you need to know where you stand, and in which direction to move. Find out more about leadership strategy.
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For many manufacturers, the demands of meeting customer expectations and reducing production costs in an environment of more products and more choice places stress on the effectiveness of planning and scheduling processes. Yet, systems are becoming outdated, lacking the flexibility and responsiveness to manage complex production environments. Find out about planning and scheduling options and how to boost productivity.
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Manufacturers already apply transportation management systems (TMSs) to outbound shipping, but they often overlook the money they could save by using a TMS to control inbound shipping costs as well. Find out how improved inbound transportation practices can help you predict true total delivered costs, get visibility on inbound shipments, enforce routing guides, optimize freight, and minimize accessorial charges.
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Looking for the right enterprise resource planning (ERP) package for your small to medium business (SMB) can be a daunting task. A fair amount of information is available about the actual software packages, but there is little advice on how to choose the right one. Learn strategies for a successful software selection—from initial requirements gathering, to evaluation, selection, and final implementation.
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When looking at extended enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), or customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, some companies get distracted by details of the technology and miss the bigger picture. Learn how to choose an operating platform capable of supporting your business needs, today and in the foreseeable future, and ensure that your suppliers will be around when you need them.
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Spreadsheets inhibit a company’s ability to make real-time decisions. Prone to data entry errors, information delivery delays, and a lack of visibility, spreadsheets ultimately limit your ability to grow. While you can see your current budget, profit, or performance through Excel, you lack the ability to drill down further. Of course, it’s all very well to eliminate spreadsheets, but how are you going to replace them?
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Progressive companies are discovering that they can optimize processes and assets to make the best use of resources, reduce negative impact on the environment, and strengthen business results—all at the same time. Improving enterprise asset management (EAM) processes provides opportunities for you to create less waste, reduce resource use, and decrease emissions. Find out how you can take advantage of EAM’s benefits.
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Distributors increasingly play a value-added role in the supply chain. To remain competitive, they must rapidly react to the slightest changes in demand. But current forecasting techniques and the tools most distributors use don’t allow the needed long-term visibility. Discover how new solutions for demand planning can address the challenges of forecasting, and reduce obsolescence and the cost of inventory investment.
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Inventory has been—and continues to be—the lifeblood of the distribution marketplace. While many companies are slow to adopt new strategies and technologies, a growing number of distributors are leveraging inventory practices to improve key metrics like customer retention, gross margins, and inventory turns. Read these research survey findings to find out how you can make better inventory management technology decisions.
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For most businesses, the subject of regulatory compliance and risk management usually evokes feelings of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. But it doesn’t have to. By taking the right approach, you can turn risk management and compliance into a proactive process that will put your business at the forefront of your market and set you apart from your competitors.
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When it comes to the business challenges of the distribution industry, one solution does not fit all. Packaged with smart functionality to address key business issues, Infor’s products have successfully fulfilled the needs of distributors worldwide. Learn how its enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management (SCM) solutions have helped companies improve market position, streamline business processes, and more.
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Manufacturing today is fraught with uncertainties in the supply chain due to a variety of global issues, including weather and exchange rates. You can counter supply problems with “safety stock.” But this extra inventory goes against the rules of an efficient lean environment. How can you stay demand driven, without a supply snafu? Find out how an information management system can help forecast your supply chain needs.
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A common issue facing small to medium business (SMB) manufacturers today is finding out how to increase revenue and grow business without significantly adding staff. With larger firms able to compete by drawing upon greater financial resources, the SMB manufacturer is at a distinct disadvantage. Find out about five ways a lean strategy for small business can help you maximize resource use and minimize overhead costs.
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Ensuring customer quality is the key to customer loyalty and retention. When a company treats its customers like it doesn’t know them, it’s bad for business. This occurs when companies work with disparate data—using one database for sales, another for marketing, and a third for operations. Developing a real-time solution that provides a single view of the customer is by far the best way to increase customer satisfaction.
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For a decade, IndustryWeek and the Manufacturing Performance Institute (MPI) Census of Manufacturers have provided data to US manufacturers. This year, MPI fielded a similar survey in Canada, offering an intriguing look into the differences between the Canadian and US manufacturing landscapes. This executive summary presents combined data from these surveys, aimed at helping manufacturers meet future challenges.
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This second annual survey of the warehousing and distribution industry, conducted by the Manufacturing Performance Institute (MPI) Census of Manufacturers, explores the metrics, management practices, and business concerns of over 200 US warehouse and distribution facilities. This data is presented in easy-to-understand tables and charts, and may be useful for companies currently facing distribution center challenges.
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Human resources (HR) systems have been around for many years, providing robust and efficient solutions for companies of all sizes. When properly designed, implemented, and maintained, these systems allow companies to engage and nurture their employees and critical processes. When these systems are neglected, however, the result is a loss of competitive edge, increased employee dissatisfaction, and unnecessary costs.
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The world is focusing on environmental awareness, and reducing greenhouse gases is now an inevitable part of doing business. But how can you conform to compliance regulations and still remain competitive? Green-centric asset management implementations—valuable tools in resource conservation—are helping companies increase productivity and improve their bottom lines. Maybe getting greener isn’t so hard after all.
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Manufacturers of all sizes are more efficient, better managed, and more profitable because of lean—yet this improvement has plateaued at many companies. What’s holding up the progress of lean? The real problem is that as lean evolves and spreads beyond the plant floor, its conflict with traditional accounting is escalating—and becoming more dangerous to the financial health of manufacturers.
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External forces can knock your business off balance with no warning. Spikes in fuel prices, worker strikes, and shipping delays can significantly stress the supply chains of manufacturers, logistics providers, and retailers. To meet these external challenges, you need the capability to extend supply chain visibility, respond to changes in real time, and improve performance measurement across the entire chain.
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It’s common knowledge that asset downtime disrupts production and drives up both process and per-unit operating costs. However, executives often lose sight of this because they focus on output, not on the assets used to create it. The irony is that companies can use asset performance management not only to make more widgets, but to make each widget more profitably.
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There are seven core operational measures that can be leveraged to fine-tune a company’s business processes and achieve a higher return on capital employed (RoCE). Even modest gains in these measurements can spur a significant increase in RoCE. If the level of performance against each core operational measure rises by just one percentage point, for example, RoCE can nearly double.
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Finance executives must meet a growing number of challenges if their companies are to continue being profitable. So how can they deliver strong performance in every aspect of their businesses? The answer: by deploying a corporate financial management system that expands the capabilities of their core activities—a system that extends its reach to automate other processes within the enterprise.
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Software vendors are now offering functionality specifically designed for various industries. And when selecting a supply chain planning (SCP) solution, it’s obviously important to take these solutions into account. However, this alone does not guarantee the best-fit solution for your business; it’s equally important to ensure that the solution is designed to address your specific supply chain issues.
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A common question that comes up in most discussions about lean is whether it’s the tools and processes, or the people that make lean work. In reality it is both. Applying lean tools, new technology, and new business processes to a traditional silo-oriented culture will not work. Lean, at its core, is a cultural and people-oriented initiative.
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To many executives, health insurance cost increases are as predictable as death and taxes. That’s why best-in-class organizations are embracing strategies which optimize benefit cost per employee. To succeed, these companies focus on wellness programs, clear communications about benefits choices, and benefits automation as part of an integrated system. And to compete effectively, other organizations will need to follow suit.
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Top performers optimize their assets. It’s true in any field—sports, the arts, and business. Yet in business, optimizing performance of capital assets often plays distant runner-up to the more glamorous pursuit of top-line growth. That’s not surprising, given the importance of increasing sales revenue. But it can cost you—and lead to operating surprises that are even more punishing.
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Lean manufacturing strategies and ever-lower tolerance for late deliveries are putting pressure on manufacturers to ensure that facilities and equipment operate at peak performance. While some companies are struggling to execute preventive and predictive maintenance procedures, better performers have implemented holistic asset management strategies enabling them to proactively ensure the health of plants, factories, and equipment across global manufacturing networks.
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Even though the technology has been around in some form since World War II, chances are that you think of Wal-Mart’s supply chain initiative when you hear the words “radio frequency identification,” or “RFID.” Wal-Mart is already seeing a return on their 2005 investment. But does RFID technology make as much sense for asset management as for supply chain management?
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In asset-intensive industries, the reliability of capital assets is essential to success. Maintenance of these assets can dramatically impact the overall performance and useful life of an asset. Accordingly, asset owner–operators and asset service providers are continually trying to improve their maintenance practices—which is why they’re deploying key strategies and technologies to refine the effectiveness of their operations.
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With retailers trying to stem consumer migration, and consumer-packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers striving to achieve sustainable growth and profitability, retailer and manufacturer joint value propositions can increase inventory turns, improve cash flow, and increase revenue and profits. However, joint value propositions involve more than retailer-specific packaging or unique products. For ultimate success, a different way of doing business is required.
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While open innovation is a hot topic, capitalizing on opportunity requires a holistic strategy—not just increased collaboration. Companies must have repeatable, compliant, and responsive business processes. These processes must be supplemented by a global information infrastructure that provides a single source of the truth, along with alignment across departmental silos, and solutions that evolve without coding.
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In recent years, industry-leading companies have identified process innovation as a real competitive advantage, since outsourcing can provide “virtual scale” to companies of any size. While every company has examples of a select few projects or product launches that were stellar and considered best-in-class, what sets best-process companies apart from the rest is their continued business process innovation and scale.
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Ask any three people in an organization why they budget and you’ll get three different answers. But no one says they budget in order to direct the way in which their organization will achieve its strategic goals—the intended purpose of the budget. For budgeting to become the relevant process it was meant to be, this gap must be fixed.
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There are many business pressures urging organizations to improve their planning processes. However, in many organizations, the achievement of delivering the annual plan is so onerous that little business benefit is derived from it. That’s why organizations should look for a planning solution capable of delivering flexible business models—models which are mapped to their unique business requirements.
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Organizations often see a significant gap between their strategic plans and their ability to execute them, and many try to implement scorecards to solve precisely this problem. Unfortunately, most organizations look solely at the warning lights (how close are expenses and revenue to budget) rather than focusing on where they want to go—and how they’re going to get there.
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You know the statistics—lean can shorten your lead times, reduce inventories, cut operating costs, free up resources, and more. But countless surveys have confirmed that most lean initiatives fail to deliver expected and needed results. Why? Are successes confined to a restricted list of industry sectors? Are only "lean experts" capable of leading an organization through a successful implementation?
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In today’s manufacturing environment, suppliers and manufacturers alike need to be highly selective when choosing an enterprise resource planning vendor to support their product-specific Lean value-streams. Technology is a key element in the success of Lean manufacturing, and should be selected with an eye to the entire value-stream. Infor examines all elements of a Lean value-stream in this must-read white paper.
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The evolution of global discrete manufacturing is ongoing. How executives at manufacturing companies answer questions and anticipate what will be the right answer six months, a year, or two years from now will determine the success of their company. Infor examines current industry trends and identifies what it believes to be the seven trends producing the greatest stress and change in discrete manufacturing today.
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The globalization of discrete manufacturing is forever changing the notion of what a "small manufacturer" is. Even companies that are considered relatively small in revenue, employment, or client base, must now operate like the largest corporations when structuring and conducting their businesses. Infor examines how today's mid-market manufacturers are transforming themselves—focusing on business processes and employing ERP systems for their own operations.
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What does it mean to be a world-class competitor? It means being successful in your market against any competition—regardless of size or country of origin. It means matching or exceeding any competitor on quality, lead time, cost, customer service, and innovation. It means picking your battles—competing on the terms dictated by you. But how do you get there?
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