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Custom Manufacturing

Dealing with Emperor’s new clothes

How does one optimize in an environment of changing product mix coupled with variability in resource loading, while at the same time, maximize plant output along with delivery performance? Looks like a hopeless situation for a plant manager but an exciting problem for a theoretician and hence a great market for an IT product.


Consumer Goods

An SOS for the OEMs

Auto Monitor, July 2011

The reason for the mess in the supply chain is lag in reaction to the change in market demand. The higher the lag in response, bigger is the damage. The lag in response is triggered because of a push mode of operations between the distributors and the OEMs.


Consumer Goods

The ‘Delhi Effect’

AFTERMARKET Sep 11

The stark reality for many distribution companies is the dominant presence of wholesalers who buy in large bulk and sell them to the lowest bidder without any territory allegiance.


Custom Manufacturing

Reliability of delivery: brand positioning opportunity for custom manufacturing organizations

The only performance which can make a perceptual difference to a customer is when a supplier has on-time delivery performance of near 100% as per originally committed date to the consumer...


Engineering and Construction

Stop digging if you are already in a hole!

One of the biggest problems impacting the engineering industry, in India, is retention of experienced engineers in the design department. Organizations are dealing with the situation by forcing the designers to stretch beyond the official working hours which in turn is causing burnout of designers.


Custom Manufacturing

What is new in simplified DBR?

DBR was developed in the mid 80s as a relatively simple, yet effective, production planning methodology. DBR centers on detailed finite capacity scheduling of the capacity resource constraint (CCR). DBR was developed under the assumption of getting orders from the sales, without truly impacting the committed dates, and coming up with the best planning possible under the circumstances.


Consumer Goods

Beating the Recession Blues

Management consulting industry and all IT vendors in enterprise space, promising productivity improvement have a business cycle well aligned with the overall economy. They grow fast when the overall economy is booming and they get into trouble when recession strikes the economy.


Consumer Goods

The Liquidity Crunch

Maintaining liquidity is providing to be a major problem for the automotive industry but it can be tackled. The auto industry is severaly affected by the liquidity crisis. What started off with the commercial vehicle segment now afflicts almost all segments.


Consumer Goods

Managing distribution chain: Is there a better way than gazing the crystal ball?

Living with the chronic problem and associated conflicts

Managing the supply chain of a distribution company (like a consumer goods company or a retail chain or a spare parts distribution for automotive/industrial applications) is extremely challenging. The challenge isinherent in the frequent conflicts that the managers face in handling the day to day decisions for the supply chain.


Engineering and Construction

Critical Chain Project Management

The age old problem

In the last fifty years, the project management body of knowledge has evolved a lot but the world of projects has not shown commensurate improvement. Numerous studies conducted over the years prove that existing project management practice is not very effective.