Industry insights
Application of Theory of Constraints methodologies to solve chronic industry problems
Equipment Manufacturing
Auto & Auto Components
Consumer Goods & Retail
Engineering & Construction
Textile & Apparel
Overcoming the Threat of E-tailers
These days, e-tailers, in India, have been making headlines with their mind-boggling valuation figures. However, even after decades of amazon’s existence, it makes a meager net profit of around USD 270 million on sales of over USD 74 billion.Read more
- Kiran Kothekar
Small is Big
India’s population follows a long tail distribution – 15% of the total districts (640) are occupied by 35% of the total population.The remaining 65% of the population is spread across the larger number of remaining districts. The size of the population in the “tail” is bigger than that under the “head”.Read more
- Sudheer S & Satyashri Mohanty
The Unresolved Conflict: Modern Retail vs. Consumer Goods Companies
Its war! Multibrand retailers and companies that own the brands they retail are always at war!Read more
- Satyashri Mohanty & Dr. Shelja Jose Kuruvilla
100% availability with less than half the inventory
This article outlays how the ‘Theory of Constraints’ (TOC) solutions in operations and distribution ensure that the availability in the market (distributors and retailers) is near 100% while having less than half the current inventory levels in the distribution chain.Read more
- Puneet Kulraj
The Devolution Marketing
A large portion of what drove us into the Great Recession is rooted in this dysfunctional pattern of distribution.Read more
- Andrew R. Thomas & Timothy J. Wilkinson
Build to buffer
One challenge in the fashion industry is that forecasts often are wrong, especially at the individual item and retailer levels. Additionally, only about 15 percent of new designs turn out to be winners, selling out in about six to eight weeks.Read more
- Mahesh Gupta & James F. Cox III, Ph.D., CFPIM, CIRM
Who creates slow movers?
I have met over 6000 distributors and scores of executives and managers of distribution led companies selling things as diverse as soap, shampoo, diapers, hair dyes …Read more
- Puneet Kulraj
Power of availability
Surprisingly companies, whose market shares are less than 15 percent, project a sales growth very close to the market growth.Read more
- Kiran Kothekar
From inventory turns to norm turns
In Distribution centric organizations, the level of Inventory is perceived to be a critical measure to understand the health of the system (inventory with respect to sale).Read more
- Kiran Kothekar
The hockey stick syndrome
In distribution companies the sales are very high in the last week, usually 40%. The usual sales pattern is 10:20:30:40 over the four weeks (the ratios may vary from company to company but the pattern is more or less generic).Read more
- Puneet Kulraj
Managing distribution chain: Is there a better way than gazing the crystal ball?
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.Read more
- Puneet Kulraj
Old is Gold no more
With growing consumer awareness, companies in the Perishable Goods industry are finding it increasingly difficult to live with the problem of low freshness of stocks at the point of Sale.Read more
- Arvind Singh Rana
TOC Replenishment in a wholesale- dominated market, an oxymoron?
A lot of my friends in the distribution industry (and I have lots of them!) are quite intrigued by the fact I make a living out of implementing things as simple as “The Goal ” and “Its Not Luck ”.Read more
- Puneet Kulraj
The Road Less Travelled
Implementing pull systems in a retail environment of mom and pop stores Push or Pull? : The ongoing debateRead more
- Puneet Kulraj
Profitability Percentage (%)
A good measure for evaluation of operational productivity should avoid the two errors—false positives and false negatives. Let us check if the measure of profitability calculated as PBDIT as percent of sales meets the criteria. A growing company, improving profitability IPBDIT as percent of sales (PBDIT%)] over the years is often seen as an improvement in performance.Read more
- Satyashri Mohanty
What enables effective decisions?
With cloud computing and ever reducing prices of storage systems, the available capacity to store data has gone up exponentially.Read more
- Satyashri Mohanty
Counter Counterfeiting
Despite the best efforts of individual companies and law enforcement agencies, the widespread sale of fake items has been increasing rapidly in the country.Read more
- Puneet Kulraj & Dr. Shelja Jose Kuruvilla
Preventing the demise of a store
100% availability leads to substantial increase in profits only if achieved with high inventory turns!Read more
- Kiran Kothekar
Enhancing Profitability of Retail Chains: Using the Fundamental Principles!
Usually retail chains enjoy mark-ups varying from 30% (grocery items, other fast moving items) to 100% (fashion items) over their payouts to the suppliers.Read more
- Kiran Kothekar
Size Does Matter!
The standard pre-defined assortments of goods that are used for production and logistics.Read more
- Puneet Kulraj
Leveraging Franchisees for Profitable Growth in Retail
The Indian retail market is considered as one of the most attractive markets in the world in terms of market size and potential.Read more
- Santosh Mavely
Retailer’s Dilemma
It is not uncommon for a manufacturing company to enjoy a profitability of around eight percent when the gross contribution is about thirty percent.Read more
- Puneet Kulraj
Generic Drug Development: The Prescription for Success
Find out how companies can crash lead-time in their filing process, increase FDA submissions and earn higher marginsRead more
