White Papers

Welcome to Supply Velocity’s White Paper library, a great resource written by experts to provide guidance to lean process improvement and supply chain management excellence. We invite you to read these concise reports to gain insight into the guiding principles we use to help organizations improve their supply chains, execute their plans and streamline their processes.

Supply Chain Management

Choosing and designing the right supply chain involves a deep understanding of your company’s strategy, and facing many internal and external decisions. These guides help you to understand and capitalize on supply chain and logistics opportunities, so optimal decisions – that will minimize cost and maximize customer service – can be made for your firm.

• Important Qualitative Supply Chain Decisions
• Important Quantitative Supply Chain Decisions
• Supply Chain Operations Reference SCOR Model
• Designing Your Global Supply Chain
• 16 Critical Supply Chain Management Concepts
• The Bullwhip Effect in Supply Chains
• Choosing the Best Supply Chain for your Products
• Trust and Collaboration in the Supply Chain
• Using Information Technology to Revolutionize your Supply Chain

Strategy and Alignment

Most of our focus is helping companies improve execution, but it is imperative that the execution aligns with the company’s strategic plan. Our tools and methodologies can help identify if your execution is aligned with your strategic plan or in the absence of a plan, we can help you develop your company’s strategic plan. Our strategic planning tools and deliverables provide the necessary foundation for effective execution and continuous improvement.

• Performance Scorecards – The Foundation for Lean Six Sigma
• Strategic Planning using Strategic Filters and WIGs
• Measuring Customer Satisfaction – Creating a Reliable Survey
• Lean Meetings Presentation and Lean Meetings Article

General Lean Six Sigma

Lean Six Sigma can be defined simply as the identification and elimination of waste (non-value added work) in your processes. We have written many case studies (in the sections below) that focus on the application of Lean Six Sigma within different departments. In this section, however, you will find more general white-papers with information and tools that you can use more broadly.

• The Ideal Lean Assessment Scorecard
• Is Lean More than Kaizen Events
• Using Value Stream Mapping to Reduce Overhead Labor
• Lean Product Development Process

Lean Six Sigma & Supply Chain Management

Supply Chain Management is what launched Supply Velocity and this is where our experience runs deepest. We use Lean and Six Sigma tools, along with years of hands on experience to help companies streamline their Supply Chain processes including quoting, purchasing, planning, vendor and inventory management. We can also help with developing efficient layout of the warehouse, shipping and receiving areas. With our tools and experience we can also help you implement effective industry best practices and strategies that keep your Supply Chain Management competitive.

• Streamlining your Supply Chain
• Facility Location Optimization

Lean Six Sigma in Retail & Distribution

Lean Six Sigma is often associated with manufacturing. However, it has found great success in retail and distribution applications. This includes improving back-room operations in retail stores, warehouse operations and inventory management. These case studies show the many ways we have helped our retail and distribution Clients apply Lean Six Sigma.

• The Secret to Distributor-Delivery Profitability
• Finding Productivity Improvements from Field to Table
• Improving Store and DC Productivity through Minimum Order Quantity Analysis
• SKU Reduction The Biggest SKLUsers
• Streamlining Warehouse Operations with Lean Six Sigma

Lean Six Sigman in Sales & Marketing

Streamlining Sales and Marketing processes ensures your customers and prospects get swift turnaround on quotes, proposals, and order fulfillment. Reviewing and improving processes with the customer’s perspective helps ensure your company is “easy to do business with”. Using your sales data to better understand your customer base such as why they buy and who are your best or worst customers, could be critical to the success of your sales and strategic plan. Ensuring you’re Sales and Marketing processes are Lean will also ensure your company is putting out accurate information, proposals and quotes that should help grow sales.

• Decoding the DNA of Profitable Customers
• Creating a Lean Sales Process
• Improve Sales Force Effectiveness Using Multi-Variable Customer Ranking
• Increase Profits through Six Sigma Customer Analysis

Lean Six Sigma in Health Care

Since the early 2000’s hospitals and healthcare companies have been avid users of Lean Six Sigma. Instead of “manufacturing” product hospitals move patients through different of diagnosis and healing. The effect of Lean Six Sigma in hospitals is improved patient satisfaction, improved outcomes and reduced costs.

• Lean Healthcare Streamlining Primary Care

Lean in Human Resources

Streamlining Human Resource related processes ensures your company is effectively managing your most critical resource. Ensuring HR processes are swift and effective is highly important for selecting, acquiring and retaining the right people for the job. By leveraging Lean Six Sigma along with Key Performance Measure tools and methodologies, we can also help with organizational structure, effectiveness and alignment.

• Lean in Human Resources – Streamlining the Hiring Process