When to use the Lean Six Sigma Project Format Abstract Many Lean Consultants promote Kaizen Events (a.k.a. Rapid Improvement Events) or Kaizen Blitzes as the method of implementing Lean. They are proponents of this method because that is how Toyota does it, and Toyota founded Lean. What these consultants overlook is that Toyota has 50+… 
The Need for a Supply Chain Strategic Plan For many years, Supply Chain Management was an overlooked aspect of business. Everybody just expected supply chains to deliver. The pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia war changed the status quo while other big disruptions were already underway. Amazon fundamentally changed the consumer economy (and soon the industrial economy)…
Using the Ideal Lean Scorecard to Assess Opportunities for Improvement One of my mentors, Dr. Joe Martinich, an Operations Professor at the University of Missouri St. Louis, developed a tool to help you assess where you should be applying your process improvement efforts. What is so great about this tool is it really doesn’t have…
Click here to download this whitepaper in PDF format What retailers, distributors and manufacturers must know So You are, or Want to Begin Selling Online The purpose of this white paper is to give you a complete picture of ecommerce and omnichannel supply chain design. It will help you with the decisions you need to…
The foundational Lean Tool has new life, Standardizing with Video Work Instructions Click here to download this whitepaper in PDF format Abstract 5S is the most foundational of the Lean tools. It is also easy to start, generates a lot of excitement and is a good indication that Lean improvements are being sustained. However, as…
Click here to download this whitepaper in PDF format Abstract Lean got its start in factories and for many years was called Lean Manufacturing. However, if you analyze movement of people, there is often a greater opportunity in creating a Lean Warehouse. When your warehouse is Lean the tools and information you need to receive,…
Click here to download this whitepaper in PDF format Abstract As we implement Lean Warehouses at numerous Clients, we are finding a multitude of bin-location coding schemes; the code that locates parts in aisles / bays / levels / shelf positions. As we’ve been to many warehouses, have seen different ways of coding, and came…
Click here to download this whitepaper in PDF format More than 40 years ago I started my continuous improvement (CI) journey as a young engineer and I’ve spent the last 15+ years as a Lean and Supply Chain consultant at Supply Velocity. We leverage Lean, Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints and Supply Chain tools and…
Resilient Supply Chains are now a Competitive Advantage We just got through the biggest health and supply chain disruption since WW2. As we move through the pandemic, the global Supply Chain is struggling to recover. Companies are challenged with limited raw material availability, extended lead times and transportation delays. Their competitors, that have been able…
Business-To-Consumer (B2C) Consumer choice is the subject of many studies. Should a company extend its product line or stay focused? How does this affect physical distribution, in either ecommerce warehouses or retail stores? Retail stores are fixed with limited shelf space and almost no potential to expand. Warehouses can be expanded, but at a cost. …
Sales & Operation Planning (S&OP) is a process to make sure sales, finance, operations and supply chain are aligned, so customer service and profit are maximized. When done well, S&OP allows business to capture efficiencies because it can proactively adjust sales, operations and supply chain as forecasts change. However, this value is only captured when the company…
When we are contacted by a prospective new client for consulting services, we typically recommend starting with a Lean Assessment. Assessments are a fast and painless way to uncover opportunities to improve your business with a plan for efficiently implementing those improvements. During the Assessment we talk to people from across the organization, tour the facilities,…
Navigating various sales channels, inventory, and pricing exposure when Amazon makes the rules Amazon is a behemoth in B2C distribution, and is growing their B2B business. If you compete in this space, then you have experienced their wake or could soon. Trying to fight or beat Amazon is likely a losing battle. But there are…
Focus on Profitability; Revenue and Cost are just inputs To download this case study please click here. Profitability is Key! As business grows, declines, or remains steady, a clear understanding of profitability by segment is paramount. Increasing revenue is great so long as your costs are not increasing disproportionately. Decreasing costs is also wonderful assuming…
Are you actively making these strategic supply chain decisions or just continuing with how things have always been done? Download White Paper: Important Quantitative Supply Chain Decisions Supply Chain Management Supply chain management involves the flow of products, information and money from suppliers (and their suppliers) through a company to its customers (and their customers)…
Learn the Benefits of S&OP Sales & Operations Planning sticks when the benefits outweigh the effort To download this Whitepaper in PDF Format, Please Click Here Case Study Company Our case study company is a parts and equipment manufacturer for the mining industry. They struggled to meet customer expected lead times due to high SKU…
What is the Supply Chain Operations Reference Model (SCOR Model) To Download this Whitepaper as a PDF, Please Click Here. In the 1990’s a consulting firm and market research firm, along with some academics got together to create a process and performance measurement model to support the growing field of supply chain management. They created…
The Supply Chain Strategic Planning Process To Download This White Paper as a PDF Click Here. Creating a supply chain strategy is very similar to strategic planning. The difference is we start with an “operational” mindset and finish with a supply chain framework. Case Study Company Our case study company is a successful and profitable…
Download White Paper: What’s New in Lean
Pricing can have a dramatic impact on the bottom line extremely quickly, probably more quickly than any other business initiative. Our method uses data analytics to identify value-levers for customizing pricing. These dramatic improvements do not come easy, they require putting resources on pricing analytics in-line with the value it can deliver. Here’s an example of…
Download White Paper: 6Cs to Drive Team Results
Omnichannel is a supply chain order fulfillment system that uses all of the assets in the supply chain (stores, warehouses, return-centers, trucks, drones) to fulfill your order quickly and at the lowest cost. Stores Matter In an omnichannel, stores matter. Having physical retail stores is a way to increase sales… yes increase sales. Not everyone,…
Understanding How Forecasts Help your Business</strong Using the simple, but effective Dupont Return on Capital Model, we can see what can happen with more accurate forecasts. Profit = Sales – Costs Return on Invested Capital = Profit / Invested Capital Improving forecasts increase fulfilled sales and therefore profit at lower investment capital It is Hard…
Download White Paper: The Amazon Effect & Your Supply Chain
For those of you who have used but dropped S&OP or if you not familiar with the term, it would be best described as “Executing your Sales & Operations Plan.” If you are having problems turning your sales plan into a reality because operations, sales and finance are not aligned, then you need to consider…
Inventory Metrics for the New World Historically, companies that shipped product from finished goods inventory such as distributors and e-commerce companies, for their inventory performance measures (related to customer-service) used fill rate. Unit fill rate = units shipped / units ordered Line fill rate = number of lines on an order filled complete / total…
The challenge in retail is summed up in one word, e-commerce. Retailers spent decades creating low-cost supply chains to serve customers from bricks-and-mortar stores and the replenishment systems to keep stores stocked with the right inventory. However, with the advent of e-commerce these systems are not sufficient to be successful. Even the smallest retailers are selling products from…
Often companies rate their customers simply by revenue or unit volume and fail to recognize gross profit margin, maintenance cost and other strategic factors. This can result in an incorrect perception of which customers are the highest performers and most important to the company. Supply Velocity uses a new Business Intelligence System, Customer Optimization, and a new metric,…
Processes are the heart of every company or organization, but as companies, products and marketplaces became more complex, the demands and expectations of processes become greater and they often fail to effectively meet the company’s or the customers’ needs and objectives. Inefficient business processes can have 5 times the negative impact on the customer over…
The link below shows two Performance Scorecards, one for a manufacturing business and one for an accounting firm. Performance Scorecards Download Accounting Firm The accounting firm Client was working with us on improving their Audit process. This project successfully reduced the time to produce audit reports for their clients from 45 to 22 days. As…
Client Background Recently we had the opportunity to work with a client that doesn’t make or move any material goods. Impact Group does the important work of caring for families that are being relocated because of the jobs of one of the adults. 28 years ago, Laura Herring determined that companies focus completely on the…
The Ideal Lean Process All employees show up to work every day, are motivated, can work at any operation and are constantly looking for ways to improve processes Supplies can be ordered and delivered immediately, in whatever quantities are needed and are defect free Equipment never breaks Processes have no variation and produce defect free…
Product development can include hard-goods, software or new services, and few processes involve as many different departments within a company as product development. As the development effort crosses between departments such as marketing, research, engineering, purchasing, operations and sales there are numerous opportunities for the effort to stall or even reverse direction. This can be…
In November we held a Process Improvement Forum for our Clients at Impact Group. These Forums are a chance for our Clients to learn from each other. Impact Group’s trained coaches and research team works to solve the myriad of problems a relocating family can face. We thought Impact would be a great host because…
Do you ever feel like all you do at work is go from meeting to meeting? Is it a challenge to squeeze all of the meetings you are required to attend on your calendar? How many meetings should a healthy company have and when do we cross the line on healthy communications and too many…
Download White Paper: Lean Meetings
Pay-for-Performance: Quality & Throughput Many companies are worried about paying for performance because they are concerned that: 1) quality will suffer, and 2) it can inhibit teamwork. Our case study for this e-newsletter shows how to balance quality versus throughput, and teamwork versus individual contribution. Designing a pay-for-performance system that everyone believes in is hard…
Thanks to our friends at MiTek, more than 20 of Supply Velocity’s client-companies were able to send representatives to see how MiTek is using lean tools to increase their capacity, ensure on-time delivery, and improve financial performance. On 9 October, Greg Pritchett and his team hosted nearly 50 current and past customers of Supply Velocity. …
The case study below is a summary. For more details click on the full white-paper. The problems with surveys Most companies that want to measure customer satisfaction create a survey. These efforts usually fail for multiple reasons. The “annual” survey measures satisfaction during too short a duration Response rates are low There are too many…
July 10th I presented “What is new in Lean” for the Midwest Manufacturing Leaders. 100 people heard me discuss taking Lean beyond the facility and making your supply chain Lean. My co-presenter was Ray Keefe, recently retired Executive Vice President of Manufacturing for Emerson. If you would like a copy of this presentation send me…
Download White Paper: Measuring Customer Satisfaction – Creating a Reliable Survey
Some common themes we observe or hear from clients and prospective clients about their company: a lack of accountability for results organizational responsibility and ownership is not well defined poor communications; there are often department silos or walls that reduce communication departments are not aligned throughout the organization goals and objectives are poorly defined or…
Lean Six Sigma in Healthcare The next few months’ newsletters will look at Lean Six Sigma applications in Hospitals. We all have a vested interest in seeing our hospitals continuously improve productivity and quality. These case studies will show how we used Lean Six Sigma tools to improve various aspects of administration and patient care.…
Lean Six Sigma in Hospitals – 5S Visual Management Details: 5S Implementation 1). This HR department hoarded paper. Like many people the HR Specialists felt the messier their desks the busier they must be. It was cultural! Everyone’s desk looked like these pictures. 2) Once we did the initial 5S blitz, we created a 5S…
Finding Cost Reductions in the Value Stream We used Value Stream Mapping to evaluate costs from “Field to Table”. All processing costs were analyzed. The scope was to attack overhead costs and processes that were increasing expenses or reducing sales. “Costs of goods sold” was excluded. Examples of processing costs were distribution direct labor, store…
Lean & Six Sigma in Distribution/Warehousing This Distributor began their Lean Journey in the middle of the Great Recession. Despite the fact that sales were down, they were willing to invest in reducing costs and improving Customer Service. They chose 3 problem areas of the company and combined Implementation Projects with Supply Velocity’s Lean Workshop.…
Lean Six Sigma Tools Performance Scorecard 5S Visual Management Details 1) This project was totally driven by the Scorecard. Once the team created its Bulk Delivery Department Scorecard, they quickly realized what had to be done to improve performance. We came up with a saying that “the data will lead the way”. Download Delivery Lean…
Lean Shipping Process This company manufactured products for the construction industry and distributed highly engineered components produced by other companies. Manufacturing and Distribution were separate businesses, which came together at Shipping. This project was driven by the company’s CFO, who felt that shipping processes, which had never been looked at, were wasteful. As you will…
Inbound Freight Savings Project Outline This project was fundamentally about getting two departments (Purchasing and Logistics) to see the entire process and determine how they could work together to save the company money on inbound freight. Our first objective was to understand the problem and the opportunity. We developed a problem statement. Download PowerPoint Presentation…
On-Target Sales Strategy / Six Sigma Sales We hope you find value from our examples of Lean Six Sigma at work. Due to the difficult economic environment many organizations face, we will spend the next few months looking at the application of Lean Six Sigma to Sales Strategy, or what we call On-Target Sales Strategy,…
On-Target Sales Strategy / Six Sigma Sales The economy is not getting any better… but you can buck the trend! Knowing your customer creates focus and focus creates success. Read below how we used Six Sigma to create a focused sales and marketing strategy by deeply understanding the best markets for our Client. Problem This…
Sales is like any process, it operates by design or default. Using Lean Tools we redesigned a very successful company’s sales process to improve Sales Rep Productivity, getting more Profit from every Rep. Problem This month’s case-study Client sells transportation equipment, services this equipment and sells replacement parts. The owner had executed a successful growth…
Lean Six Sigma Tools Cause & Effect Diagram Pareto Analysis Comparison Analysis (Box & Whisker Chart) This manufacturing/distribution company had 8 sales reps that covered specific geographic regions of the northeast United States. The company manufactured several components and distributed others to a very specific industry-niche. We started the project with a Cause & Effect Diagram…
Lean Six Sigma Tools Cause & Effect Diagram Scatter Diagram As stated above, the company’s sale force all wanted to lower prices to help them sell more (close more business). We analyzed what impact (good or bad) that might have on sales and profit. We started the project with a Cause & Effect Diagram of…
I am working at a defense contractor Client, streamlining their supply chain management processes. We will definitely do a e-newsletter on this project. The team identified 46,000 hours per year of wasted steps. The future state completely changed their planning and purchasing processes. We are working with them now on their proposal development and program…
Lean Six Sigma Tools Cause & Effect Diagram Performance Scorecards Scatter Diagram We started the project with a Cause & Effect Diagram of everything that impacts sales and close rate. Download Estimator Inside Sales Analysis March 2011 PowerPoint Presentation. This e-newsletter will focus on estimator effectiveness, which the team felt could be a significant area…
One of the best aspects of pursuing (part time) my Ph.D in Supply Chain Management is that I get to research certain topics and apply them to help my valued Clients. I am currently writing a academic paper on SKU Optimization. It is based on a method that is case studied in this month’s e-newsletter. …
This month we will feature ground-breaking work in finding attributes that predict customer profitability. This project was done for a Supply Velocity Client (products shown below) with the support of a Ph.D Supply Chain Management study at the University of Missouri St. Louis. The Ph.D program has been a great way to learn new skills…
When it comes to winning proposals, we find that many companies, including this Client, over-estimate their Win %. Company executives stated that Win % was 80%. In reality it was 37%. Once we discovered this important fact they wanted to find out what helped them win proposal. Overall proposal data is shown on Slide 2…
This Newsletter will case study Phase 3 of the improvements made to our custom cabinet and millwork manufacturing client. The prior few months we profiled the improvements they made in their business, via Performance Measurement and On-Target™ Sales Strategy. This month we will review the improvements they’ve made in Operations. They produce custom cabinets and…
This newsletter will case study Phase 2 of the improvements made at our Transportation Equipment Distributor client. Last month we reviewed how we streamlined the sales process to give Sales Reps more time to sell and grow profit. This month we will review how we delivered on the promises we made to customers, providing this…
Ray is working with a Defense Contractor on creating company-wide Performance Scorecards.
Mitch is working with a Grocery Retail & Distribution Company, teaching a select group of associates to be Lean Six Sigma Champions.
Download White Paper: Facility Location Optimization
Download White Paper: 16 Critical Supply Chain Management Concepts
Lean Six Sigma Tools Performance Measurement 5S Visual Management Spaghetti Diagrams Time Study Details – Performance Measurement The team first learned about Performance Measurement and then created their Performance Scorecards. As you can see, On Time Delivery of service shows up twice as measures of seeing patients at their appointment times. (How may of you…
SKU Rationalization Project Outline Our initial analysis indicated that they had a high concentration of strong performing SKUs (70.63% of sales came from the top 25% of SKUs) and a significant number of low performing SKUs (1.47% of sales came from the bottom 25% of SKUs). SKU Analysis Presentation. The next analysis (slide #2) showed…
Lean Six Sigma Tools Pareto Analysis Spaghetti Map Process Flow Map This valve manufacturer produced a semi-finished product that its customer final assembled / packaged for their original-equipment-manufacture (OEM) and distributor customers. The final assembly/packaging was being transferred to the valve manufacturer. Instead of producing 200 stock-keeping-units (SKUs) in larger lot sizes they would be…
Reducing Overhead Labor with Value Stream Mapping This Plastics Manufacturing Company was caught in the Great Recession. They had to reduce costs when some of their customers cut back, including an auto-plant that closed. However, being a capital intensive manufacturer, the options were not obvious. Lean Six Sigma Tools This project used Value Stream Mapping…
This custom cabinet and millwork manufacturer was the in-house manufacturing division of a larger residential construction company. They grew very rapidly with a large multi-year order and were spun off as a separate company. The large multi-year order ended and sales dropped precipitously. The overhead costs from equipment and manufacturing space quickly created a loss…
We will use as a case study the same Defense Contractor Client discussed in the April e-newsletter. One of the things we learned in that project was the significant labor that can be expended developing a proposal. Depending on the opportunity, engineering, materials and direct labor costs have to be estimated at a high degree…
Download White Papers: Decoding the DNA of Profitable Customers
Strategic Tradeoffs in Operations Don’t Exist In an important paper written in the Harvard Business Review, Skinner (1969) stated that in operations you must make tradeoffs between quality, delivery, flexibility and cost. In other words, you cannot have it all. Academic researchers jumped on this idea and conducted many surveys of companies around the world…
Download White Paper: Important Qualitative Supply Chain Decisions
Link to Additional Details Download “Important Quantitative Supply Chain Decisions” here. We decided to call this “Quantitative” Supply Chain Decisions, but we could have called it Logistics Decisions. Logistics can be described as the supply chain within a firm, encompassing the more quantitative decisions. We will provide an overview of these decisions. For more details…
Download White Paper: Supply Chain Operations Reference SCOR Model
Link to Additional Details Download “Supply Chain Operations Reference Model” here. You may be wondering, “What is an operations reference?” SCOR is a process model, and separately, but related, a measurement model. Process Model As a process model it follows the supply chain through five functional areas. These are called the Level 1 processes. Plan…
Download White Paper: Designing Your Global Supply Chain
Link to the White-Paper Designing Your Global Supply Chain In the 1990’s, and with the rise of the concept of Supply Chain Management, supply chains have gone global. Creating a global supply chain forced companies to consider the strategic choices they made when designing their supply chain. Globalization has included suppliers in many different countries,…
Link to the White-Paper The Ideal Lean Assessment Scorecard The Ideal Lean Process All employees show up to work every day, are motivated, can work at any operation and are constantly looking for ways to improve processes Supplies can be ordered and delivered immediately, in whatever quantities are needed and are defect free Equipment never…
Download White Paper: The Ideal Lean Assessment Scorecard
Download White Paper: Using Information Technology to Revolutionize your Supply Chain
Download White Paper: Trust and Collaboration in the Supply Chain
Download White Paper: Choosing the Best Supply Chain for your Products
Download White Paper: The Bullwhip Effect in Supply Chains
I just finished work with a Client on creating a Direct Labor Performance Incentive. I may present more on this later in the year. I wanted to draw attention to the top of the photo. You may be able to make out one of the greatest quotes ever, from the founder of this company,…
Recently I held a Process Improvement Forum at Weekends Only; a furniture store Client with 5 stores in the St. Louis area. Last year we used Lean Six Sigma to improve the process of picking furniture for customer pick up. See the testimonial below from Weekends Only’s COO for results. During the Forum they highlighted…
Download White Paper: Streamlining your Supply Chain
Download White Paper: The Secret to Distributor-Delivery Profitability
Mitch is working with Diane, the Ops Manager of a Furniture Retailer, time studying the order fulfillment process. It is hard to see, but the order-selector is down the aisle on a forktruck getting a sofa.
Ray is working with a Defense Contractor on creating company-wide Performance Scorecards.
Download White Paper: Increase Profits through Six Sigma Customer Analysis
Download White Paper: Strategic Planning using Strategic Filters and WIGs
Download White Papers: A Lean Product Development Process
Download White Paper: Improve Sales Force Effectiveness Using Multi-Variable Customer Ranking
Download White Paper: Streamlining Warehouse Operations with Lean Six Sigma
Download White Paper: Performance Scorecards – The Foundation for Lean Six Sigma
Download White Paper: Lean in Human Resources – Streamlining the Hiring Process
Mitch is working with a Grocery Retail & Distribution Company, teaching a select group of associates to be Lean Six Sigma Champions
Download White Paper: Using Value Stream Mapping to Reduce Overhead Labor
Download White Papers: Creating a Lean Sales Process
Download White Paper: Lean Healthcare Streamlining Primary Care
Download White Paper: Is Lean More than Kaizen Events
Download White Paper: SKU Reduction The Biggest SKLUsers
Download White Paper: Finding Productivity Improvements from Field to Table
Download White Paper: Improving Store and DC Productivity through Minimum Order Quantity Analysis