WORKSHOP: Supply Chain Management: Trends, Opportunities, and Challenges

THIS WORKSHOP HAS BEEN CANCELED

 
Presented by

Workshop Description:

Supply Chain Management (SCM) has been critical to ensure that manufacturing companies deliver their products at the right time and location. A supply chain of operations can be divided into three sections: suppliers, internal operations, and distribution section. The first section of the supply chain oversees all activities related to the procurement of the raw materials with special emphasis on supplier development, supplier relationships, and supplier reliability. The middle part of the supply chain focuses on the transformation of raw materials into added-value products. Internal operations such as inventory stocking and material handling are carefully designed and planned in this section. The last section of the supply chain concentrates on the distribution of those goods to the firm’s customers. The goal of the last section is to make sure the firm’s goods are delivered on time, at the right price and without any mechanical damage. As expected, managing the whole supply chain of operations of any company is a critical task that consumes a great portion of the firm’s resources, therefore only by understanding the internal and external elements that affects the supply chain can a company compete in today’s market place.

A Supply Chain Management Model
This workshop will focus on the basic concepts of SCM as described earlier. We will begin with a review of SCM definitions and what the new trends and challenges are for today’s firms in regards of the supply chain. After this, attendants will have the opportunity to learn about third party logistic partners, SCM technologies, and global transportation issues related to the supply chain. Also, the participants will know what best practices can be used in order to better manage their supply chain through lean thinking. We have arranged a selection of presenters that combine academic and industry expertise with emphasis on practical applications.

Workshop outline (subject to change)

  • Supply Chain Management: Trends and Challenges, Jaime Camelio, Assistant Professor at the Department of Industrial Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech
  • Third Party Logistics and Global Transportation Issues. Harry Sink,  Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management, North Carolina A & T State University
  • Lean Supply Chain: Best Practices. Earl Kline, Professor at the Department of Wood Science and Forest Products, Virginia Tech
  • Supply Chain Management Technology. Henry Quesada, Assistant Professor at the Department of Wood Science and Forest Products, Virginia Tech
  • SCM and the Wood Products Industry: A Case of Study. Omar Espinosa. Post Doctoral Researcher at the Department of Wood Science and Forest Products, Virginia Tech
  • Supplier Development. Jaime Camelio.
  • Final discussion

Workshop Objectives:

  • Understand the basic concepts of Supply Chain Management, trends and challenges
  • Learn about how third party logistic partners can help my company
  • Discover how to apply Lean thinking tools to improve the supply chain
  • Learn and understand how information technologies can help your firm to improve the performance of your supply chain
  • Understand basic aspects to develop your suppliers

Who should attend:

  • Process Engineers, Procurement Managers, Supplier Chain Managers, Purchasing Managers, Plant Engineers, Small and Medium Enterprise Managers.
  • Anyone interested in learning the basics in Supply Chain Management.

Unique value of the workshop

  • Workshop will give the trends and challenges to consider when developing high performance supply chains
  • Best practices in how to combine lean thinking tools with supply chain management will be addressed
  • Participants will be given examples and practical applications to better understand supply chain management concepts

Location, date and registration:

  • Date: November 12, 2010
  • Time: 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
  • Location: Institute for Advanced Learning and Research. Danville, VA
  • Investment: $35. Includes coffee breaks and workshop materials.
  • REGISTRATION: Click here. Also by phone at (540) 231-0978 or by email at quesada@vt.edu

Further information:

Please contact Dr. Henry Quesada at quesada@vt.edu or at (540) 231-0978 if you have any questions. Download a brouchure in a PDF format SCM brochure

RESEARCH BRIEF: Defining and Measuring Innovation

By Johanna Madrigal, PhD Candidate
Department of Wood Science and Forest Products
Virginia Tech

 

 
 

What is Innovation?

Innovation as a concept was first introduced in 1934 by Joseph Alois Schumpeter, a Harvard University professor of Economy, and since then has been defined as fundamental driver of wealth creation in the world, bringing value with economic importance to the market. The Oslo Manual, defines innovation as “the implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service), or process, a new marketing method, or a new organizational method in business practices, workplace organization or external relations”.

How is Innovation measured?

There is more than one indicator to measure innovation, however one of the most common indicators is to measure the contribution made by Reserach and Develpmetn (R&D) to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country. Using this indicator the US Government, though the Census Bureau, ranks the states and its contribution. By 2008 the overall contribution of R&D to the GDP 2.6% and only the states shown in the following chart reached this value as its individual contribution.

Ratio of Research and Development Expenses to total GDP by State

Which industries innovate?

According to National Science Foundation (NSF), the economic activities in the country are divided by sectors, where innovation is also measured based on the total investment performed by each sector. This chart shows a comparison of the Wood Industry to the largest industry sectors. It is observed that the major investment is done at the Computer and Electronic billion business sector ($56.8 billion), followed by Pharmaceutical and Medical business sector ($38.9). Meanwhile the lowest investments are done by Wood Industry ($2.365 billion), which ranks its business sectors at the bottom of the R&D measurement scale indicating a large gap to close in order to place Wood Industry as an innovative business sector.

Research and Development Investments by Industry (NSF 2008)

WORKSHOP: Energy Savings Using Lean Thinking

Lean thinking is a philosophy or process improvement framework that it was coined early in the 1980’s by Jim Womack when he was working with Toyota Motor Company in Japan. Japanese engineers were working on several process improvement initiatives with the common goal to increase assets utilization, reduce waste, and increase customer satisfaction.

Presented by

Workshop Description:

Lean thinking is a philosophy or process improvement framework that it was coined early in the 1980’s by Jim Womack when he was working with Toyota Motor Company in Japan. Japanese engineers were working on several process improvement initiatives with the common goal to increase assets utilization, reduce waste, and increase customer satisfaction. When Womack was asked for his advice to name these efforts he immediately understood that Toyota basically wanted to go Lean. After this moment, a revolution was born and today millions of companies around the World continue their efforts to turn their organization into lean organizations, where the emphasis is placed in eliminating or minimizing any activity that does not produce value from the customer point of view.  

U.S. primary energy consumption,1980-2035 (quadrillion Btu) (http://www.eia.doe.gov/)

Besides helping a company to increase customer satisfaction levels, decrease manufacturing cost, and increase profitability levels, lean thinking is also a philosophy that can help your company to drastically decrease energy consumption, affecting not just the manufacturing cost, but also contributing to protect the environment by decreasing the firm’s carbon foot print. There are a variety of efforts by several organizations that have created resources to help industries to save energy by implementing lean projects. This workshop will review those efforts by introducing the basic concepts of lean thinking, and how those concepts can be translated into practical applications so your firm might start looking at important energy consumption reductions in a short time. Also, the workshop will give information on special information technology platforms that you can use to monitor your energy consumption along with current efforts in the industry in energy savings.

Workshop outline

  • Energy Consumption in the Industry. Mark Webb. Director of Policy and Business Evaluation. Alternative Energy Solutions
  • Review of Lean Thinking. Earl Kline. Professor of Manufacturing Systems, Virginia Tech
  • Lean Energy Audit Toolkit. Henry Quesada. Assistant Professor of Business and Manufacturing Processes. Virginia Tech
  • Quantifying Energy Savings Through Lean Thinking. Earl Kline. Professor of Manufacturing Systems, Virginia Tech
  • Energy Management Application Platforms. Tyler Gill. Senior Business Development Manager. Enernoc
  • Case of study. Shannon Walls. Continous Improvement Coordinator. Masco Cabinetry Division.
  • Roundtable discussion

Workshop Objectives:

  • Understand the impact of energy consumption in manufacturing
  • Review the basic concepts of lean thinking and how those could be related to energy savings
  • Discover a toolkit you can use to audit your energy consumption
  • Learn about information technologies that are available to monitor and control your energy consumption.

Who should attend:

  • Plant Managers, Quality Engineers, Process Engineers, Procurement Managers, Supplier Chain Managers, Purchasing Managers, Plant Engineers, Small and Medium Enterprise Managers.
  • Anyone interested in learning the basics of Process Improvement

Unique value of the workshop

  • Attendants will have the opportunity to understand how the implementation of a lean project could potentially lead to significant energy savings
  • Participants will learn how to apply a lean energy audit toolkit to identify the main sources of energy waste in their processes.
  • Participants will be given examples and practical applications to better understand how  a lean thinking process can result in potential energy savings.

Location, date and registration:

  • Time: 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
  • Dates and Locations:
    • September 10, 2010. Riverstone Energy Center. South Boston, VA.
  • Investment: $35. Includes coffee breaks and workshop materials.
  • Registration: Click here. If you wish to pay by check just let us know so we can reserve your seat.

Further information:

Please contact Dr. Henry Quesada at quesada@vt.edu or at (540)-231-0978 if you have any questions. Click HERE to see a brouchure in PDF format.

Wood Innovation Research Group Reports in first Semester of Research Project funded by USDA-FSMIP

By Scott Lyon, Graduate Student. March 25, 2010.

The potential for US forest products in international markets such as Central America has not been historically addressed. With a combined population of more than 40 million residents, Central America offers many business opportunities for US hardwood and softwood lumber producers. Our effort will focus on the most important economies in Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. We believe that the increased rates of housing, tourism infrastructure, and public infrastructure will need a massive supply of hardwood and softwood lumber that the region itself will not be able to fulfill in the near future. Also, we have found that local protectionism policies in favor of the national forests of these countries would benefit the imports of wood products, especially from the United States. The concern of harvesting tropical forests also provides an opportunity to increase sales of US temperate species. Our goal is to create an export handbook of Central America for Virginia wood products industries.

During the first six months of the project, the research team conducted a literature review and face-to-face interviews with governmental officials in Panama and Costa Rica to determine the current demand of local production, the potential for future production, and any trade barriers for new importers.

Visit to Panamerican Woods, a tropical hardwood flooring manufacturing Site in Costa Rica

Continue reading “Wood Innovation Research Group Reports in first Semester of Research Project funded by USDA-FSMIP”