WORKSHOP: Supply Chain Management: Opportunities and Challenges

Trends, Opportunities and Challenges

Presented by

  • The Manufacturing Extension Partnership Center at Purdue University
  • The Center of Forest Products Business at Virginia Tech
  • The Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at Purdue University

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.

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RESEARCH BRIEF: Incremental innovation and continuous improvement: Are they related?

by Johanna Madrigal
jmadriga@vt.edu

February 15, 2011. Dean and Bowen (1994) suggest that continuous improvement (CI) has been one of the largest advances in business management; actually there are few businesses, especially in the manufacturing sector that can ignore CI as a working philosophy; in the same situation we can find innovation which is also receiving a lot of attention as a tool for sustainable growth and competitive advantage (Tushman and Nadler, 1986); but are they related?

There are authors who have challenged if both approaches in business management can be found in the same organization due to the difference in their nature; for example, Maguire and Hagen (1999) argue that CI is not compatible with innovation, since CI is developed for managing quality meanwhile innovation is required to break all the standards to come with something new. As Prajogo and Sohal (2003) states, there is a concern about organizations having to choose between quality and innovation since being successful at both is not reachable.
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Hidden Lean Energy Savings: TPM and Rework

Bryan M. Stinnett, MS. Candidate
bryan70@vt.edu  

 

January 30, 2011. Energy costs play a major roll in the financial position of most companies. Energy costs are often hidden in overhead expenses. A poll performed by (NAM) or National Association of Manufacturers showed that management of small and medium size manufacturing companies believe higher energy costs are having a negative affect on their bottom line (EPA 2007). Manufacturing facilities are dependent on large amounts of machinery/equipment that operate with various sources of energy such as electricity, natural gas and fossil fuels. Manufacturing processes are not the only demand for energy. Transportation of their raw materials and the final product, also maintaining a commercial office space should be considered. In Figure 1 these factors are shown. Considering these areas, 78% of the energy consumed by major sectors of the U.S. economy directly affects most Industrial and manufacturing companies in the U.S. such as the Wood products industry.

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RESEARCH BRIEF: Establishing audits for lean energy in the wood product industry

Bryan Stinnett,
MS Candidate, Virginia Tech

 

Lean Principles have traditionally been applied mainly in a manufacturing environment, but today it is being applied to most areas from the business office to health care facilities. The exception is in the area of energy, especially in regards to the wood products sector. It has been used in these areas mainly for the manufacturing, man power and supply chain systems.

Figure, 1. Audit steps (Energy Efficiency Planning and management Guide, 2002)
 

Our research will focus on three wood products companies in Virginia and with the assistance of an independent third party energy metering company. The metering company will take measurements before during and after lean recommendations are implemented. With the data from the metering company we will locate the key areas of energy consumption, and what the consumption rates are at peak and non-peak times. We have completed a walk through conditional energy survey and applied the survey to lean thinking at the three participating companies. By using lean thinking we will be able to eliminate waste (Muda). Lean thinking is a powerful antidote for waste (Muda). It provides a way to specify value, line up value creating actions in the best sequence, conduct these activities with out interruption when requested, and perform them more and more effectively. It also provides a way to make work more satisfying by providing immediate feed back. (Womack and Jones,: 2003) (Figure 1) shows the initial steps of the audit. It can be tempting to move quickly into the audit itself, especially for auditors who are technically oriented. However, understanding the ground rules in advance will help auditors to use their time more efficient, and will insure that the needs of the company commissioning the audit are met. (Energy Efficiency Planning and Management Guide, 2002

 
Figure 2. Wood kiln being constructed

Although the conditional survey preceded the main audit, it can also identify EMO’s (Energy Management Opportunities). The survey ratings helps identify and prioritize areas of the facility that should be examined more extensity. Some of the key EMO’s are, Lighting Systems, material handling systems, fans, heat pumps, compressed air systems dryers, kilns, and storage areas. (Figure 2) shows a new energy efficient kiln being constructed at a hardwood flooring company. (Figure 3) Is a materials storage area at the same hardwood flooring facility. These are just some examples of the areas we will be looking at. 

The audit mandate will make the audit’s goals and objectives clear and outline the key constraints that apply when the recommendations are implemented. The audits scope is the physical extent of the audit’s focus that should be specified, and the types of information and approaches that will identify the scope of the auditors work should be identified. (Energy Efficiency Planning and Management Guide, 2002)

With information from the metering and audits we will be able to define the scope then appropriate lean implementation for each company that will improve their efficiency, decrease cost and green house gases by eliminating waste and adding value

Figure 3. Warehouse

If you consider the energy crisis the world now faces it is necessary for more research in this area than ever before. When energy cost are low which they have been for long time people usually do not think about the wasted amounts of energy until the cost start to rise. 

References:

  • Energy Efficiency Planning and Management Guide, Natural Resources Canada, 2002. Web site; oee.nrcan.gc.ca/publications/infosource/pub/cipec/efficiency/index.cfm?attr=24
  • Womack, J. and Jones, D.2003, Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in your Corporation.3rd ed. Free Press. New York, USA

WORKSHOP: Process Improvement Frameworks

Presented by

 

Workshop Description:

Strategic frameworks are a set of ideas and guidelines to increase the efficiency of your internal business processes and to raise customer satisfaction levels. Strategic frameworks can be classified into three different categories: process improvement, organizational management, and process automation. Process improvement frameworks focus on the improvement of internal processes in a firm such as manufacturing, procurement, human resources, financial, and distribution. Organizational management frameworks aim to help a firm to better organize the company’s overall strategy. Automation frameworks are related to the implementation of information technology solutions to increase the productivity, communication, and synchronization of all internal business processes with external entities such as customers and suppliers.

The business process improvement framework by the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC)

Process improvement frameworks such as Lean Thinking, Six Sigma, Supply Chain Management, and Theory of Constraints have been commonly adopted in many manufacturing and service industries. In this workshop, we will give you the basics of each of the most important process improvement frameworks. We will also introduce other strategic frameworks such as Value Chains, Business Process Management and Enterprise Resources Planning to help you develop a strategy to implement your process improvement framework. We have carefully selected a list of speakers that bring academic credibility in combination with industry expertise.

Workshop outline (subject to change)

  • Strategic Frameworks, Henry Quesada, Operations Research Assistant Professor,  Department of Wood Science and Forest Products
  • Six Sigma, Johanna Madrigal, Six Sigma Green Belt and PhD Candidate,  Department of Wood Science and Forest Products
  • Lean Thinking, Earl Kline, Operations Research Professor,  Department of Wood Science and Forest Products
  • Supply Chain Management, Jaime Camelio, Operations Research Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial Systems Engineering 
  • Business Process Management, Henry Quesada
  • Enterprise Resource Planning, Roberta Rusell, Business and Information Technology Professor, Pamplin School of Business
  • Roundtable discussion

Workshop Objectives:

  • Understand the basic concepts of the most important process improvement frameworks.
  • Learn how to integrate different process improvement frameworks using Business Process Management.
  • Understand which process improvement framework is a better fit for your own business.
  • Discover the impact of automation frameworks to increase your internal processes productivity.

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 the main advantages and disadvantages of the most common process improvement frameworks.
  • Participants will be given details to understand what process improvement framework could best fit their own firm’s business model.
  • Participants will be given examples and practical applications to better understand the process improvement framework concepts.

Location, date and registration:

  • Date: October 22, 2010
  • Time: 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
  • Location: Brooks Center, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
  • Investment: $35. Includes coffee breaks and workshop materials.
  • REGISTRATION: Please click here http://www.cpe.vt.edu/reg/pifw/

Further information:

Please contact Dr. Henry Quesada at quesada@vt.edu or at (540)231-0978 if you have any questions.