| |
| |
|
Management Information |
|
Five Days to More Effective Inventory Management
The litany of headaches related to the implementation and on-going care-and-feeding of enterprise-based inventory management applications (upgrading, downtime, maintenance, hardware obsolescence, and so on) is long. These implementation issues are enough make the savviest of companies want to engage in anything but another supply chain or inventory management software implementation. For this reason, your organization should consider adopting a hosted inventory management solution. Because such solutions are web-based, adopting them is as easy as selecting the processes you want to use or share, determining the roles of your users, and, using templates, loading the data. The biggest hurdle is usually getting the correct data if it has not been collected before. You determine the processes you want to map and the vendor guides you through the rest of the process. The primary reason such solutions can be implemented so quickly is that they are based upon an "on demand" or ASP (application service provider) model. This means there is no software or hardware to implement. This costly time consuming activity has already been done by the vendor. As you pay only for the users, this saves you a lot time and dollars. You determine the process flows (what steps you want to use), import data into the templates, upload the information into the application, and go. It really can be that easy. Naturally you also want to get your customers on-line. Most vendors will provide you with training, and also train your customers, and their customers. The more people (customers and suppliers) using your network and extended network the greater the returns you and your customers will experience. Here's your five-day roadmap for getting better at managing your inventory: Day 1: Due diligence
Day 2: Go/ no go decision
Day 3: Planning
Day 4: Setup and pilot
Day 5: Rollout
Ken Town is VP Research and Technology at Invendia, a leading provider of Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) and Web-based Inventory solutions.
MORE RESOURCES: Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Inspirational Power ( Part 1 ) The Fundamentals of Strategic Marketing, Some Key Traits for Greater EffectivenessProbably, the greatest challenge to marketing management in the next five Years will be to change quick and fast enough, in order to keep pace with new technologies, new markets and new corporate valuesAccording to the definition of the AMA, "Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders. "Customer focus has nowadays become a cliché among marketers keen to win competitive advantage. Performance Evaluation: How To Create Change STEPS TOWARDS GIVING A GOOD APPRAISAL INTERVIEW: Give specific feedback. Statements such as, "You're doing a good job" and "You'd better shape up" are almost without value unless accompanied by specific feedback on what the employee is to continue doing or to stop doing. Manage Your Business from the Rockies, not the Prairies The day job as a manager is all about managing your people to deliver, to meet the needs of your customers or clients and generating success after success! Right? And you have consequences if that doesn't happen.Worst case scenario is that you lose your job or your business, because your people haven't delivered. Recognition: A Quick, Low-cost Way to Motivate Employees Recognizing good performance through praise or other positive action is one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to motivate people. It provides three major benefits:It lets people know that their performance was valued, and increases the likelihood that they will continue to perform well. What Cross-cultural Training Can Do for You International business is more complex than ever before. Success in every sector is now seen in global terms. How to Coach Your Employees - 5 Simple Steps Anyone Can Do! Want to get more from your people, but you don't know how? Are you up for a small challenge and prepared to do things a little differently? If so, we have five changes to your style that you will find easy to incorporate into the way you work and your people will love you for it; you will have more time and your business will flourish.Think about it - is that not worth just the little effort required?Stop Fixing ThingsNext time someone comes to you with a problem in your business, STOP, before you give the solution and try the next step. The Top Three Problems IT Managers Face and How to Overcome Them Todays business environment has changed drastically from just a few years back. Rather than working exclusively with equipment, data, and systems, todays IT managers face issues such as cross training, personnel management, interdepartmental communication, and a widening job scope for all IT employees. Preparing a Budget Ok, you say, I know I need a budget, but how do I prepare one? The most common budget period is one year, but this can vary depending on whether or not your business has seasonal or cyclical fluctuations. For example if you run a Christmas decorations shop, or a costume shop your business is going to peak during certain times of the year. The Seven Cs: Partnership Danger Signs - Competitive, Not Complementary Action A series of articles exploring the seven critical areas that can indicate a partnership is in trouble.Competitive, Not Complementary ActionJames Carville and Mary Matlin are public relations spokespeople for the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively. Smart Staffing Practices: Don't Confuse Activity with Results Does your hiring process consist of proven practices or just a hodgepodge of activities that get into gear when someone says, "I need more people" or "Sally has left and we need someone to take her place NOW?"Smart hiring is more than running ads, screening, interviewing and checking references. It is a series of specific procedures that can work well or create bottlenecks and inefficiencies. Dont Wait for Tax Time to Look at the Bottom Line A curious thing happens to entrepreneurs in the spring of every year. They wake up one day and realize they had better figure out how much money they made last year so they can pay their taxes. Hiring Great People And How to Be One Yourself: Five Secrets Bad news.Your senior vice-president, your marketing director or your accounting department head has decided to retire, move to Okinawa or start his own business--and you're left staring, horrified, at a polite letter of resignation. How To Decrease Profits Without Really Trying Hurting your sales efforts can be accomplished easily with the proper guidance. The following effective yet simple ideas are designed to generate results when implemented into your sales strategy. Don't Forget Where You Came from - Why the Past is Important in Implementing Business Change Much of the literature and advice on implementing business change focuses on knowing where you are going and making sure that you understand and communicate a consistent vision of the future. Indeed, I have looked at the importance of this in an earlier article in this series. Burger on a Bun Decision Making When approaching any decision, it's important for individuals to maintain the healthy state of openness called for by WYSINWYG (what you see is never what you get). Remember that there is always more going on than simply meets the eye. The Top Six Reasons to Buy Rather Than Build an Inventory Management Solution Is building your own inventory management solution really your best bet?The issues that companies face when they decide to build a solution in house are numerous: Scarce development resources, project cost overruns, delivery delays, unexpected technical issues, long-term maintenance issues.For these reasons, you should consider purchasing hosted, flexible, "out-of-the-box" vendor managed inventory (VMI) and web-based inventory solutions that can be running in a matter of days -- rather than months -- all at a fixed monthly price - with no delays, low risk and a lower total cost of ownership. Managing Dickheads "We are so different and individualistic that we can't work together." Subroto Bag chi, a senior executive in wipro technologies and Indian Technology MNC, said to his chairman in a straight talk. Downsizing in Organisations - The Real Truth I've met and worked with many people in all sectors of the business world and found that the majority of managers and team leaders are spending too much of their time on basic administrative tasks. Tasks for which they have had no training in. Strategic Clarity for Communication Management Over the past few weeks I've been developing plans for a communication project, a media relations campaign.That's prompted me to reflect again on the communication management process by which we transform communication ideas into operational activities. Lets Make Training More Interesting! Many HR managers believe that by sending their workers to participate in external training programs, they have fulfilled their responsibilities. This is not the best situation.
|
| home | site map | contact us |