Critical Aircraft Planning Shortfall

An example of a vehicle/piece of equipment that required center of balance
An example of a vehicle/piece of equipment that required center of balance

 

For three years I worked in the logistics field in and around Jacksonville, North Carolina. I did logistical planning and execution of aircraft for both passengers and vital air cargo that needed to get transported overseas. I had completed extensive amounts of paperwork that had to get done in the preparation for the movements, particularly inspections of the cargo for banned/hazardous materials. Hazardous material needed to be properly documents, packaged, labeled, and then inspected in order for me to sign off on it, which then held me liable if anything had happened with the cargo on the aircraft.

As part of the cargo, vehicles also needed to get loaded onto cargo aircraft. Vehicles were a challenge because they had to be calculated for center of balance and based on that measurement a load plan would be created for the aircraft. If anyone is not familiar, the center of balance is the point at which a vehicle would remain in equilibrium, or balanced on both sides. This was an important part of loading vehicles – to heavy of an axle towards the front or back of the aircraft and not enough weight on the other side could be disastrous.

In an attempt to cut costs and save time, the management at our office decided to invest in a weigh-in-motion scale. This system was outfitted with four scales and a laser system. When a vehicle was driven over the scales, it would automatically take the weight of each individual axle (similar to a highway truck weigh station) and the lasers would capture the exact dimensions. This information is then transferred to the computer and printed out a center of balance ticket which was used in planning the aircraft configuration.

A very simple process, with one major flaw. The system was a mobile unit on a trailer and had to be packed after every use. Due to this it took a little over an hour (and a small team of people) to set it up and get everything calibrated correctly. There was a team of only three of us that were initially trained and knew how to properly work this system, which is plenty knowing that once it is set up the system is extremely easy to use. What the management did not think of is that we were on a constant rotation cycle, moving from city to city or state to state every couple years. With this high turn-around there was no planned way for anyone to pass on the knowledge about the system and how it works. The system has now been sitting idle for over a year. It is a shame to know that such an expensive, valuable system is not being used because the proper training did not occur to get people up to speed. A good idea on paper, but the needs of the workers at the terminal must be considered.

As management, would be your solution to create a smoother transition into this system?

 

Sources:

http://www.abi.gr/en/content/117-cargo

The Era of Panera

Panera Bread Case Study

The food industry definitely has its struggles as a workplace.  However, can’t that be said about any job position?  I have realized that it all depends on the quality of management.  As a new employee of Panera Bread, I am proud to praise the company and the leadership it offers.  Their strategic decisions and success in hiring passionate, yet qualified operation managers, makes it easy to relate everything learned in class.

In chapter one, we were given a list of 10 strategic decisions of operations management to ponder:

1.  Design of goods and services

2.  Managing quality

3.  Process and capacity design

4.  Location strategy

5.  Layout strategy

6.  Human resources and job design

7.  Supply-chain management

8.  Inventory management

9.  Scheduling

10.  Maintenance

When I think Panera Bread, I think strategy success.  The restaurant layout, quality food, and design of service are only three of the tactful ways Panera remains popular among the community.  The environment strives for a homey feel–using all of the senses to engage one in its comfortability.  For example, the aroma of freshly baked bread captures the sensation of one’s own kitchen.  As the foremost important attribute to the restaurant, bread is baked to quality every night to satisfy customers.  In addition, handpicked employees are chosen to complete the overall sincere and warm-hearted experience.

The hiring process, itself, had given me reason to believe that Panera’s operations were organized and safely developed.  They cared so much about finding people who fit into the beliefs of the corporation.  Even as the ‘new girl’ I was surprised how many people made me feel welcomed with a simple introduction.  Also, the pride and carefulness in training was a process I had never gone through–even though I had previously worked in the food industry.  The procedure first began with a group interview, which later led to a one-on-one.  This allowed the managers to see how each interviewee reacted within a crowd, as well as getting to know them personally. Once receiving confirmation of making the team, an event known as, Plan a Bread, must be attended.  It would inform workers of the company’s background and intended goals.  Then, hours of e-learning videos and quizzes continued the process.  Next was the physical training.  Here I would take on different responsibilities to contribute to Panera’s service–cashier, barista, back-of-house, and food production.  This would take weeks.  Even with training completed, the learning never stopped.  Each season, a ‘bread bash’ is held.  This mandatory meeting gathers up all of the employees within a location.  The objective of the meeting is to inform everyone about new menu additions and give them a little taste.

This is a perfect example of a company who cares not only about service and food, but about its family of employees.  Doing their best to have knowledgeable workers who know what they are a part of, Panera’s organized management creates a warm environment for all to enjoy.  Now knowing of the process that happens behind the scenes at Panera Bread, do you agree or disagree that they hold a smooth operation?

 

The Retuen of the Ice Age

Operations management is one of the three most important things to understand when learning the functions of an organization. Learning more about operations management helps us learn more about understand how organizations work and how people organize themselves. I honestly do think that being able to understand and organize are very important skills to know when managing anything. Operations management is also a very costly part of the organization.

The past few weeks have being interesting. The only job that I had I recently had, but I also recently quit. I was working at Chipotle Mexican Grill during the summer. I only worked there for a month, but a month was good enough for me to learn more about the company, how the managers work, and I learned more about myself and how I work. It was interesting to see that there are different types of managers. I had a total of three mangers. They didn’t all have the same responsibilities but they had similar responsibilities as in telling employees what they had to do. I noticed that I would only like to do my job that I was supposed to do if a certain manager told me to do. I believe that I would do that because I sometimes wouldn’t like how the manager would talk to me when he would tell me what I had to do. So like I learned in class, some of the basic functions that operation managers do consist of planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling.  I definitely saw these function being applied with the employees. The manger had to plan around with the employees and being able to schedule them and they tried their best to work around with the employee’s schedules. The also had to make sure that everything was running smoothly that the throughput was good and that they had all the supplies that the needed to make sure that everything was prepared and ready to go.

I haven’t had a job for longer than a month put I have noticed that some of the skills that I have learned in the class can also apply to any organization. There are many skills that you can learn through participating in organizations at school that you can later apply to your job. These five functions, planning, organizing staffing, leading, and controlling can apply to a job or like previously mention it can also be applied to extracurricular activities. For example, I been involved in organization at DePaul such as DePaul Alliance for Latino Empowerment (DALE) as well as MEChA. I’m also part of a fraternity. In the three organizations that I have been involved with, I know that I have applied these skills.  For example, we have to e able to work with other people that are in the same group to have events, we have to stay organized and make sure that everyone is participating one way or another. In addition we have to make sure that we are staying within our budget. I have definitely improved my skills by being involved with different organizations on campus as well as working at Chipotle.

In what ways have you applied the basic operations in your life? Do you think that they have improved over time? What are your experiences with the basic functions?

Winning in Project Management

In my course and readings about successful project managers I have found that successful projects and project managers share some commonalities that lead to their accomplishments.

First of all, I would like to start about what leaders in project management thought defined project management, I will start with a very influential project management school of thinking “IBM”.  IBM defines project management as managing the interrelationship between 3 vital factors in each project and the importance to achieve the ideal balance between all 3 critical factors which are Project Scope, Budget and Time which is commonly referred to by project management professionals PMP’s as the project triangle.

 

 Now, considering the above factors it’s not easy to be able to manage those 3 angels in projects hence, they involve numerous subdivisions to keep track. I will mention those below with the top points that I found best project managers stress on:

  • Planning: common mistakes that caused a lot of projects to fail is that they rushed to start working on the project and went to fast through the planning process. Always give planning the bigger chunk of your time.
  • Time estimation: most valuable take home lesson for me from this project management course and readings about the subject is that time is unforgiving. You can go overboard with the cost and still have a project but when the deadline is due and you have no complete project the cost overboard will be a breeze compare to not having delivered a project at all.
  • Communication: a very vital skill to have as project managers hence, ideas and dreams “final project” in your mind are defiantly not similar across your team members. Try to be very clear!
  • Coordination:  define requirements to each individual and be very clear on delegating responsibilities. Successful project managers have an eye for identifying talents and skills in their team members
  • Tracking: this point I found that there was a lot of stress on by my studies in class and readings. The importance to keep check points alongside the project “success points” is crucial for success of the project!! Assessing each stage and the timeline within a project is one of the most important duties of the project manager.
  • Risk assessment & mitigations: even with the an excellent plan things can go wrong, predicting problems and obstacles is indispensable skill for PM’s while identifying risks is on one side, on the other side providing solutions to those problems forecasted is of the same weight of importance. An important lesson here is to assign a devil’s advocate in your team J
  • Reporting:  understand who your customer is! All projects have an owner or a requester, as a project manager you will have to establish a reporting line between the project developments and your customer. An important lesson here is to establish a good relationship with your customer, after all they are the ones paying your bills 😉

Questions that inspire the thought:

  • Is there an optimal mix in the project triangle? How could we measure it?
  • Which is most important from the three project angles?

References and sources:

www.Projectsmart.co.uk

www.Techrepublic.com

www.acentre.com

www.PMI.org

www.IBM.com

There’s No Flop In These Fish-Flops

Madi-18-700x466The understanding of operations management is a vast one, being constantly revisited by companies for ways of improvement and how it can be applied more efficiently to the whole team; but how can a 15-year old encompass this at such a novice level?  I’m speechless!  Through the data inflow of the customer requirements like community reinvestment and proactive volunteer support, she has maintained that consumer engagement so crucial to ensuring longevity of a product line.  She has donated more than 10,000 pairs of her Fish Flops to countless organizations that convinces her customer base that there is more to this startup than profits.  With the aid of her senior leadership team (who consists of strong people like her father and family) she was able to drive this business to the success that it has achieved now.

Through the simplicity and perseverance of Madison showing through, customers are willing to commit to that tradeoff price (a whopping $20 per pair) for the quality of the product (no holes in the sole like traditional flip-flops).  Some things that it continues to do to distinguish itself apart from its competitors is as follows: ability to invest in good materials and design processes (with a lot of help from her ole’ man that has his own t-shirt company), a strong presence in local retailers (welcome to NORDSTOM!), highly satisfied customer base, and of course innovative shoe technology (who can resist light up shoes?).

With a philanthropist idea set for the future of the company, it’s no wonder why this young entrepreneur has engaged such consumer market and future prospects, all part of her incredible strategic plan.  She can still further improve in her business based on what the world of operations management has discovered with a few recommendations.

A closer look at her strategic plan shows that a key function is to ensure that the retail face is keeping up with the quality Fish Flops wants to convey.  This can be done through product and service performance measures and working on a lean/six sigma processing. This is done by choosing suppliers overseas that can handle the cost of manufacturing the sandal, while at the same time keeping quality ensured (like making lights last longer than a week in the shoe!).  Another recommendation would be to include a key metric dashboard if they haven’t already done so; include a type of information system that can incorporate the preferences of her client base and the designs that are in most popular demand so that she can develop a leaner JIT inventory system to cut her costs down.  Also shipping can be improved and updated on her new website to include real time tracking and reports that would provide essential information for customers seeking the latest product line offerings.  She should also work to develop measurement of customer satisfaction to increase that metric.keep-calm-and-wear-fish-flops

Do you think Madison will face rejection soon, or did she find the goldmine of the shoe industry?

 

Sources:

http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/15-old-entrepreneur-got-her-product-nordstrom-233738356.html

http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-and-wear-fish-flops/

http://www.totstoteensmagazine.com/2012/07/10/july-business-of-the-month-fishflops/

 

Chocolate: The Road to Luxury

MK-CD595_MARS_G_20130529181723

For all of you chocolate lovers out there beware: there may be a flaw in Western chocolate manufacturers’ supply chain management of cocoa. Productivity is not at the levels it needs to be to satisfy manufacturers and consumers. To better put this into perspective, Mars has found that if the levels of productivity remain the same as today, by the year 2020 there would be a shortage of 1.1 million tons of cocoa. If this occurs and current productivity levels of cocoa trended into the future, the cocoa farming business will not be headed in a promising direction.

The disconnect lies within cocoa faming itself. There is little incentive for cocoa farmers to continue in their line of work because of the competitive rubber industry. It is considered a less uncertain industry with a longer crop season by about four months. On top of this, the wage for both types of farming is roughly the same.

The other constraint of the industry is the high risk for disease outbursts. This is partly due to the inadequate access of much needed fertilizers for the cocoa crop.

Cocoa-farmers do not come anywhere near the crop’s capacity since their utilization is only around 60%. Cocoa manufactures have recognized the scarcity as a sincere problem since in many growing areas more than 40% of the cocoa crop is destroyed due to vermin and disease.  One would hope that this type of scarcity could be due to assignable variation that can be improved by subtracting bad causes.

How would you react if chocolate turned into a luxury good instead of an affordable snack due to flaws in the supply chain management?

Chocolate manufacturers are looking to provide solutions for productivity in the cocoa-farming realm. Many companies like Mondelez and Mars have invested millions in education programs in hopes to increase productivity and decrease disease-ridden crop. Mondelez has gone as far as hiring students from universities for these cocoa programs to target efforts toward younger generations. This seems to be an efficient approach, given the fact that peer motivation is a convincing form of motivation.

Another potential solution was Ivory Coast’s decision to set a price minimum for cocoa. This was an astonishing action that stresses how essential cocoa farmers are in the industry.

It is hard to believe that the issue has gone this far. In my opinion, action should have been taken much sooner. The uphill battle is much worse now that efficiency levels have sunk so far below maximum capacity.

Do you think that these efforts put forth by chocolate manufacturers will be enough to save the chocolate industry?

What else can be done to improve the supply chain management and productivity in the industry?

Have you noticed any other flaws in the cocoa/chocolate industry besides the supply chain management?

Which action will have a greater affect on the industry: a price minimum or cocoa farming education programs?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324412604578513140098292744.html?KEYWORDS=operations+management+supply+chain

 

Sending Inventory to the Clouds

images

Since the creation of inventory management software, many small businesses have not been able to take advantage   of the expensive computer solutions available only to large corporations. But things are about to change, thanks to  BrightPearl and cloud. The Internet cloud, that is.

In traditional inventory management systems, the company is required to purchase the software and install it into the specific office computers that need to use it. The cloud changes the way people can access the software, and it can support hundreds of computers simultaneously. It also can save companies money by regularly updating, without having to install new versions manually. Initial installation is low cost, and does not require highly skilled IT professionals to set up. Brightpearl currently supports Magento, eBay and eKMPowershop.com. It starts at only $99 per user each month, and there is a $120 connector fee to set up the connections to different e-commerce

channels.

The Cloud is useful in a number of ways. Real-time monitoring allows the system to update across the entire system instantly, therefore reducing the amount of error that can occur between the transfer of information from one computer to the next. Just like Google Drive, the cloud will update across offices, and will allow everyone to see the inventory purchases across divisions. The cloud even supports devices such as smart phones and tablets, so you can monitor your inventory at home, in meetings, or on the go. Departmental communication will also be increased, so everyone will know each departments demand, inventory, or when items need to be restocked or shipped. It also allows you to see where the bottleneck issues are, what the fixed orders should be, and how to calculate ROP.

Although there are many upsides to the cloud, there are also several drawbacks. Security is main concern for the use of the cloud, and is very controversial within the industry. If the system was hacked, people could see how many orders are being made, and therefore use the information to their advantage. It could also lead to a loss in IT workers, since the cloud service would handle all customer service problems and issues. IT people would no longer be of service, and many would lose their jobs. Another drawback to using an inventory monitoring system in the cloud is performance risks. According to IT specialist David Kim, “Leaving out integration issues alone, cloud-based ERP are essentially related to threatened speed, reliability of network, outage risks, and limitations on data transfer” (Kim, 2013).

Do you think BrightPearl and the cloud is a good place to monitor the entire inventory for a company, or should they stick to the original software systems? Do you think the cloud will eventually take over business computer systems, or is it too risky for companies to vitally important information like their inventory management systems in a cloud that could be hacked by outside competitors?

——

Sources: http://www.mbtmag.com/articles/2013/05/benefits-cloud-based-inventory-management-software

http://www.academia.edu/2777755/Benefits_and_Drawbacks_of_Cloud-Based_versus_Traditional_ERP_Systems

http://www.zdnet.com/cloud-services-make-inventory-management-simpler-7000015550/

Walmarts Working Class

Chief marketer Stephen Quinn was interviewed by Geoff Calvin on the strategies he enforced on the makeover of Wal-mart. In recent quarters, Wal-mart was doing terribly in sales when the economy was at its worst. Individuals lost their jobs which lead to little to no sales at Wal-marts nationwide. Quinn then began to look at the problems behind these inaccurate sales and he came up with; individuals who had little income, due to the recession that hit the economy badly were Wal-Mart majority shoppers, Wal-Mart prices had to change also, and if the prices did not change, Wal-Mart would have soon been out of business in just a couple of years down the road. As Quinn and his marketing and managemnet’s teams work hard on this new makeover, Wal-Mart  main focus were to keep and develop new customers and help them save money and live better. Executives at Wal-Mart guarantee that shopping at Wal-Mart will give their customers the lowest price and top brands than any other retail store. As the economy began to grow after the recent recession, Wal-Mart’s sales began to pick up dramatically and are now the #1 retailer store.Walmart’s location tends to have exceptionally better sales in rural and suburban areas than in large cities areas.Wal-Mart has all kinds of groups shopping at their store, but everyone is there to save money. Indeed Wal-Mart has individuals who are well off in life, but they too want to save money as those who are not so well off in life. As Wal-Mart was creating their makeover, they notice that their rival surrounding stores were creating lower prices than Wal-Mart stores and customers began to respond and start to shop at those stores. Wal-Mart took action, not only did Wal-Mart reduce their prices, but they also made majority of their stores a one stop shop, where customers can shop for groceries, clothing, home furniture items, and much more at a cheaper price. Wal-Mart also introduces the concept called price matching. This concept was basically when a customer brings in a sales paper from another store and compares Wal-Mart and the other store prices. If the other store price were better and lower than Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart would than price match that price and give the customer the price of the lower cost. Quinn and his marketing team target families and individuals who had little income.  They focused on revamping their prices so that those individuals can save their, buy what they want and need, and live a better life. Even before the recession had struck the nation, Walmart’s strategies were still focusing on the working class and/or the middle class. As I was reading this article it shows how Wal-mart operates its business in order to maintain its spot as the#1 retail store in the United States and it also shows how their low cost method is what benefits their customers the most. However, the implications of Walmart’s quality their employment practices may not be up to part to some people, Walmart has still shown tremendous profitability in their market.  http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/14/news/companies/walmart_stephen_quinn_leadership.fortune/index.htm

Question: Even though Walmart target market is the working class, how would you express its conditions of management skills with its workers who work there?

Wal-Mart Just Can’t Keep Products on the Shelves (In a Bad Way)

Wal-Mart Just Can’t Keep Products on the Shelves (In a Bad Way)

Wal-Mart has seemingly had a considerable amount of trouble keeping shelves in its stores adequately stocked since reducing the number of employees on staff at once in stores.  This is odd for a retail location since when products are not on shelves, there is not a large chance of them being purchased.  Especially disconcerting is that Wal-Mart has become the largest retailer in the world on the back of a supposed mastery of its supply chain.

Wal-Mart is now taking measures to ensure that the issue with product stocking is corrected.  The latest effort employed to do so is an external auditing process which entails a detailed process of checking each and every Wal-Mart location to make sure that products (when in stock) are on the shelves for consumption.

Wal-Mart refers to whether or not stores are adequately stocked via a metric known as on-shelf availability or OSA.  Due to the recent issues and the need to involve an external company to help stores ensure that they are stocked properly, shareholders are expected to vote at the next meeting as to whether or not Wal-Mart managers and executives should have their performance reviews and potential compensation tied to OSA.

When visiting a Wal-Mart location, check for neon green stickers next to the price tags on certain products; those are the ones that the auditors are going to be looking for.  Originally, the idea was to have the auditors go into the Wal-Mart stores and check on certain pre-determined items (unknown the store employees) and assign a grade based on how stocked those products were.  However, before the actual auditing process ended up taking place, it was determined that it would be beneficial to the employees at the stores to know the products that were being checked because those would most likely be highly driven items for the time of the year.  This entailed a rather tedious process for store managers as they had to allocate employees to the task of sticking green stickers next to products that needed to be stocked instead of actually just stocking them.

While the idea is good in theory, the actual outcome has been less than stellar since a good portion of the stores now have incredibly well-stocked green dot items with very poorly stocked products immediately next to them.  This should have been expected since the employees could focus purely on the products they would be evaluated on.

This situation is a very direct link to supply chain concept discussed in class.  In this case, the retail stores a sort of bottleneck.  After the products are produced and shipped to retail locations, they are not being put out fast enough to get to the customers.  Managers need to focus on properly allocating their limited employee resources to getting the task completed.

Do you think that this process will work?  How else could Wal-Mart improve its product stocking?

 

Retail to E-tail

There are a lot of pros and cons to doing online shopping as opposed to in-store shopping. Online shopping seems like it only affects consumers by giving them a different medium to make their purchases but we fail to realize that it affects the sellers as well. Through online purchases, businesses gather a lot of data about consumers. Sellers can track which sections of items are the most popular, which products are the most viewed and for how long, and which products are most browsed at but not bought. This gives online sellers a competitive advantage over in-store sellers as they know more about their customers. And everyone knows that the understanding your customer is one of the most important factors in having a successful business. This is empowering in-store sellers to seek e-commerce level data.

The article talks about one company that brings customer tracking data to in-store businesses. This is in hopes of slowly bridging the competitive gap between in-store purchases and online purchases. How can they possibly get consumer data without changing the in-store purchase process? By simply observing the customers! Prism Skylabs specializes in in-store surveillance equipment that tracks customer movement. Prism installs special cameras that captures everything in the store and then is sent to the store’s computers where it is processed by Prism’s special software. The images of the actual shoppers are cut out to respect their privacy.

What is so different about Prism’s techniques than regular surveillance cameras? Prism’s software allows them to “look at which products are hot, which are being moved around and touched, and all kinds of data that allow merchandise teams to understand what is going on across a wide range of stores”. This allows the sellers to get information that the type of information that online sellers use to enhance their systems to get more purchases.

Who is using Prism? Right now, Prism has partnered up with 30 retailers. Retailers that Prism is working with include T-Mobile and Famous Footwear. Does it actually work?  A candy store in Oklahoma City was using Prism in their stores and after close observation they changed their premium display to low-selling seasonal candy rather than their famous candies that buyers usually take the time to look through the store to buy. This allowed the store to quantify the customer’s thoughts and make an effective decision in their operations.

Moreover, Prism is not the only data providing company that is emerging. Other companies are picking up on the importance and building unique strategies and techniques to sell to businesses. For example, Shopkick is an app which personalizes deals for a customer in real time as they walk through the store.

Is it worth it to sellers to invest in these data gathering companies?

How do you feel as a consumer towards this type of innovation? Do you feel that you will be making more beneficial purchases or do you feel manipulated by the sellers to buy their preferred products?

Link:http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-25/to-catch-up-with-e-tail-tools-to-track-shoppers-in-the-store