The manufacturers should be giving the dealers guidance on what to stock and order based on their global visibility into sales and customer buying trends. Customers buy combinations of features, and they do this in predictable ways. Detecting and using the patterns can make inventory turn faster, even if, technically, it doesn’t exist.
I was working with a industrial manufacturer who made construction equipment, such as diggers and backhoes. They had a beautiful park-like setting around their factory. Artfully placed on manicured lawns around the ponds and fountains were quite a few backhoes . It reminded me of Jurassic Park. We discovered later that these backhoes were a [...]
More than half of companies recently surveyed by Aberdeen Group reduce inventory as their top response to tough times. The study, “Inventory Management: Three Key Strategies to Freeing Working Capital,” points out that using the right technology to manage inventory levels helps provide firms with a competitive advantage during the downturn and positions them well for better times [...]
In today’s post, John Sloan talks about challenges dealers face in ordering inventory that best matches customer demand.
Emcien: Describe the Chrysler-Emcien initiative that examined dealers’ struggles with complexity in the ordering process.
JS: In a soft “push” market where volume is driven by heavy incentives versus the merits of the brand / model, managing cost is [...]
The number of companies with complexity reduction initiatives has skyrocketed. Unlike five years ago, these are serious initiatives with management sponsorship and timelines.
A good friend of mine, who is a salesperson at a Caterpillar dealership, told me that when times are good he can sell any machine. When the times are bad, the bad stuff [...]
In any manufacturing company that builds configurable products, there is a lot of discussion around what product complexity is. What’s interesting is that when times are good and there are lots of sales, the discussion is usually around how to simplify or streamline with the goal to sell more product even faster, that complexity is [...]
I was telling some friends at a brunch about what I do, and how variety drives cost in manufacturing. “But all the manufacturing has moved to China,” commented one person. I’ve heard this comment over and over.
A picture is worth a thousand words — and here’s one that fits the bill.
Commoditization of labor in manufacturing
Higher [...]
