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Parcel Force: Using the marketing mix to drive change

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 08:57:29 +0000

Parcelforce Worldwide is part of the Royal Mail Group and is a leading provider of express parcel deliveries. It provides a range of services including a guaranteed delivery on certain times or days. Parcelforce Worldwide uses a network of international partners to extend its reach beyond the UK to 99.6% of the world population.

Parcelforce Worldwide delivers around 210,000 parcels a day and operates in three distinct markets:

* Business-to-Business services (B2B) – the transportation of parcels and supplies from one company or commercial venture to another. For example, this could be a manufacturer sending to a wholesaler or a wholesaler sending to a retailer. These are likely to be repeat orders to re-stock a supply chain.
* Business-to-Consumer services (B2C) – parcels going from businesses to homes. This is driven by retailers and ‘etailers’ (online retailers) sending mainly single parcels to consumers.
* Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) – parcels going from one home address to another. This could be people sending Christmas or birthday presents or ebay parcels through a Post Office or ordering a collection on the Parcelforce Worldwide website.

In the last few years Parcelforce Worldwide has made big changes to improve its business. It has improved its quality of service by focusing on time-critical products. This reduced the number of parcels handled (the volume) but increased the value of each delivery. Parcelforce Worldwide is now a key player in the market.

In 2007, an analysis of a customer research survey showed Parcelforce Worldwide needed to improve its international services. It also needed to change its marketing to respond to an increase in competition and changes in the external environment. This case study explores how this was achieved using the marketing mix or 4Ps. Read more…

Managing Business Risk in Industrial Equipment and Supply

maddy — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 07:31:55 +0000

Industrial equipment manufacturers and maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) distributors can’t afford to miss bidding deadlines, delivery dates, product specifications, or service level agreements. They also can’t afford the penalties of non-compliance with regulations. Learn how some businesses are leveraging integrated enterprise infrastructures to maximize profits while minimizing exposure to risks.
primary risks faced by industrial manufacturers and distributors are:
Rapidly expanding into new areas to maximize growth opportunities while minimizing exposure to
• losses and write-offs Winning and maintaining business since the bar has been raised for product quality as well as
• delivery and service reliability Bidding profitability on complex product and service contracts that carry penalties for poor
• performance Ensuring full compliance to all environmental regulations around the globe

Companies that fully recognize the extent of the risks can put strategies, policies, and systems into place to manage them.
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Workforce Management: “Scheduling to the Opportunity”

maddy — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 07:59:52 +0000

The true indicator of a store’s potential is accurate incoming traffic data. But opportunities to act on that data and improve performance occur before shoppers ever reach the cash register. To achieve their true sales potential, retailers must schedule to shopper traffic. Find out how combining accurate traffic data with workforce scheduling tools can help retailers increase revenue and sharpen their competitive edge.
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Improving Staff Scheduling

newuser — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 21:41:09 +0000

As with most hospitals, labor is the largest budget expense at the Providence Alaska Medical Center (PAMC) in Anchorage. But benchmarking indicated that staff utilization at PAMC, a part of the Providence Health System, was above the 75th percentile of the national average. To remedy this, in October 2003, a multidisciplinary team (nursing, leadership, finance and physicians) began a Six Sigma project to create a more effective process for scheduling staff.

During the Define phase of the project, the team found that the hospital’s staffing dollars – which includes salaries, benefits and contract labor – were substantially over budget. Roughly 75 percent of the variance could be linked to nursing salaries and the use of registered nurses from outside staffing resources. Within the nursing area, the team found that the adult critical care unit (ACC) was 22 percent over budget for staffing … click here to read ahead

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Designing efficient supply chain management system of paper

newuser — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:14:47 +0000

Can the SCM for Paper be made more efficient? The answer is an obvious yes!
Some experts often use “from the forest to the door” to describe the scope of supply chain management, supply chain management, border paper should include the entire paper supply chain printing the main stakeholders, such as: paper mills, paper making equipment suppliers; publisher or other print clients; printing, Printing Equipment Manufacturers, suppliers, paper suppliers.

Demand Printing and timely delivery of a new printing company customer service goals, but also to bring their own paper, the printing industry and its major customers (such as books and printing companies main customers?? Press) is considering a reorganization of the paper supply chain in order to make themselves more focused their core business … click here to read ahead

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Integration of SCOR with Lean & Six Sigma

admin — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 04:22:39 +0000

Companies experienced in the application of Lean and Six Sigma
techniques have for some time recognized the compatibility and power of combining these approaches under the umbrella of a single business improvement program. There is a natural linkage between Lean and Six Sigma both at the program-level as well as the project execution level. The strength of the Six Sigma program infrastructure, roles and responsibilities definition, top-to-bottom organization training and development, project tracking and financial accountability improve the effectiveness of Lean efforts and the speed at which they can be deployed. Six Sigma tools and methodology provide Lean the means to resolve critical process bottlenecks that impede flow – by eliminating process variability and minimizing process defects.
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Supply Chain Management and Telecom Components

admin — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 04:16:31 +0000

The telecom industry’s radical shift this year from a supply-driven marketplace to a demand-driven model has significantly impacted not only how carriers market and sell their products, but how they purchase their own network equipment. In the current economic climate, achieving operational efficiencies and reducing cost has taken on paramount importance.
Insight’s research suggests that the only way operators and their suppliers will be able to succeed in the new demand-driven marketplace is by practicing effective supply chain management, streamlining purchasing processes and reducing time-to-market. Successful functional core component firms will address oversupply problems, meet demands for new construction and operator buildouts, follow key industry standards, and improve available technology in often-neglected areas such as power plant operations. Leaders will also take advantage of a key shift in the supply chain infrastructure: large equipment vendors outsourcing manufacturing operations.
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Lean production at Portakabin

maddy — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:59:04 +0000

Portakabin is an international company. It produces some of the most advanced building systems available. The company is part of the £700 million turnover Shepherd Group. The Shepherd Group is one of the largest family-owned companies in the European building industry and employs 3,500 people. It focuses on three main areas:

manufacturing
construction
property.

Lean production is an approach to production that seeks to minimise waste and inefficiency. In short, it means doing more with less. A lean company will make the very most of its resources. Lean production is based on the principle that any use of resources that does not create value for the consumer is ‘waste’.

This case study focuses on how Portakabin uses lean production methods to ensure it produces a quality product that gives value to the customer.
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FMEA: Preventing a Failure Before Any Harm Is Done

admin — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 06:14:53 +0000

FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) is a proactive tool, technique and quality method that enables the identification and prevention of process or product errors before they occur. Within healthcare, the goal is to avoid adverse events that could potentially cause harm to patients, families, employees or others in the patient care setting.
Historically, healthcare has performed root cause analysis after sentinel events, medical errors or when a mistake occurs. With the added focus on safety and error reduction, however, it is important to analyze information from a prospective point of view to see what could go wrong before the adverse event occurs. Examining the entire process and support systems involved in the specific events – and not just the recurrence of the event – requires rigor and proven methodologies.
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Kaizen: Easiest, Fastest Way to Improve Office Processes

maddy — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 06:10:25 +0000

Many of the early benefits of Lean and Six Sigma at Medtronic, a major medical technology company, were in manufacturing. In the last year, however, Medtronic also has had notable results improving transactional and administrative processes.
Medtronic’s world headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, the accounts payable department, a part of the company’s Global Business Solutions organization, completed Medtronic’s first U.S. Kaizen event on a transactional process. The event produced outstanding results and provided many lessons at the company.
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