While on vacation recently, I visited an interesting restaurant with a large group of relatives. At the table a few clearly marked buttons were provided to request waiters to bring more water, clear used utensils, bring the bill, etc. I had never seen this back home in Vancouver. What a great idea to improve efficiency! Read more…
Every year, ballet companies all over the world revive The Nutcracker; the classical fairy tale set to the music of Tchaikovsky, drawing young and old to theatres and dazzling them for hours with its beauty, grace and captivating story line. Here the choreographer weaves together some of the most beautiful dances ever conceived to produce endless sequences of sheer ballet fantasy. (more…)
For several decades, material requirements planning (MRP) has been the standard method for manufacturing and inventory planning. But in recent years it has come under criticism, and any manufacturing shops have adopted other approaches, such as kanban or lean manufacturing. (more…)
I have a friend who works at a large home improvement retailer. He often tells me stories about customers who buy expensive and sophisticated tools, yet have no DIY experience or knowledge on how best to use them. (more…)
The frequency and the intensity of change in the business world, strikes me as similar to how we experience change throughout our lives. (more…)
The team that conquered Africa For centuries, adventurers, speculators and explorers have found the allure of the unknown reaches of Africa irresistible. Many have tried to conquer Africa and perished – from James Bruce’s quest for the source of the Nile to David Livingston’s traverse of Southern Africa. Had they but known that the key to winning Africa was simply teamwork – so adequately demonstrated [...]
I found it interesting to note how two recent and completely unrelated events, both emphasized the growing impact of mobile devices in the world of computer technology. The first was a product survey that SYSPRO conducted amongst its customers across the globe. It produced an extensive number of individual responses to a wide range of questions; offering ample evidence of SYSPRO’s ability to understand [...]
Part 3: Having the right approach and attitude to an ERP implementation “Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better.” Samuel Johnson Do you know how complex Microsoft Word and Excel are? Because Word and Excel look so easy, people under-estimate how complex other standard systems, like an ERP, can be. If business users knew how complex those two Microsoft applications really are, they [...]
Years ago I worked as a junior procurement officer at a medium sized Canadian manufacturing company. Within my first year, our production scheduler resigned and to my surprise, I was promoted to her position. I was terrified because I didn’t have a background in operations management and I didn’t understand its mysterious jargon. Acronyms like MPS, MRP, BOM, and the like were foreign to [...]
Despite the fact that ERP solutions are intended to improve business performance quickly and efficiently, through the provision of critical information, they generally do not have a good track record. In his research paper “Causes influencing the effectiveness of the post-implementation ERP system” (subscription required), CS Yu came to the conclusion that 40% of all ERP implementations or extensions perform below expectations and 20% [...]
Contact Us
