Kaizen Spirit (Part. I)
By Xavier Perrin (xperrin@xp-consulting.fr) The following story makes us understand the deep meaning of the “kaizen spirit”. This text has been written by Nampachi Hayashi when he was 70. Hayashi holds the post of senior technical executive, which is said to be the highest technical post at Toyota Motor Corporation…
Das Skandal
By Xavier Perrin (xperrin@xp-consulting.fr) Last week newspaper headlines were being monopolized by the Volkswagen issue. I couldn’t read all these articles, but I have read a lot of them. Most of reporters commented the fall of stock prices, how US administration (and those of other countries) and VW’s customers were…
How to Avoid ERP Implementation Failure?
In a previous post I brought some comments about a very interesting survey conducted by Software Advice: Some Key Questions Before Buying An ERP. Today I strongly recommend you a short book also published by ERP software consultancy, Software Advice: How to Avoid ERP Implementation Failure? You can download the…
How to be sure to miss the target?
By Xavier Perrin (xperrin@xp-consulting.fr) Some of my missions consist in helping Make-to-Order companies improve their On-Time-Delivery performance (OTD). Generally, these companies set up specific OTD objectives for each department, expecting them to deliver their work on-time. Each department being encouraged for one-time deliveries, it is assumed that everyone will manage…
Some Key Questions Before Buying an ERP
By Xavier Perrin (xperrin@xp-consulting.fr) I had recently read a very interesting survey conducted by Software Advice, a firm that analyzes ERP Software. The survey results from an analysis of a sample of interactions between Software Advice and prospective buyers in search of guidance to find the best Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)…
What do your S&OP meetings look like?
By Xavier Perrin (xperrin@xp-consulting.fr) Future is only present that should be put in order. Your task is not to foresee the future, but to enable it.(Antoine de Saint-Exupéry) The S&OP meeting you’re attending to today has been scheduled a year ago: you planned your agenda of this week depending on…
Why is Overproduction the Worst Muda?
By Xavier Perrin (xperrin@xp-consulting.fr) It is often said or written that lean is the elimination of wastes, wastes being defined as non-value-added activities (also called muda). For helping teams to implement lean, we teach them the seven wastes and we expect them to identify and eliminate these wastes in their…
What’s the Best Tool For Drawing a VSM?
By Xavier Perrin (xperrin@xp-consulting.fr) As a reminder, a VSM (Value Stream Map) is a graphic representation (map) of material and information flows related to a “value stream”. The same acronym is used to name the Value Stream Mapping process. The value stream is made of all the steps the material…
How Poor Understanding of MRP2 Can Lead to the Degeneration of Your ERP?
By Xavier Perrin (xperrin@xp-consulting.fr) Introduction Most manufacturing companies strive for enhancing their customer service level, reducing their lead times and reducing their inventories. Two approaches elaborated during the last decades have significantly improved these companies’ ability to take up these challenges: The advent of information technology allowed computer-aided planning tools…
Kanban: 4 Traps To Be Avoided
By Xavier Perrin (xperrin@xp-consulting.fr) A lot of my missions consist in helping companies to set up a pull system. It is surprising to see how many of these companies already tried kanban, without managing to keep it going on. In these cases, talking about kanban with teams remembering the failure…