Supply Chain

Practical Applications of Twitter in Manufacturing?

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ April 5, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Over the past few weeks I’ve had a couple of interesting discussions about the introduction of Twitter to Manufacturing. When someone poses a question like this to me, it throws me for a minor loop, because for very basic, practical reasons, it just doesn’t seem to apply. More keyboards & data entry on the floor? [...]

Finally! Relevant Applications for YouTube and Twitter in the Enterprise!

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ July 11, 2008 ⋅ One comment

If you are involved with manufacturing these days, you’ve no doubt heard about Lean Manufacturing. I’ll not go deep into this area here, but one fascinating (for me) aspect is the thread (in some quarters) that ERP and computer systems are the enemy of Lean. On the whole, I don’t disagree – process improvement, kanbans, [...]

No Silver Bullet for Group Collaboration over Distance?

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ April 22, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Lots of organizations have to deal with the challenge of implementing standard work and best practices over physical distances. With sales offices, distribution centers, and manufacturing locations scattered across the country, what’s the best way to get people who know their stuff to collaborate on process improvement – and then take that knowledge back to [...]

Integrated Supply Chain Benefits Go Beyond the Internal Stuff

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ November 12, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

I met Lora Cecere this evening, well-known AMR analyst for Supply Chain – a good conversation about the deeper potential for supply chain integration technology. The topic: are there bigger benefits here? Is it really only limited to optimization of your own supply chain? Don’t get trapped into thinking that the business benefit of supply [...]

Build a Framework: Your chart junk is my roadmap / vision statement

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ December 27, 2005 ⋅ 2 comments

I remember in the late 90′s, seeing many examples of the little train of wedgies that folks used to characterize their business processes: Click on the picture for a full-size image! I’ve used them myself (some of the above samples are mine, I’m comfortable in admitting it) – of course, I typically don’t make this [...]