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March 18, 2020

The Call of a Generation – Navigating the Covid-19 Crisis

Art Koch’s Profit Chain® Series
Volume 3 | Number 3 | March 2020

The Call of a Generation – Navigating the Covid-19 Crisis

As our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents before us, each generation was called on to make sacrifices for their country: whether it was during World Wars, The Great Depression, or similar pandemics such as the Spanish Flu. Today, WE are the generation who must make the sacrifices. We will get through this as stronger people, stronger nations and partnerships. Please remember, as bad as this feels, no one is dropping bombs on us or shooting at us!

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February 23, 2020

How is that Plan “B” for China?

Entropy Busters® Series
Volume 3 | Number 2 | February 2020

I started with, “Let’s start with the realization that plan “A” to relocate operations to China had a major flaw. If you moved manufacturing to China, India or any other low-cost producing country with the intention of importing goods back to North America or Europe (half a world away), then your plan was unsound!” The primary focus was on inventory velocity, total cost of ownership and the ethics of investing. Now we are in the middle of a S^&% storm of COVID-19 with world-wide impact to supply chains and the global economy.

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February 16, 2020

Teams and Conflict

How are your teams at? Forming Norming Storming Performing How well your teams move through these steps will determine their impact, performance and conflict levels. https://youtu.be/XAQC_Am5ywU

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February 3, 2020

E-Mail Is A Decoupled Process

If you’re like me, you likely rely on e-mail for many for functions.

Many times we take to path of least resistance. When you’re a Supply Chain or Operations team member with a heavy work load trying to get the daily task completed, it’s common for short cuts to be taken; hence the path of least resistance. These work-arounds become tribal knowledge and halt proper change management.

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January 18, 2020

Lap Around The Big Shinny Thingie

Volume 3 | Number 1 | January 2020

Scrapping the Notion of New Year’s Resolutions

We are now into the third full week of the New Year. If you made resolutions, how many are still in-place? Statistics show 90% are dropped within the first 30 days.

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January 12, 2020

When Ludicrous becomes Scandalous

When Ludicrous becomes Scandalous.

I like to have fun with the words ludicrous and scandalous. By personal definitions are as follows:

Ludicrous; We’ve all been there… Billy always has the crazy ideas. Often, they’re actually worth looking into and determining if they have any substance. However, with any good brainstorming there are the occasional ludicrous ideas. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the occasional ludicrous idea, just don’t spend resources on it.

Scandalous; Is spending time and money on that ludicrous idea…!

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December 23, 2019

The Important gets Sacrificed for the Urgent

Entropy Busters® Series
Volume 2 | Number 12 | December 2019

Sacrificing the Important for The Urgent

Do you or anyone within your organization ever sacrifice the important for the urgent? This is one of the key challenges of many organizations. When you look at the team member’s challenges: e-mails, mobile phones and open work spaces, it’s nearly impossible to find the quiet time and space to complete meaningful work. This reality is echoed by team leadership. Many, if not all, say they would love to work on certain priorities…if they only had the time…

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December 7, 2019

Inventory Is NOT a Security Blanket!

Why do we care about inventory?

  • It costs money
  • It uses needed capacity
  • It negatively affect service
  • It hides problems therefore… It delays fixing problems!!!
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November 18, 2019

Knocking off the Training Wheels – November 2019

Volume 2 | Number 11 | November 2019

Knocking Off the Training Wheels
Recently, I attended two industry functions and spent several days with other consultants, advisors and strategists. It’s always great to be around other smart people. It makes you elevate your own game.

However, there can be a downside to meeting with these professionals.

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November 11, 2019

Enterprise vs Cost Center Thinking

Don’t fool yourself by only considering incremental cost.

World class organizations think enterprise wide when completing cost analysis.

Don’t get trapped into trying to optimize,

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