When Ludicrous becomes Scandalous

January 12, 2020

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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Categories: Art Koch Profit Chain® Tips, Supply Chain Entropy Busters®

The Simple Mistakes of Executive Development

October 10, 2019

At one point in our careers we all have been part of executive development. Some good, some could have been executed better.

I often see mistakes and/or steps missing in executive development implementation. So before jumping in to the deep end of the pool, there are four elements that should be concerned:

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Categories: Art Koch Profit Chain® Tips

When Ludicrous becomes Scandalous

October 3, 2019

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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Categories: Art Koch Profit Chain® Tips

5 Fatal Post Go-Live Mistakes that Will Destroy any Successful Systems Implementation.

September 27, 2019

I’m working with a client, and we are ready to Go-Live with a systems implementation for inventory optimization and replenishment planning. We’ve already successfully implemented demand planning, and at this moment, everything is pointing toward another successful launch.

However, spending a few minutes to brainstorm the factors that could go wrong in the post Go-live phase is beneficial. Here are my Top 5 mistakes.

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Categories: Art Koch Profit Chain® Tips

Executive Coaching

September 15, 2019

First understand EVERYONE needs a coach! Every successful person has a coach. Think about this. All sports players have different types of coaches; training, diet, batting, throwing, etc. Entertainers have; voice, acting, diet and training.

Why do we think a leader is broken if they get a coach? Because we assume so!

When working with clients: The first thing I do is to assume no one is broken.

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Categories: Art Koch Profit Chain® Tips

Incrementalism is Alive and Well

August 26, 2019

Often, I read that incrementalism is dead. And the way forward is innovation. I view the debate differently.

Within organizations there is a diverse group of people. I see incrementalism and innovation as different tools within a tool chest. You would never think of using a wrench in place of a screw driver. So why would you expect to have a kaizen to address getting the last 0.1% rework out of a bottleneck process?

I believe the biggest error made when working with innovation and incremental tools, is the misalignment assigning individuals to each tool and not understanding the shortcoming of each.

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Categories: Art Koch Profit Chain® Tips

Cheap is Cheap – Buyer Beware!

July 22, 2019

A couple weeks ago I posted about Cheap is Cheap – Buyer Beware!

I discussed how buying cheap lets entropy into your organizations. We are seeing this play out in real time with the Boeing 737-MAX, DO NOT let this happen to your organization! It looks as though Boeing went with a low price contractor. Here are five things that can help you to avoid this type of error.

Do you have a buyers in a purchasing department or commodity specialist in a procurement departments?

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Categories: Art Koch Profit Chain® Tips

Service Parts Procurement Strategy

July 12, 2019

How much data do you use to analyze demand when quoting service parts?

If you’re not using at least three years of demand to quote service parts your leaving money on the table.

How are you consolidating the spend? Are you working the rationalize your supply base? Once again, you are likely leaving money on the table. Within in the service parts sector, do your partnership suppliers a favor, consolidate the spend, this will increase their long-term volume and improve total cost of ownership.

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Categories: Art Koch Profit Chain® Tips