BUS 3500 March 24

The reading of Chapter 12 for the March 24 class has been of great interest to me, and I am seeing some connections to my time working at The Shingo Prize and also my husband's management insights as a global director at Autoliv. I had never seen it spelled out this way in an overall teaching though - Marketing Channels and Supply Chain Management. First, the pull system concept - I learned this at Shingo - and many examples of the benefits of taking the cue from the customer rather than producing and pushing it onto the customer. I see the benefits to this concept in all kinds of business - sell them what they want and need, not what you want them to want and buy. The customer will pay for the things that they feel have value to them, so as the Shingo principles say, don't add cost without adding value - otherwise it's waste. Excess inventory is waste, and also waiting is one of the eight wastes... and this chapter on Supply Chain Management emphasizes that with references to JIT. I love the example from my Autoliv that my husband shared with me: The Brigham plant produces the inflator module that is needed to complete the airbag assembly that Ogden produces. Autoliv reduced wait time and managed inventory with JIT, by calculating when the line in Ogden would need product from the Brigham plant, how much, and scheduling a truck to bring that product directly to the line, every 36 minutes. The line got what they needed, when they needed it, exactly where they needed it - and you can set your clock on that truck traveling down I-15... every 36 minutes.