Warehouse common chaos - an analysis - Quick overview

    Throughout my working life in an EMS industry, I have seen a few well managed warehouse. However, I have also seen such many poorly managed warehouses. 

I have taken the opportunity to look into one of the warehouses and would like to share them with you. 

Below is just a quick overview:

• Warehouse Readiness

o Receiving

 Resource

• Receiving

o Critical

o Main purpose

 Receive goods in less than 30 minutes per truck

• How to shorten?

 Cleaer trucks

o Expedited materials

 Special process to handle this

o IDM

o MRO parts

o Process flow

• Expedite team

o Who? 

o Process flow? 

• Sorting process

o Abnormality

 How to handle? 

• Use "Banking" concept

o Normal process

 Provide training & guide

• How to allocate

• What do you have now?

o Can you hire temp staffs?

o Fork Lift

 Driver/operator

 Battery

 Process flow

• Normal

• Expedited

• Must provide proper guide & process flow

o People know what to do

o IQA

 Resource 

• Do we have enough people?

 Process flow

• Normal

• Expedite

• People know what to do

 If IQA lack, it will snowball

 Process flow

• Normal

• Expedited

o Store

 How to store? 

• Can the current resource complete the work?

o If no, please establish new process flow

• Place to store

o WMS

• Process flow

o Kitting

 Major challenge

 Resource

• 2 shifts

o Morning shift

 Clear all expedited kitting

o Night shift

 Clear normal kitting

• Get enough people

 Process flow & expectation

• Finish the activities the same day

o No overflow

o The goal?

 Warehouse operates normally

 Full support of production

• Normal demand

• Expedited process

o MUST Adhere to

 5S

 QBwM

 Zero defect

 No excuse

 Ask yourself this question

• Can or cannot do?

• Want or don't want to

I hope you enjoy the above article. 

I appreciate your feedback and comments. 

If you would like to know more, please let me know. 

Best regards,

Ronald Gan  

Training provided on account management - an overview

    This is the training that I have provided previously on account management in an EMS industry. 

Just to share what are the topics involved in account management.

Below is the list of items as above, in text form:

Account Management Overview & Training

o Company internal Definition

 Find from Intranet

o Roles & Responsibilities

o Organization

 Customer

 Hierarchy 

o Trainings proposed

 Usual HR Training

 Mandatory Training Required by COO

• Cornerstone

o Search "Training Market Sector"

 RFQ Explanation

• How to use the system?

• How to smartly quote

• What is this for?

• Items to take note

 Software & Tools

• IBM

o Planning Analytics

o TM1

• Power BI

• Microsoft Dynamics 365

o Use of CRM

 Customer Contacts

 Customer Organization

 Set opportunities for RFQ

 Trigger NPS

• VPN

• Web based

• Citrix

• Microsoft Office Tools

 Company Intranet navigation

 NPS

o Topics to discuss

 Miller Heimann

• Green sheet

• Blue Sheet

 CRM

 CVN

 Customer Review

• What is this? 

• Format

o In Share point 

• Purpose

• Attendees

o Who needs to attend?

o Who may attend?

• What do you need to do?

o Prepare

o Peer review

o Review with Senior Director

o Review with VP & MSVP

o Anticipate questions

o Access to Power BI

o Access to IBM Planning Analytics (Web1)

o Know how to navigate

 P&L

• Details

• How to obtain the file

 Quotation

• Process Flow

• Ownership

o New

o Existing

• OIL

• Format

o Customer

o Internal

 Finance

• TM1

o What is this for?

• Planning Analytics

o What is this for?

 Pricing File

 Contract

 Financial Forecast

• Site level

• Market sector level

 Inventory E&O

 Branding & Marketing

• Self read

• Company presentations

o Self learnt

o Expectations

 Make mistakes & learn from that

• Avoid repeating the mistakes

 Pay attention to details

 Stand back & think

 Methodology

• Self learning

o Self explore

 Purpose

• Multiple ways

• Think out of the box

• Challenge the status quo

• Questions & Answers after reading the materials

• Daily 1 hours of calibration session

o 10 am

o 3.30 pm

• Practie yourself

o Be hands on

o Don't worry to make mistakes

o Purpose

 Learning curve

 Overview

 Share what is the R&R

 Knows what is CM

• And know when to push back

• Ownership

• Responsibility 

 Gather previous CMs' experience

 Know what is important to CM team

o Characteristics

 Open

 Resourceful

 Always ready

 Independent

 Leader

• Make hard decisions

 Strategic

 People manager

 When in trouble

• Always come with proposals/solutions

 Salesman

• Buyoff & agreement

 Pay attention to details

 Think & strategize

 7 habits

 Story teller

If you would like more information, please leave me a message. 

As usual, I appreciate your feedback & comments. 

Thank you very much.

Best regards,

Ronald Gan

Re-Pricing from an EMS industry standpoint

What is re-pricing?

    This is an activity where buyer and seller agrees on a point to reset the buy price and sell price. 

    Why is this important? It is critical to set the financial information right, as well as the values of the existing inventory. The price of the materials will fluctuate either in a short term, or long term. If this is not done, the financial of the organization will be questionable, and not accountable for. 

    Below is the proposed process flow for re-pricing. I believe I have covered most of the critical areas. 

 

    If you need a clearer picture, please email me. I have them in pdf file or in a format derived from the apps called "Flowdia".

    It is a major process and usually, the below parties are involved:

• program management
• finance
• inventory analyst
• procurement team
• costing team
• customers
• planner

    How often this is done? Preferably, quarterly and longest should be half yearly. Imagine, if your buying price differs every month, but you do not change your selling price for one year, what will happen? The total inventory values will not be accurate. Also, you may continue to keep making money (if your materials buy price keeps going down) or continue to lose money (if your materials buy price keeps going up). However, if you material cost is insignificant, then you can reset your price annually, or longer. 

    

    If may not be very easy to understand this condition quickly. I am preparing an article on "inventory revaluation". Please watch out for my article. I am pretty sure you will be able to understand further once you read the said article. 

    What are the activities that will follow up after the re-pricing activities?

• agree on a re-pricing date
• set the sell price and buy price in the ERP & finance system. Implementation date is critical. 
• Are there loop holes? YES. And I will be writing another article on this
• The loop holes enables an organization to either make money or lose money 
• inventory revaluation
• buyers to revise the open POs with the correct price
• seller to revise the invoice accordingly with the correct price

    You may ask me.... what happens if a customer refuse to go into the re-pricing process/agreement with you? There is a trick to this. Please drop me a note if you would like to know more of this. 

    I hope this article provides a very brief overview of re-pricing activities. Please share your thoughts and feedback as I always appreciate your valuable feedback & viewpoints. 

Thank you for your time. 

Best regards,

Ronald Gan

4M + 1E, reloaded

     It has been a long time since I have written about this topic. I would like to share more on this topic with more details. I noticed that my previous article does not have lots of details. 

    As mentioned previously, 4M is:

• Man
• Machine
• Method
• Materials     

    And the 1E is related to "Environment".

    I typically used mind mapping method to go through and prepare the details of 4M & 1E. I will be sharing a few examples that I have prepared. 

    By using mind mapping method, I realized that I will unlock all the limitations and all the barriers. I can input anything that I have immediately into the work. 

MAN

• This is any topic that is related to human,  resources needed, training, organization,  roles & responsibilities, job descriptions,  hiring, firing, employee benefits, employee compensation,  knowledge needed, experience needed, etc. 
• Organization chart is also in here. 
• Employee relationship internally as well as relationship with customers are also topics worth discussing here. 
• If you want to, office politics can also be taken into 

MACHINE

• This is an area that you input the needs of equiment, machines, facilities etc.
• You will also need to consider the specifications & capabilities of the equipment, machines and facilities. 
• The physical office area & manufacturing facilities are also taken into consideration here. 
• Also, anything related to networking, IT facilities, ISP (Internet Service Provider), Software licensing, programming in house & externally can be considered here.
• Total cost of equipment, facilities, machines, etc.
• ROI calculation can be looked at.

METHOD

• There are just too many things that you can discuss here.
• You can discuss on the process flow here.
• SOP (Standard operating procedures) can also be taken into consideration here. 
• What types of ERP used here can also be considered. 
• The methodology of ERP loading is critical to be discussed.
• How you do things, the company guidelines are also a good starting point here.
• Anything you need as guideline can be registered here such as the Dos & Don'ts, policies, restrictions, organization beliefs, policies, goals, etc. 

MATERIALS

• This is anything related to materials that includes direct & indirect materials.
• Example is everything related to BOM (bill of materials). What is a BOM? I will have another topic of discussion subsequently. 
• What is a direct material and what is an indirect material? It will also be discussed in the BOM topic.
• This topic also will take into consideration of the material purchased price, selling price.
• Suppliers & vendors are also included here.
• The specifications, engineering details, mechanical references etc are also included here.
• How to purchase and when to purchase also could be set here.
• Logistics methodology is also needed here.
• Inco terms (buying & selling) & trade compliance is very important here too.
• One important topic is also ERP used.

ENVIRONMENT 

• What does this topic cover?
• The manufacturing required environment such as temperature,  humidity, cleanliness, etc.
• The storage requirement is also needed here.
• Certain products required very clean environment for manufacturing.  This is called cleanroom requirement. It could be Class 10k, class 1k or class 100 cleanroom.
• It is also ignored many times that the efficiency of the manufacturing environment needs to be considered in the beginning, before the manufacturing line is set up. Why is this important? Send me a note if you would like to discuss more on this. 
• The effectiveness of the overall supply chain environment in the factory is critical here. You need to know where is your storage place, supply depot, finished goods storage, loading bay, receiving bay, JIT (just in time) methodology to supply materials to the manufacturing line. 

I have prepared an example of 4M & 1E using mind mapping tool. It is a very good one for you to use and understand the overall of 4M & 1E. 

The image is not defined well as you can see per below. 

If you want, drop me a note & I will send you a soft copy in PDF form. 

I can also output them into text form so that you can copy them into excel format or word format, or HTML format too. 

 

 

As usual, I value your feedback & comments. 

Please drop me a note if you care. 

For further enquiries, please email me. 

Thanks. 

Best regards,

Ronald Gan

 

Example of Information gathering before a SWOT analysis

    I have the opportunity to make a good info gathering of an EMS company, before getting into the SWOT analysis. The above graphic is how I draft my work using a mind mapping tool called Simple Mind.

    Generally, information gathering is more difficult to do, when compare to SWOT analysis. You will need to have full information before a proper SWOT analysis could be done, as well as preparing for a way to counter the SWOT. 

Hopefully you will enjoy.  

Company XXX SWOT - Info gathering

Topics

 BD

 Program management

    • Extremely weak

    • No proper training

        o Hit the ground running

    • Very junior

    • Does not really serve the full purpose of this team

 Strategy

    • Nvr change

    • Arrogant 

    • Want to grow to usd X B

        o Did not know what to give & take

 Quotation 

    • Know how

        o Not many really understand the details

        o Not many encouraged to explore variations

        o Not many knows really how the format works

    • Succession plan

        o Slow

        o Not ready

    • Highly secretive

        o Too many fat hidden in the costing file

    • Only good for PCBA

        o HLA, system build & System integration is not well costed

        o Distribution & Direct Fulfillment is not well costed

        o Reverse Logistics is over priced

    • Excel file

        o Macro written by one person

        o No back up plan

    • CBOM weaknesses

    • Overall process weaknesses

 Finance

 Senior management

    • Poor succession plan

    • Very biase

    • Perception

    • All of them have their own agenda

 Engineering in manufacturing

    • 90% of them are weak in these areas

        o Experience 

        o Exposure

        o Skills

        o Knowledge 

        o Language

             Spoken

             Written

        o Problem solving skills

        o Integrity

 Problem solving

    • Weak like hell

        o At working level

        o At senior level

        o Just want to get over it

    • No standard way

 Quality

    • Very poor

        o Don't know how to manage the situation

             Fail to solve a complex problem systematically

    • Bad mentality

    • Significant escapees

        o R&D

        o Manufacturing

    • Majority of the team is weak

    • There is no proper & systematic problem solving tools being used

    • Most of the times, failed to even identify the "Problem Statement"

        o Jump directly to root cause

 Overall Integrity

    • Very lack of integrity

    • No professionalisme

    • All based on personal perception

    • Top management can do what they like

        o Will get their "watch dogs" to run the dirty work for them

             Spread news

             Influence

             De-fame

             Gather information

             Benefits 

    • Only good for senior management - Director & above level

        o Always there will be food & drinking sessions at top level

             Using company's money for "personal agenda"?

    • Lousy medical coverage

 Customers visits

    • Very good

    • Systematic

    • Senior management's involvement

    • Flexible

    • Utilize MH Green Sheet

    • Excellent salesmanship

 CRM tools

    • Ms Dynamics 365

    • IBM cognos

    • IBM TM1

    • Miller Heiman

        o Blue sheet

        o Green sheet

        o Used at all level

                 Standard language

    • Power BI

    • Annual customer survey

        o Customer is getting annoyed by this survey

        o No proper actions taken

             No change

    • Customer review

    • Great tools, BUT

        o Not many people knows how to really use it

             For the real purpose of self improvement

 Engineering R&D - focus in APAC

    • Poor succession plan

    • Not qualified as senior management

        o Poor in managing customers

        o Unable to manage situation

    • Charges are extremely high

    • Lack of business people that is able to quote based on what the customer wants

    • Very inexperience

        o Too young 

    • Always over charge

    • Don't know how to be flexible

    • Refuse to accept the fact that they are weak

        o Still thinks they are the best

    • Arrogant 

 Succession plan - weak

    • Functional / Department head

    • GM

    • Senior level

        o Questionable

    • Operations Directors that are capable

    • Not based on how good a person is

        o Based on how much top management likes the person

 Secret projects

    • Way too many

    • Too secretive

 Internal politics

    • Among regions

        o Massive

    • Personal gains & agenda

    • At top level

    • Very unhealthy

    • Worst I have ever seen

    • Always in a blame game

 Supply Chain

    • It is a big political mess in this group

    • Very weak

        o The team thinks they are very good

             That is because they were never exposed to real good SCM team

    • Leadership sucks in APAC

    • There is no proper plan & long term goals

        o Don't have the know how

    • Sub teams

        o Costing

        o Sourcing

        o Procurement

        o MRO

        o Logistics

        o Warehousing

        o Materials system

    • ERP system used is really outdated

 Travels

    • Senior level travel in business class

    • Hit the ground & start to work

        o No time for rest

 Pay & package

    • Lower than industrial standards

    • Lower than competitor

    • Extremely lousy package in APAC region

    • Package is very good only for Director & above level

 Work hours

    • No flexibility in APAC region

    • Very calculative

Note: 

The information gathered is based on my personal view. If further information is desired, please email me. 

Last but not least, would appreciate your feedback and sharing. 

New business engagement - analysis, review and buy off (Electronics manufacturing services environment)

    Many times, when there are new business opportunity, companies will rush into the business without proper review, analysis & approval. 

    If lucky, the business will make a good investment. However, if the investment is not a good one, best case the company will breakeven in that investment. Worst case, company could run their P&L (profit & loss) into a red zone. 

    I have previously prepared & established one proposed process flow to provide guidance for this purpose for one of my projects. 

    Please have a look at the below JPEG file.

     As usual, I have the original PDF & source file with me. Drop me an email if you desire the PDF file. 

    As usual, I appreciate your feedback. Hope this guideline helps. 

SWOT Analysis example

This is an example of a SWOT analysis that I have prepared.
S: Strength (Internal)
W: Weakness (Internal)
O: Opportunity (External)
T: Threat (External)


Why is a SWOT analysis so important?
What can we get out of this SWOT template? There are a lot we can achieve using this template. Can discuss more....

Please email me if you need further discussion/info or example for this SWOT template.
If you need a spreadsheet in Excel format, please email me too.

Inventory Revaluation

Inventory Revaluation means that you revalue your inventory to even out the price. This is generally due to 2 different pricing for the inventory.

Why do you need to know this, and more importantly why do you need to do this?
If you do not do this and if you are buying/selling your materials with different prices on every month or every quarter or even every day, chances are that you will either make or lose money. And the best part is, you can't even explain why you make a lot of money, or lose a lot of money at first glance.

Example of items that I believe could be categorized to the below timelines:
Revalue Every quarter: Electronics products such as computers, laptops,
Revalue Every month: FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods).
Revalue Every week: Food, Commodity (coffee, wheat, rice, soy, barley, potato, etc)  & vegetables in a free market. (Driven by Demand & Supply)
Revalue Every day: Gas in a free market, ForEx & Stock Market. (Driven by Demand & Supply)

I have taught the concept of Inventory Revaluation in 5 different companies in Asia. I have used very easy to understand but very clear examples for my sharing/coaching session. For those who are interested, please let me know.

When I worked out my explaining graphics in a nice way, I will write more on this topic. For now, this is just the tip of the iceberg on Inventory Revaluation. The graphics will explain the matter much clearer.

I will also share how to establish a robust Inventory Revaluation Process.

And..... why are we talking about this in manufacturing program management blog?
Well, program management owns everything. Every step that could be taken to avoid losses will be highly appreciated by the senior management.


Stay tuned.....

Guide to set your personal goal

To be a successful person in life and at work, you need to know where you are heading, and how you are going there. Just like driving a car, you need to know your origin & destination before you begin your journey. This is what I call "My own personal goal".

To be really successful, our brains need constant reminders on what our goals are, and how we are going to achieve it.


It is not really that simple to prepare your own goal, based on SMART concept. However, this can be done with some simple guideline, and a format to help you out.


(SMART is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic & timebound.)


To be that discipline to review and keep to the action items in your goal sheet takes extra courage and efforts. There is a saying by Robin Sharma (Author of best seller: The monk who sold his ferarri) that sounds like this : The pain of regret is better than the pain of discipline.


As a discipline person, you will be one of the top successful people.



Statistics shows that out of 100 person, only 5 person set their goal. And out of these 5 person that sets their goal, only 2 person will review their goals daily.


I have attached a simplified version of the goal sheet for your quick understanding of what I meant. Please drop me a mail (mailto:rgkw1999@gmail.com), and I will give you further guidelines. This includes a comprehensive format, a step bu step guide on how to set the goal. Most importantly, I will also share with you sample/samples of the goals sheets that I have came acrossed. With these, you will be able to set your goals easier.

Hopefully, you will begin your successful journey now.

Remember: It is never too late to be successful!

Outstanding Manufacturing Program Manager

More of my comments & discussion per the link below:

http://mymindmappingcollections.blogspot.com/2008/03/outstanding-program-manager-mindmapped.html

The Goal ..... How it changed my mindset

A few years back, I came across a book that my housemate stuffed it in a pile of books.

He said it was an interesting book that his supervisor insisted him to finish reading. I borrowed it for a week. I was amazed as to how simple the author has conceptualized each manufacturing concept in this book.

I have since changed my thoughts about manufacturing. In simple English, the author successfully made the reader think deeply and carefully. The author later pointed out the essence of the concepts. Mastering the concepts that were being taught, I am able to make better decisions. Believe me, before that, I never have the guts to boldly make a decision without carefully consult my supervisor. Now, by locking these concepts in my mind, I am able to make sound decisions that benefits the majority of the manufacturing. With these concepts, I was able to convince many of my peers on the decisions and the actions that I have taken.

Search using Google, check out the book & read the reviews. It is presented in novel way; thus making it more easy to absorb and read. Here is the detail of the book:

Book Name: The Goal: A process of Ongoing Improvement.
Author: Eliyahu M. Goldratt.


After reading the book, please do post a review comment on Amazon.com website.
Also, I would like to hear from you what you think of the concepts in this book.

4M & 1E

I personally consider 4M & 1E as the "friendly basic compass" to structurally guide program managers. They are the main topic to be considered before a program manager can work on the details of matters in a structural manner. A program manager can group each matter into these 5 categories, before working on the details. This helps the program manager to plan better, and utilize his/her limited resources more efficiently & effectively. 4M: a. Man: All human resources related matter such as direct labor & indirect labor, hiring & firing, training, wages & benefits, knowledge & experiences, etc should roll under this category. b. Machine: Anything related to equipments, testers, jigs, fixtures, calibrations, specifications of the machine, templates, pallets, tables & chairs, tools, etc. c. Method: Any methods, instructions, specifications, guide, tolerance, etc. d. Material: This applies to both direct & indirect materials. Direct materials are the list of materials that is listed in the BoM (Bill of Material). They can be easily counted. Indirect materials are materials that are not listed in the BoM (Bill of Material). Alternatively, they can be items that are difficult to count. For example the materials that are in liquid, semi-solid and powdery form. 1E e. Environment: This applies to work station, temperature, ESD (Electro-Static Sensitive Device), moisture sensitive devices, air conditioned, humidity, vibration, air pressure, clean room environment, dust free requirement, etc. This is a rather small portion, but anything that is related to environment will fall under this category. If you would like to know more on a basic 4M + 1E checklist, please write to me. I hope the templates that I have can minimize your efforts to re-invent the wheel.

Updates on Aug 30 2020:

I have written more information on the topic of 4M & 1E that provides more details. 

Please click on the below link to get to this article:

https://manufacturingprogrammanagement.blogspot.com/2020/08/4m-1e-reloaded.html

Program Management Terminology

On the left are some of the terminologies that you must know in manufacturing program management. These terms are very useful, so that a program manager can really manage a certain situation well.

By knowing the basic, he or she can ask the right questions, and make the right decision. He or she can then lead the team to the right path accordingly.

P/S: If you would like to know more of each terminology now, please drop me a note. I will do my best to explain clearly to you.

What is manufacturing program management?

A small group of people have the misconcept that manufacturing program management has something to do with computer language programing, something related to computer, or project management related.

I would like to share with you my opinion on program management, paying particular attention in electronics manufacturing.

In a nutshell, a manufacturing program manager is a person that wears different hats at different time, juggle a few balls in the air at any one time. He/she leads a team of experts to service one particular customer, or a group of customers.

Most of the time, he or she plays the role of customer interface to work with internal team as well as customers. An outstanding manufacturing program manager has a vast knowledge and experience in people management, production, planning, materials, engineering, quality, operations, MRP/ERP, financials, order management, problem solving, project management, leadership skills, crisis management, & etc. With the knowledge, he/she can effectively play different roles during each different situation.

In my next post, I will gradually share with you more details on the below topics:

a. Important personalities of a successful manufacturing program manager.
b. Knowledge required to be an outstanding manufacturing program manager.
c. Values of a superb manufacturing program manager.
d. Some of the know-how skills to be a successful manufacturing program manager.
e. How to out beat your competitor to be an outstanding manufacturing program manager.
f. The CRM (Customers Relationship Management) 101?
g. etc.

Of course, your most important question is "how can I also become one?"
More tools will also be shared with you on a constant basis.