Managing in Turbulent Times
by Dave Scott, Senior Consultant
Another market low, house prices tumble, foreclosures increase, Wall Street jitters, election uncertainty, recession looms; do all of these sound familiar? What does a company (manager) do during these uncertain times?

There’s not one answer that will ensure that all of these obstacles will disappear or that they will not affect your business, but there are some things that any prudent manager should do during uncertain times.

Among them are:
• Maximize Sales
◊ Increase effort
◊ Maximizing delivery/quality products and/or services
◊ Additional personnel
• Control costs
◊ Overtime
◊ Discretionary expenses
◊ Travel
• Manage cash
◊ Collections
◊ Expenses
• Human resources
◊ Selection and placement
◊ Recruiting
◊ Training

There are likely others, but let’s take a closer look at some of these. Continue to the rest of the article.

Contact us for more information on how we can help you thrive in a downturn economy.

Lean or Sales and Operations Planning?
by Ray Padilla, Director of Client Services
When companies are resource-constrained, this question is often asked by executives attempting to prioritize improvement initiatives. The answer, of course, is that all companies – manufacturing and service – need both. S&OP and Lean are complementary.

A goal of lean manufacturing is to create a process that will allow material to flow - from raw material to finished product to the customer. Thus eliminating waste and wasteful practices, reducing costs and cutting lead times - while synchronizing production and purchasing activities. S&OP, integrated with detailed planning will help balance future demand and supply, to predict capacity and material problems with enough time to do something about them, and to understand the....read more.

Lean Questions
We would love to hear from you! Please send us your questions regarding Lean processes and we will publish it in the next edition. Send your questions to info@technicalchange.com.

Happy Holidays

All of us at TCA join in offering our warmest thoughts and Best Wishes for a wonderful Holiday Season and Happy New Year!

Lean Tips:
"I am continually amazed at how many companies attempt to implement lean without full support of top management. Implementing lean is a full contact sport. On a scale of 1 – 10, it is an 11. 9 out of 10 implementations fail due to lack of support." Kyle Stavig, CEO Myers Container LLC

Top 10 Secrets of Lean
Learn how to make your lean implementation successful and sustainable. Listen to an audio review of the book or request a free copy. Offer is limited.

Upcoming Events
Now you can have the “TCA experience” in a Public Workshop.  These workshops are led by Instructors who have years of hands-on industry experience and are experts in their fields. We are currently offering 3 valuable workshops. We guarantee that you will learn important Lean tools that will enhance your Continuous Improvement journey or your money back!— Value Stream Mapping in an Office Environment, Plant Layout for Lean Manufacturing, and a Hands-On Administrative Kaizen Event.  Both our on-site and public workshops guarantee your satisfaction.  Register now!

Announcements
TCA wishes to congratulate the Day-Brite/Capri/Omega (DCO) division of Phillips Corporation for their relentless pursuit of excellence. As a result of a focused, long term effort, two DCO facilities, one in Tupelo, Mississippi and one in Sparta Tennessee, have been selected by Industry Week Magazine as finalists for their prestigious 2008 IW Best Plants Award. TCA is proud to have played a role in DCO’s success by supporting their Lean initiatives and recruiting several key people with the skills and expertise necessary to lead the charge on their Continuous Improvement journey. DCO is dedicated to producing World Class products and providing a safe, growth oriented environment where every employee can be successful. We wish them the best in the Industry Week competition!

Terms and Definitions
Activity Based Costing: Developed in the late 1980s by Robert Kaplan and Robin Cooper of Harvard Business School, it is primarily concerned with the cost of indirect activities within a company and their relationships to the manufacture of specific products.
Learn more about Activity Based Costing.

About Us
For 25 years, Technical Change Associates has provided high-performance solutions to help companies achieve extraordinary results. Visit our Practice Area page to view our entire line of consulting offerings.

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Technical Change Associates
606 Washington Blvd., Suite 100
Ogden, Utah 84404
Telephone: (801) 621-8980
Fax: (801) 334-0877
Email: info@technicalchange.com