Low Cost Material Resource Planning (MRP) Proven Most Effective for Small ManufacturersWritten by Rocky Smolin
Small manufacturers face same challenges as larger manufacturers without financial depth to resolve same issues. The result has been that some of technologies that allow mid-sized and larger manufacturers to achieve efficiencies have been out of reach for smaller manufacturer until now. Rocky Smolin, President of Beach Access Software and maker of E-Z-MRP. Smolin emphasizes that E-Z-MRP, “was designed to be used by people who do not have degrees or certification in manufacturing systems. It requires no on-site training or consultation. And it has cut standard 18-month MRP implementation cycle to as little as 18 days.” The E-Z-MRP package includes a full-featured Bill of Materials processor, plus a material planning and tracking module which tracks all sales orders, forecasts, work orders (planned, firm, and released), purchase orders, shortages, raw materials and finished goods inventories. It also records a complete audit trail on all inventory transactions.
| | Creativity and Innovation Management- why products fail.Written by Kal Bishop
There is no sure fire route to commercial success but probability of success can be increased. This is important for at least two reasons:a)Resource Management. The Economist (2003) states that 3000 bright ideas result in 100 worthwhile projects, which are winnowed down to four development programmes. And four such development programmes are required to stand any chance of getting one winner. b)Time Management. Whilst it is often case that sufficient time is not taken to develop a product fully, there is always time to go back and fix mistakes. The cost of product re-engineering varies from low to high billions. There are a number of techniques that allow better problem identification and idea generation (creativity) and better idea selection, development and commercialisation (innovation). Innovation strategies include: a)Valuing ideas according to their type. Random ideas and those resulting from solution spotting have highest success rates. b)Measuring strategic, technical and competency fits with organisation. c)Measurement of ideas according to their impediments. A new type of cell phone will be infinitely easier to produce than a time machine. The Internet has a far lower take up in Africa than in Europe because of infrastructure deficiencies.
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