Materials

Controlling material efficiently in your manufacturing or distribution process will reduce waste, damage, scrap, and excessive inventory while improving your distribution warehouse logistics.

Materials Articles:

“A New Concept in Manufacturing Scheduling: Hours of Stock”
Traditional systems can’t provide just-in-time responses when necessary for lean manufacturing. This new scheduling methodology increases operating capacity, reduces WIP and changeovers, while improving shipping performance.

“Want to Cut Inventory? Forget Your ABC’s”
If inventories are too high and customer service levels are low, maybe it’s time to abandon your ABC’s – the time-worn practice of setting inventory priorities by A-B-C product categories based on annual usage or dollar volume. Here’s a new way to think about it.

“Keep It Moving With Continuous Flow Manufacturing”
Things like plant layout, material flow, and better balance between operations can improve your bottom line and reduce cycle time.

“Hours of Stock, a New Concept in Scheduling”
The key to a successful just-in-time operation is time, yet traditional production scheduling systems are based on units. Hours of stock synchronizes the entire enterprise and optimally allocates production resources using scheduling based on time.

“Common Sense Logistics”
Cites two cases where an emphasis on high-tech improvements almost obscured some low-tech low-cost ways to boost the bottom line.

“The Sweet Spot”
The challenge for most distributors is to have the right amount of inventory for each product. This usually involves managing supply. But how about managing demand? If you say it can’t be done – read this article.