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Suggest You - Yes - You CAN Compete with Offshore - Part II
Having a brand identity is extremely important to your business's success. However, many business owners have misconceptions about brand identities that can damage their businesses."Brand identity" is the result of the combination of consistent visual elements that are used in your marketing materials. A basic brand identity consists of a logo, business card, letterhead, and envelope. It can be extended to include a website, brochure, folder, flyer, or any other professionally designed pieces.I'm not a big company: I can't have/create/build a brand.
Most entrepreneurs from J. Paul Getty to the local cybernet caf? owner carry business loans. Not only are they usually necessary to start up and to grow a venture, they are often the best way to establish a sound credit rating. The best way to get a stellar credit rating is to take out a loan and to pay it off at slightly higher than the required amount with fastidiously punctual payments. But the combination of existing financial obligations taken together with the business debt that results from day to day activity can result in a problem that can spiral out
ALIGNMENT TO REQUIREMENTS
A big part of competitiveness is found in the alignment of the product to the customer’s requirements -- if it does what it’s supposed to do, they’re gonna consider buying it. This was discussed back in Quality of the Product, but it also means that you, as the producer, have to consider needs that the customer has in keeping his/her own costs down. You will have done that, of course, when you set up initial sales with the client, but it should be done on an ongoing basis, too.
RESPONSIVENESS TO NEEDS
Do you know what your customer is dealing with, and what new challenges are being faced by that company? Worthington Steel, based out of Columbus, Ohio actually makes it a point to send front line staff out periodically to client facilities to see how the product is being used. What good is that? It allows Worthington to make small changes in either construction or delivery that mean a big difference to the client. And often it’s ONLY the front line staff who can identify these types of requirements – sometimes the client doesn’t even know the opportunity is there. Staff can recognize this, and bring the ideas back to your plant where changes can make your product even more valuable to the client. What’s the outcome? Let’s look: Worthington is a leading diversified metal processing company with $3 billion in sales, and 8,000 employees in 63 facilities. You can review their results at www.worthingtonindustries.com.
Get your staff involved in improving your responsiveness to customer needs.
ABILITY TO DELIVER TO SCHEDULE
Believe it or not, this is the area where an American company has the best opportunity to compete with offshore. Here’s why. When production is moved to another country, the lead time on getting that product back here to the U.S. moves to an average of 8 to 10 weeks. That’s 2 ? months, most of which is transportation and loading time. And here’s the kicker – all of that new product has to be inspected. Now that may not sound like a big deal, but if your client is bringing a shipload of new product in (which is often necessary to keep transportation costs manageable), the inspection time alone is a very significant investment in time and manpower. And what happens if something is wrong? THEN there have to be plans and facilities in place for either shipping it back OR for fixing the problem back to spec. Can you honestly say there isn’t opportunity here for you to provide a much more competitive product? American companies should be able to very significantly reduce lead times; and errors in manufacturing can be much more quickly rectified when they do occur.
COST TO THE PURCHASER
This is the second area of great opportunity for you, the producer, because it has to do with your cost of production – something that is mostly within your control. Now you will holler that you can’t control the cost of supplies and labor. But the fact is that you CAN control the cost of production, and there is very often ample opportunity for improvement here. Have you used the four process mapping approaches? Do you know where in your line the value and non-value steps are? Have you applied the Lean principles relative to the Five Ss, Preventative Maintenance, and Predictive Maintenance. Most business owners have at least put these last three in place, but often a systematic review of processes has not been done – and there is a lot of opportunity in process mapping! Edwards Deming felt that as many as 70% of process steps are waste steps, and identifying and eliminating them can drastically reduce your cost of p
For many people, the possibility of selling goods online appears fraught with difficulties. Firstly, you need to locate a product, store inventory, organise a good shipment or carrier company and so forth. But what if you could become a successful online retailer without having to worry about those problems?The answer is that you can…a simple type of retail called drop shipping. Let us take a look at the pros and cons of this method of retailing.Drop shipping is the name given to the retail method where you sell a product at a price of your choice bu
RESPONSIVENESS TO NEEDS
Do you know what your customer is dealing with, and what new challenges are being faced by that company? Worthington Steel, based out of Columbus, Ohio actually makes it a point to send front line staff out periodically to client facilities to see how the product is being used. What good is that? It allows Worthington to make small changes in either construction or delivery that mean a big difference to the client. And often it’s ONLY the front line staff who can identify these types of requirements – sometimes the client doesn’t even know the opportunity is there. Staff can recognize this, and bring the ideas back to your plant where changes can make your product even more valuable to the client. What’s the outcome? Let’s look: Worthington is a leading diversified metal processing company with $3 billion in sales, and 8,000 employees in 63 facilities. You can review their results at www.worthingtonindustries.com.
Get your staff involved in improving your responsiveness to customer needs.
ABILITY TO DELIVER TO SCHEDULE
Believe it or not, this is the area where an American company has the best opportunity to compete with offshore. Here’s why. When production is moved to another country, the lead time on getting that product back here to the U.S. moves to an average of 8 to 10 weeks. That’s 2 ? months, most of which is transportation and loading time. And here’s the kicker – all of that new product has to be inspected. Now that may not sound like a big deal, but if your client is bringing a shipload of new product in (which is often necessary to keep transportation costs manageable), the inspection time alone is a very significant investment in time and manpower. And what happens if something is wrong? THEN there have to be plans and facilities in place for either shipping it back OR for fixing the problem back to spec. Can you honestly say there isn’t opportunity here for you to provide a much more competitive product? American companies should be able to very significantly reduce lead times; and errors in manufacturing can be much more quickly rectified when they do occur.
COST TO THE PURCHASER
This is the second area of great opportunity for you, the producer, because it has to do with your cost of production – something that is mostly within your control. Now you will holler that you can’t control the cost of supplies and labor. But the fact is that you CAN control the cost of production, and there is very often ample opportunity for improvement here. Have you used the four process mapping approaches? Do you know where in your line the value and non-value steps are? Have you applied the Lean principles relative to the Five Ss, Preventative Maintenance, and Predictive Maintenance. Most business owners have at least put these last three in place, but often a systematic review of processes has not been done – and there is a lot of opportunity in process mapping! Edwards Deming felt that as many as 70% of process steps are waste steps, and identifying and eliminating them can drastically reduce your cost of
Where do you see yourself and your organization 1,5,10 years from now? What do you want to accomplish? What do you and your organization want to be known for? What do you do for a living? These are all very important questions that need to be answered both on a professional and personal level.People think differently about vision statements. Some people develop them and put them away. Never to be seen again. Some people display them prominently and base every decision on the vision statement. As Stephen Covey says” Always start with the end in mind.” People
Get your staff involved in improving your responsiveness to customer needs.
ABILITY TO DELIVER TO SCHEDULE
Believe it or not, this is the area where an American company has the best opportunity to compete with offshore. Here’s why. When production is moved to another country, the lead time on getting that product back here to the U.S. moves to an average of 8 to 10 weeks. That’s 2 ? months, most of which is transportation and loading time. And here’s the kicker – all of that new product has to be inspected. Now that may not sound like a big deal, but if your client is bringing a shipload of new product in (which is often necessary to keep transportation costs manageable), the inspection time alone is a very significant investment in time and manpower. And what happens if something is wrong? THEN there have to be plans and facilities in place for either shipping it back OR for fixing the problem back to spec. Can you honestly say there isn’t opportunity here for you to provide a much more competitive product? American companies should be able to very significantly reduce lead times; and errors in manufacturing can be much more quickly rectified when they do occur.
COST TO THE PURCHASER
This is the second area of great opportunity for you, the producer, because it has to do with your cost of production – something that is mostly within your control. Now you will holler that you can’t control the cost of supplies and labor. But the fact is that you CAN control the cost of production, and there is very often ample opportunity for improvement here. Have you used the four process mapping approaches? Do you know where in your line the value and non-value steps are? Have you applied the Lean principles relative to the Five Ss, Preventative Maintenance, and Predictive Maintenance. Most business owners have at least put these last three in place, but often a systematic review of processes has not been done – and there is a lot of opportunity in process mapping! Edwards Deming felt that as many as 70% of process steps are waste steps, and identifying and eliminating them can drastically reduce your cost of
Motivational humorous speakers can help to motivate meeting attendees at your next event. Motivation has been defined as the deployment of physical, mental and emotional energy toward a specific task or goal. In pure psychological terms motivation is often referred to initiation, intensity and persistence of a specific behavior and by employing a motivational humorous speaker you can tap into true motivation. Motivation can be a temporal and dynamic state that should not be confused with emotion or personality. A motivational humorous speaker can help point out t
COST TO THE PURCHASER
This is the second area of great opportunity for you, the producer, because it has to do with your cost of production – something that is mostly within your control. Now you will holler that you can’t control the cost of supplies and labor. But the fact is that you CAN control the cost of production, and there is very often ample opportunity for improvement here. Have you used the four process mapping approaches? Do you know where in your line the value and non-value steps are? Have you applied the Lean principles relative to the Five Ss, Preventative Maintenance, and Predictive Maintenance. Most business owners have at least put these last three in place, but often a systematic review of processes has not been done – and there is a lot of opportunity in process mapping! Edwards Deming felt that as many as 70% of process steps are waste steps, and identifying and eliminating them can drastically reduce your cost of
“Quality means the world to us” says Motorola. “The world on time” states Federal Express.“Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value” says McDonald’s Restaurants.Ever wonder where those great mottos for major companies come from? “They aren’t mission statements, nor vision statements; not exactly an advertising slogan, though it can serve as an effective motto in advertising” says Don Midgett, author of Mission and Vision Statements: Your Path to a Successful Business Future. Your guiding principle is a brief statement t
IN SUMMARY…
There are six areas where a domestic company can improve its competitiveness with offshore. They are:
1. Improving the quality of the product
2. Improving the friendliness of the service
3. Securing better alignment to customer requirements
4. Enhancing responsiveness to customer needs
5. Providing better delivery to schedule
6. And reducing cost to the purchaser through Lean applications.
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