Resolutions to ring in the New Year

Has your company made any New Year’s resolutions yet? If you need some ideas, try one of these offered by Technology Forecasters consultants. Or share your own with us.

Think Lean: In 2008, wherever your company is in its adoption of Lean principles, extend them. If one manufacturing site is already Lean, take Lean to other sites. If all plants are Lean; bring Lean to non-manufacturing operations. If you’re 100 percent Lean, globally and every other way, start applying Lean to your supply chain—pick a key supplier or three and Lean the processes among yourselves.

Go Green: Keeping in mind that Green (the environment) is Green (profitable, competitive, etc.), take stock of your State of Green, and establish a five-year roadmap for eliminating waste and becoming more environmentally efficient, including at least three Green goals to accomplish this year. (We’ll have more to say about environmental roadmaps in the months ahead.)

TCO: This one’s especially for OEMs. Location is everything in real estate, but not in electronics manufacturing. Total cost of outsourcing (TCO) is. With the dollar weak and the price of oil high, TCO is a moving target. Resolve to consider each individual outsourcing decision on its own merit, based on TCO. (Need help with TCO? See TFI’s Outsourcing Navigator).

Rising markets: This one’s for EMS companies. Resolve to investigate at least one new market where outsourcing penetration is still relatively low — medical, defense, industrial, instrumentation, etc.

Outreach: Reach out once a week to a customer, supplier or supply chain expert. This regular effort may help with your own supply chain challenges, create an opportunity to help a partner resolve a challenge and build a diverse pipeline of inputs for a stronger supply chain.

If you’ve got your own resolutions, we’d like to hear from you.

Posted by Bill Roberts, January 4th, 2008