If you have been involved in operations for any length of time, you undoubtedly have heard the old story that trying to fill a 5-pound bag of potatoes with 10 pounds of potatoes always results in mashed potatoes! Yet, even today, I keep encountering clients that behave as if they never heard of this truism [...]

How often have you heard of someone upgrading or replacing their software system in order to become more efficient; when in fact the situation really came down to straightening chairs on the Titanic? Within nearly all manufacturing environments there exists a complex relationship between sales/marketing and operations/production. Because of this complexity, salespeople are under constant [...]

The manufacturing community of Minnesota is fortunate to have the likes of Rick Bernett, manufacturing super-hero.  Rick can save you from the pain of not-so-yummy ERP systems.   Aside from being an instructor for APICS, Metro State University, Manufacturers Alliance and a practitioner of operations management for more than 25 years; Rick has pioneered and [...]

There is a lot of talk about how important strategy is to the well being of an organization. Although this is true, the best laid strategies are vulnerable unless supported by the elephant in the corner that no one likes to talk about – Culture. The reason we don’t like to talk about it is [...]