Applying Lean methodology in Manufacturing, Retail, Logistics and Supply Chain management.

Many traditional organizations operating in old fashioned ways continue to emphasize silo mentality in optimizing costs.  They hardly see the impact of one decision affecting others. For example, if we need to cut down on logistics and supply chain cost, cutting down on the frequency of deliveries from the supplier or to the customer looks obvious. This is what traditional management end up doing.  This will have a high impact of increased inventory, increased need for space, high batch production, high rejection or high rework which is hardly noticed. Lean way of doing things is to optimize the overall cost and not in bits and pieces.

The success of an organization is greatly affected by the efficiency of its stores & Inventory control strategies & practices. Efficient management of these two are vital to maintain continuous operations that will ensure unhindered delivery of the required products or service to the customers and retain customers. Mismanagement in stores & inventory control leads to unsatisfied customers due to missed deliveries & opportunities, blockage of working capital and frequent interruptions in production. Achieving the right mix of stocks and warehouse management are a must today to ensure product to the customers at the right time, price & quality on a sustainable basis.

While the advent of computerization and ERP systems in recent years have improved the efficiency of store operations to a large extent, they have not replaced the need for the much required conceptual understanding. The materials manager must be able to manage the stores activities & control inventory – Planning, organizing, coordinating work, educate, train & supervise the employees and implement strategies to meet the organization’s profitability & customer-centric goals at the lowest possible storage & inventory costs.

The increasing level of computerization demands quick adaptation to improvement process to better manage store operations & inventory levels

• Stores layout, organization & structure
• Stores operations – receiving, inspection, put away, picking, issuing & packing
• Storage & material handling techniques
• Technology for Stores
• Adapting to lean manufacturing requirements.
• Location & facility identification and management.
• Inventory identification and classification strategies
• Inventory control – Stocktaking, inventory accuracy, discrepancies & resolutions
• Inventory valuation methodologies
• Performance cost and value measures

Seven Steps Academy of Excellence offers training courses on Lean logistics and Supply chain by using the following methodology.

• Illustration of concepts and applications through presentation, lectures and discussions that include best practices. 
• Participants learn through interaction with faculty and their industry peers in the session with the sharing of experiences and solutions.
• The program will have exercises & case studies for the participants to interact and work as a team to find solutions.

This course is useful for the following profile of professionals.

•  Executives & Managers working in Stores & logistics, Purchasing, Planning & Inventory control, Vendor Development, Sub-Contracting, Logistics & Distribution.
• Executives from other functions such as Production, Tooling, Quality, Sales & service of spare parts and Customer service support to OEM dispatches that have day to day interactions with warehouse personnel.
• Executives from functions providing supporting roles like Costing & Material accounting
• Faculty and students from Academics, such as MBA institutions & Engineering colleges, for exposure into Warehouse & Inventory management

The following are the key outcomes and learnings from  Lean Supply Chain Management in Manufacturing Firms

• A thorough understating of the concepts and applications of the same in day to day management of respective functions & roles.
• Learn, apply or improve on the principles of lean management for Stores operations – 5S, Kanban, production area supermarkets, etc.
• Improve on decision-making capabilities of Stores operations & inventory control for efficient and effective management of these areas.