Category: Supply Chain

Google “value stream map” and you’ll get about 5 million hits. You can read as much as you want on it, but the only way to truly learn is by doing one – and in my experience, you learn more with each new map. Learning to See, co-authored by lean guru John Shook, gave our MBOE students this past week a prime on the value stream map, and in class, they learned much more about the five components to one: Customer, Supplier, Process Steps, Process Metrics and Information Flow.

Last February, the Center for Operational Excellence teamed up with Fisher's Operations and Logistics Management Association for its first-ever attempt at a "world café"-style event. For a few hours, we brought together COE members, Fisher students and faculty to tackle the topic of logistics in an actionable way - with a catch. The clock ticks during discussion sessions at each table, and when it runs out the groups scramble.

It’s a common occurrence but a sad fact of life in the business world: Lured by cheaper wages and less red tape, a company uproots U.S. manufacturing operations and sends them to China or another country in an effort to cut costs. Harry Moser has made a crusade out of asking those companies a simple question: “You sure about that?”

Sometimes the scope of the machine can obscure the beauty in the little cogs that make it all work. Take Center for Operational Excellence member Cardinal Health Inc. for example: It’s a $100 billion-plus company, highly profitable, one of the largest employers in the Columbus area and manager of a network of distribution centers so vast its products can reach a staggering share of hospitals nationwide in no time flat.