Edwards Group Publications
Independent
Distributors Transforming the Playing Field
Five years ago, one US distributor of gas and
welding supplies, as part of their strategic planning, decided
to examine the potential value of Continuous Improvement (CI) to
increase operating income, gain higher margins and market share
in an already saturated and exponentially competitive
price-driven industry, and differentiate themselves from
competitors. The distributor considered it imperative to drive
CI from a culturally sustainable, strategic approach.
more...
Independent
Distributors Transforming the Playing Field;
Linking Strategy and Continuous Improvement to Achieve Superior
Performance.
Distributors must focus on solutions that take them from their
current business state to a desired future business state. As
discussed in my previous article, this is done "Through Customer
Driven Continuous Improvement." (See "Independent
Distributors Transforming the Playing Field") There
are many elements of the Continuous Improvement (CI) planning
process and in this report, I examine ways distributors can link
business strategy to that process by focusing on Visual Policy
Deployment (VPD), the process of establishing the visual
workplace, sometimes called management by sight.
more...
Independent Distributors Transforming the Playing Field
Culture: The Linchpin of
Continuous Improvement
Culture is created by words, actions, and choices and an organization's culture
should articulate the fundamental reasons why it exists to those
inside and outside the company.
more...
nexAir's Path to Operational
Excellence: Strategic Goals + Culture + Empowerment = Sustained
Results
Linking continuous improvement (CI)
through a company's culture to its strategic
business goals is imperative to the successful
implementation of CI. For example, General
Electric links forty percent of top management
bonuses to successful implementation
of CI. Without such linkage, CI is short-lived
and yields unsustainable results.
more...
nexAir's Path to Operational
Excellence: Mastering the Fundamentals to Sustain Improvement
nexAir,
a Memphis, Tennessee-
based company with revenues over
$100 million, is a dominant force in the
industrial gas markets in the southeastern
region of the US. Its warehouse team, under
the leadership of John Climer, helped establish
an improved business platform for nex-Air.
more...
