Strategies to Run a Lean Supply Chain: How Principles of Lean Manufacturing Transfer Benefits to Operations
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(Source: Epicor)  The blurring of the line between manufacturing and supply chain logistics provides the opportunity to move efficient manufacturing management concepts to supply chain management. One manufacturing concept stands out as most successful: the concept of lean. This paper describes lean manufacturing and how it can be applied to supply chain management.
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By Pure, Pamela J; Gash, Debe  WECOME TO CONNECTING HEALTH CARE  Vision. Commitment. Trust. Accountability. These qualities define successful partnerships, especially when using IT to drive health care transformation.
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Join Lora Cecere, Research Director, AMR Research and Dr. Amit Shekhar, Global Head- Supply Chain Management, HCL Technologies for this on demand webcast as they discuss trends in Supply Chain and how demand driven retailing is bringing in tangible benefits to retailers.
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(Source: MKS) Are you struggling with too much process - trying to implement several different methodologies? - Or too little process, re-inventing the wheel with each new business development?  This white paper describes how to implement and bridge process methodologies such as CMMI and ITIL, delivering them as one process under one application management framework. It looks at MKS's process management platform, MKS Integrity, as an example of superior technology for integrated IT process management.
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How to analyze a company's inventory as a measure of performance.
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Symantec's primary strategy in the enterprise may currently revolve around the notion of IT risk management, but the company's latest research finds that efforts to refine corporate process unrelated to security technology have become just as popular with customers moving to limit their exposure.According to Symantec's annual survey of 405 businesses, the notion that technologies used to improve IT security serve as the most vital element of corporate risk management currently ranks below other priorities among customers. Respondents to the study rated IT availability management and work on specific regulatory compliance projects as comparable, and in some cases more important, to their ongoing risk mitigation efforts.In addition, fewer businesses are utilizing a strategy that approaches IT risk as a standalone skill set or initiative, according to the Symantec report.One year ago, customers participating in the study indicated that the adoption of security technologies represented the central tenet of their risk management plans. In the 2008 report, 78 percent replied that availability maintenance concerns are now as vital to their exposure mitigation efforts as the installation of security tools.Some 70 percent of respondents replied that security projects are still a critical part of their approach. However, 53 percent of the IT-related incidents experienced by surveyed companies were tied to other issues besides problems with systems defense."IT risk doesn't necessarily equate to security risk. That's a big shift and the key takeaway is that organizations are getting more mature around the portfolio of risks they have to manage," said Samir Kapuria, managing director of Advisory Services at Symantec. "In the past, people looked at one area as discreet, but now they're addressing the four pillars of compliance, security, risk, and performance availability as part of a balanced strategy."Increasing interdependence on IT systems shared between business partners has elevated availability and performance concerns above security issues -- and businesses are more worried about causing a bottleneck in their global supply chain then they are looking to thwart attacks, the expert contends."IT systems availability can have a downstream impact which has had this downward effect," Kapuria said.Spending on compliance-oriented projects also stands as a major piece of most companies' plans, with 68 percent of those people responding stating that their employers rate those efforts as crucial to their risk management strategies.Respondents indicated that high-level risk management projects have become less central to their IT planning, with companies favoring targeted initiatives that address individual problems or regulations.In terms of the participants' expectations to avoid and prevent IT breakdowns, 69 percent said they believe they will encounter at least one minor incident per month, with 63 percent predicting a major IT failure at least once a year.Some 26 percent indicated they expect a failed regulatory compliance incident at least once annually, and 25 percent said that they will experience a data loss event every 12 months."This speaks volumes to the confidence that people have about their overall IT risk posture," said Kapuria. "Part of the problem is that people only do assessments on a bi-annual basis, or they might inventory their assets sporadically; that gap is what often leads to exposure in availability, security, compliance, or performance." All the individual projects involved need to be managed on an ongoing basis, he said.However, the process remains a moving target. Increased adoption of mobile devices and other distributed enterprise trends continue to boost data and compliance risks, while business practices -- including fast-paced mergers and acquisitions -- introduce greater complexity, Kapuria said.More than technological efforts, the Symantec report contends that companies may see faster returns in improving their risk status through greater investment in employee risk education and training.Only 43 percent of respondents rated their training and awareness programs as more than 75 percent effective, showing that companies are well aware of their current shortcomings, Kapuria said. The report shows a decrease of over 50 percent in companies' confidence about their training programs, compared to the year ago survey."The area where most people need to focus on is classifying their data, what it's used for, and what its sensitivity may be," said Kapuria. "Rather than just throwing technology at their problems, companies need to assess, and then apply the appropriate availability, security, and compliance requirements."
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Ask any corporate executive the secret to success and there's a good chance you'll hear that the management team must work on the same goals using the same assumptions and facts -- with transparency to the CEO and board. Yet most companies don't work that way, setting the stage for missed opportunities, hidden problems, and political gaming that uses siloed data and its analysis as a departmental weapon rather than as an enterprise asset.
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Why change, when what you're doing works so remarkably well? Right -- that strategy is change.
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(Source: Borland) Don't let distributed development, SOA and shifting methodologies sabotage software quality...or turn your QA teams into IT managers!  Virtualization can provide a better alternative to physical testing.  Learn how to get more out of virtualized testing by integrating it within testing processes.
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Computerworld recently conducted a survey of more than 100 IT executives to understand how IT leaders are balancing the supply of IT services with business-driven demands to maximize business value. Learn what your peers had to day about the effectiveness of the approaches they use. Their answers may surprise you.
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Project management processes can be used to manage crises.
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New solutions lead the way to market leaders.
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(Source: Hewlett Packard) A typically complex, distributed, and heterogeneous IT environment is very difficult and expensive to manage, and a number of disadvantages to this model have become apparent. These include escalating operational costs, inflexible infrastructure, and erratic data security and integrity. Consequently, Butler Group believes that the proliferation of system silos found within the majority of enterprises today is not sustainable in the long term. Read this white paper to learn the significant benefits to data center consolidation and the adoption of a corresponding centralized management approach.
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Chasing relative performance leads to a short-term orientation.
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By de Bertoldi, Marco; Civilini, Marcello  Despite the variety of composting plants present on the market, the design and operation of composting systems to improve the rate of the process and quality of end products are still an objective that has not been achieved.
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By Sheikh, Imran; Lovins, Amory B  THE STRATEGIES USED BY CHEMICAL ENGINEERS TO ACHIEVE EFFICIENT DESIGNS may vary, but they probably reflect the methodologies we learned in engineering school. So, it is only natural that we use them almost intuitively in the work place.
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Fulfillment leads to achievement, not the other way around.