Friday, August 1, 2008

Glossary of Terms Used on the Site

Search this page for definitions of terms and jargon used on A Management Consultant @ Large:

A Management Consultant @ Large



  • Business Model - a conceptual description of a company's purpose, offerings, strategies, infrastructure, organizational structures, trading practices and operational processes and policies.
  • CAD - Computer-Aided Design, usually referring to graphical design, but also including concept development and image management.
  • CAE - Computer-aided engineering is the use of information technology for supporting engineers in tasks such as analysis, simulation, design, manufacture, planning and simulation, diagnosis and repair.
  • CAM - Computer-Aided Manufacturing, software tools that assist engineers and machinists in manufacturing or prototyping product components by generating three-dimensional (3D) models using CAD.
  • CDO - Collateralized Debt Obligation, a security made up of a collection of fixed-income assets backed by collateral. A mortgage-backed security, for example, which is made up of a bundle of mortgages backed by real estate holdings, is a kind of CDO.
  • Channel of Trade - An established market mechanism for distributing and selling products that follows a well-understood set of merchandising, settlement and delivery policies.
  • Cloud (Internet) - A common depiction of the Internet as the place where information packets reside, regardless of how they got there.
  • CPD or cPDm - Collaborative Product Development or Collaborative Product Definition Management is a business strategy and method for enabling work teams to cooperate in product design and development across the extended enterprise.
  • Credit Default Swap (CDS) - A credit default swap is a contract between two counterparties, whereby the "buyer" or "fixed rate payer" pays periodic payments to the "seller" or "floating rate payer" in exchange for the right to a payoff if there is a default or "credit event" in respect of a third party or "reference entity". This financial derivative was widely used as a hedge against risky mortgage portfolios; however, it proved to be a high-risk instrument when mortgage failures climbed sharply in 2008.
  • Distribution - The collection of processes required to move product from a stocking point to a customer delivery location. These processes include carrier qualification, selection and contract management; product packaging, bundling and handling; and transportation management.
  • Distribution Network Strategy - A plan for positioning and purposing manufacturing, packaging, storage and distribution centers designed to balance competing objectives for customer service, logistics costs and supply security. Service objectives, which vary by market and product segment, typically involve: rapid fulfillment of orders; assurance of product availability; product protection; transaction accuracy; and frameworks of trading agreements and processes that simplify transactions and reinforce trust.
  • EAMS (Enterprise Asset Management Systems) - Applications that focus on the operational management and maintenance of a company’s facilities and equipment
  • Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 - Commonly called the "bailout plan," the bill granting unusual authority to the US Treasury Secretary to deal with the liquidity crisis of September and October, 2008.
  • Enterprise Architecture - The description of the current and/or future structure and behavior of an organization's processes, information systems, personnel and organizational sub-units, aligned with the organization's core goals and strategic direction
  • Extended Enterprise - A loosely coupled, self-organizing network of firms that combine their outputs to provide product and service offerings. Firms in the extended enterprise may operate independently or cooperatively.
  • Fast Food- See QSR (Quick Service Restaurant)
  • Folksonomy - A user-driven approach to defining taxonomies (used on this site, for example) that allows content contributors to describe their content with tags or labels that become part of a self-organizing search index on the site where the content resides.
  • Fulfillment - The process of filling orders and distributing products to customers.
  • IT - Information Technology - The study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware.
  • IWMS (Integrated Workplace Management Solution) - An enterprise platform that supports the planning, design, management, utilization and disposal of an organization's location-based assets
  • LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) - A building rating system developed by U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) that is used to assess the impact of the design on the environment.
  • Limited Menu - The primary merchandising strategy of quick service restaurants to hold in check product assortment and customization in order to maintain high throughput and quality control.
  • Mark-to-Market - Accounting rule by which corporations may be required to restate assets on their balance sheets to accurately reflect their current market values.
  • Mortgage-backed Security (MBS) - A security issued by a mortgage lender composed of a collection of collateralized mortgage loans.
  • Node or nexus - a point in a network where information, product, services and/or money is exchanged. A critical element of network strategy is the determination of where to locate nodes and what functions to assign to them.
  • Parametric Model - A parametric model is a set of related mathematical equations in which alternative scenarios are defined by changing the assumed values of a set of fixed coefficients (parameters).
  • PDMA Glossary - (PDMA.org)
  • PLM - Product lifecyle management - An integrated business approach to manage the creation and dissemination of product data throughout an enterprise.
  • Proof of Concept - The simplest possible program that will answer a question that you have about the tasks at hand.
  • QSR - Quick Service Restaurant,. Often called a Fast Food Restaurant, a QSR is a specific type of restaurant characterized by its limited cuisine and by minimal table service. Food served in fast food restaurants typically caters to a Western-style diet and is offered from a limited menu; is cooked in bulk in advance and kept hot; is finished and packaged to order; and is usually available ready to take away, though seating may be provided. Fast food restaurants are usually part of a restaurant chain or franchise operation, which provisions standardized ingredients and/or partially prepared foods and supplies to each restaurant through controlled supply channels.
  • Retail Lifecycle Management - The application of PLM techniques to the management of information about retail stores, their designs, components and sites.
  • RFID - Radio frequency identification, an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders, used for locating and identifying objects.
  • RLM - See Retail Lifecycle Management
  • Separability - The degree to which the operating costs of a business unit or business function are independent of the remainder of the business.
  • Service (SOA) - in process automation, a discretely defined set of contiguous and autonomous business or technical functionality.
  • Service-orientation - In systems architecture, a design goal of automating logic in the form of services as a means of creating systems in efficient, reusable modules.
  • SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) - an information modeling approach whereby functionality is decomposed into small, distinct units (services), which can be distributed over a network and then combined and reused as needed to create business applications.
  • Stocking point - A place, such as a warehouse or distribution center, where product is held before being distributed to customers or converted into an assembly, compound, ingredient or finished product.
  • Supply chain management - Planning, implementing and controlling processes, business policies, infrastructure and information related to the flow of materials used in the production and distribution of goods and related services.
  • Syndication of Content - The practice of making the content of a website available in such a manner that many other parties can pick it up via the Internet, automatically and as often as needed.
  • TARP - Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), under which the Secretary of the Treasury would be authorized to purchase, insure, hold, and sell a wide variety of financial instruments, particularly those that are based on or related to residential or commercial mortgages issued prior to March 14, 2008.
  • Web 2.0 - The second generation of the worldwide web, characterized by collaborative on-line communities, network-hosted applications, tagging ("folksonomy"), content syndication, and user-contributed content ("wikis").
  • Wiki - A collaborative website which can be directly edited by anyone with access to it.
  • Workflow - a reliably repeatable pattern of activity enabled by a systematic organization of resources, defined roles and mass, energy and information flows, into a work process that can be documented and learned.
  • Zigbee - a communication protocol for wireless personal networks that is designed for secure, low-volume, energy-efficient radio frequency applications, such as locating and tracking assets in a warehouse or trailer.
See our newsletter on Restaurant Lifecycle Management here.

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A Management Consultant @ Large

Websites of Clients


JP Farrell has provided paid consulting services to the following corporations:

His employers have included the U.S. Department of Transportation, IU International, Cleveland Consulting Associates, A.T. Kearney, Technology Solutions Company and Adjoined Consulting (acquired by Kanbay and Capgemini).

See our newsletter on Restaurant Lifecycle Management here.

To learn more about our work in consulting, read about our Practice or check out our Case Studies.

See Articles and Citations for links to works and quotes by JP Farrell in the mainstream media.




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Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Creating Secure Global Freight Networks

Ocean Containers

In 1988 Don Schneider, CEO of Schneider National, Inc., the largest U.S. truckload motor carrier, over-ruled the advise of his executive team and decided to invest some $4,000 per truck in an experimental on-board computer system (from Qualcomm) that would allow continuous communication between his over-the-road fleet of trucks and a central computer system. Originally lured by the expectation that better communication would make his company preeminent in customer service, Schneider found that the primary advantage came from lower costs of operations. Two-way communication and global positioning provided better visibility to the fleet and offered the carrier the opportunity to change its dispatch and routing decisions in real time. The carrier could now react in real time to the latest news available about the host of everyday occurrences that can impact both a fleet's delivery progress and its customers' requirements, such as:

  • weather delays
  • shipping dock congestion
  • holdups in paperwork
  • accidents
  • road construction delays
  • changes in shipment routing
This relatively primitive event management system, combining real-time visibility with real-time communication, put managers back in control of the fleet and allowed them to make profit-maximizing adjustments in operations. What had initially looked like a $14 million gamble paid off quickly in millions of ways as countless errors and missed opportunities were avoided.

Today's supply chain managers, operating in complex, multi-modal, multi-country and even hostile environments require a far greater level of control. Many products like flowers, fresh foods and pharmaceutical agents are difficult to handle, require temperature control or other kinds of protection, and are shipped over global networks. Even the simplest consumer goods now cross numerous borders, where they are taxed, transshipped, rebundled and otherwise transfigured. At every point of contact items can be lost, infected or damaged, sometimes maliciously, occasionally catastrophically.

For shippers and receivers the stakes involved in safe and secure transit now rise well beyond the simple calculus of "over, short or damaged". Their governments, stockholders and lawyers now need to know who is responsible when toys become toxic; when food becomes poison; when shipments become weapons. More helpfully, supply chain managers are exploring and beginning to adopt systems and processes that can prevent dangerous or malignant items from infiltrating our stores, restaurants and homes.

Adoption of event and asset management systems and processes are rising to the top of corporate agendas. Using a variety of sensors, communication media and protocols and sophisticated information centers, these systems are designed to provide early warning of unexpected events and bring them under the control of supply chain managers.

One such provider of visibility and control solutions, System Planning Corporation of Arlington, VA, has developed GlobalTrak. Designed to provide real-time information on containers as they move from source to ultimate destination, the highly configurable GlobalTrak package is comprised of various sensors and seals, two-way communication systems, and data management systems that match information about events in transit with the standard shipping documents associated with those events. Users determine what events they need to monitor and how closely they need to be monitored, whatever they may be, such as:
  • Pickup, delivery and delay times
  • Changes in cargo temperature or radiation levels
  • Delivery paths
  • Opening of container doors
The system is then configured to report on progress as it occurs and to provide special reports when the sensors pick up unexpected activity. Because the system can be equipped with satellite, cellular and radio frequency technology, information about events can be captured and acted upon as they occur, no matter where or when.

Because such systems offer a great deal of protection, their use is being promoted and to some extent underwritten by at least one insurance provider, Marsh, which is developing a supply chain risk management practice. Prudent shippers are no longer relying on government rules and inspectors to protect them from hazards associated with international commerce.

For more information visit our Google Group page on Supply Chain Management.

To learn more about our work in consulting, read about our Practice or check out our Case Studies
.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Kellogg's Old and New

100th Anniversary Limited Edition


Previously we had reported on Kellogg's commitment to promote only healthy food to children (see Kellogg Reformulates). Kellogg recently announced significant progress in both introducing new, healthier foods and in reformulating some of its old favorites.

Last year when the reformulation program was announced about half of Kellogg's products around the world that were being marketed to children met the Nutrient Criteria, which are:

  • No more than 200 calories per serving
  • No more than 2 grams of saturated fat and no grams of labeled trans fat
  • No more than 230 milligrams of sodium
  • No more than 12 grams of sugar
Kellogg now reports that by the end of 2008 approximately 70% of products marketed to children will meet the guidelines whereupon advertising to children under 12 for the products that fail the guidelines will cease.

Among the products that have been successfully reformulated are:
  • Froot Loops (except Froot Loops with Marshmallows)
  • Corn Pops
  • Rice Krispies
  • Cocoa Krispies and
  • Apple Jacks
New, healthier offerings that are being introduced include:
  • All-Bran Strawberry Medley cereal (with 10 grams of fiber and 5 grams of protein)
  • Kellogg's Frosted Flakes Gold cereal (with 3 grams of fiber)
  • Mini-Wheats Unfrosted (with 6 grams of fiber and no added sugar)
  • Special K Cinnamon Pecan cereal
  • All-Bran Fiber Bars (10 grams of fiber)
  • All-Bran Fiber Drink Mix (10 grams of fiber)
Kellogg is also making it easier for consumers to find nutrition information, by prominently displaying Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA's) on package labels. Its informational website, KelloggNutrition.com, has also been enhanced.

In more good news, presumably aimed at adults, Kellogg has announced at least a temporary return of the Hydrox cookie in a limited 100th Anniversary Edition. You can show your enthusiasm for the first and (in my humble opinion) BEST creme-filled chocolate sandwich cookie by entering the Hydrox Fan Contest at HydroxCookies.com before July 14, 2008.

For more information visit our Google Group page on Kellogg Company.

To learn more about our work in consulting, read about our Practice or check out our Case Studies

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Too Many Starbucks?

Orin Smith

In 1999 when I first met Orin Smith, the now retired ceo of Starbucks, I was impressed with his warmth, intelligence and sincerity. I live in Chicago, where Starbucks had claimed an early beachhead, so I was familiar with the company's proclivity to create storefronts in close proximity with each other, and as a supply chain strategist I needed to know how this pattern would evolve as the chain expanded. Orin explained that the stores reached economies at very small scale; that each store in an urbanized area drew from a very small locale; and that a store in an office building with 20,000-60,000 inhabitants would not infringe on the market territory of one across the street with another 30,000 office workers.

In short, one store with one coffee station in the right location was profitable, even though most of its business occurred before lunchtime.

Starbucks advertising in those heady days was carried on millions of cups and thousands of storefronts and almost nowhere else. Its message was the wafting of the aroma of fresh ground beans through the open doorways.

As Starbucks scales back a bit in the U.S. it is much less likely to do so in urban areas than in suburban and residential locations where the store design and concept is less relevant to its clientele. Despite many false starts, Starbucks has failed to offer food that approaches the quality of its drinks. The "big food" concept (featuring muffins as large as your head), the "soggy sandwich" concept, and now the "reheated breakfast sandwich" concept all lack the basic elements of freshness, value and taste. That matters less in an urban location, where the coffee trade alone can sustain the store. In a suburban location, it takes more than coffee to start the family car.

For Lewis Black's comedic take on the phenomenon check out this video on YouTube.

See our newsletter on Restaurant Lifecycle Management here.

For an update on Starbucks' progress since Howard Schultz re-commandeered the brand, see "Starbucks Says Good-bye to the Bears." See also Chain Restaurant Development for more articles on related topics.

To learn more about our work in consulting, read about our Practice or check out our Case Studies