Category Archives: RVA Updates

Finding the right tools and KPI’s…

05 Friday Dec 2014

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Finding the right tools

Key Performance Indicators drive everything in today’s business. Very often though, there are too many and they can sometimes damage the operation of a company through incorrect application and/or sub optimisation by individuals and teams.

KPI’s should be based on the right selection of business tools, techniques and methods.. For Good Business Growth the 4 Key Areas of managing and measuring the supply chain are:

  • Availability: Production/logistics planning – Select the best techniques to plan and secure factory/supply chain capacity and capability?
  • Quality: Select the best tools to minimise the risks in product design and production. Then decide on the best process control method to reduce quality control at final delivery.
  • Social and Environmental Compliance: Find the best methodology to secure 365 days of operation rather than 2-3 days of a compliance audits.
  • Price Development: Agree the tools, techniques and methods to work with the Vendors, rather than negotiating with them.

Find the right tools, techniques and methods in the above areas, then the right KPI’s will follow.. They should be simple, transparent, continually reviewed and maintained with your supply chain team and vendors. Please contact us if we can help your organisations to achieve this..

Mark K.Astley

Everybody should be a Risk Manager!!

27 Thursday Nov 2014

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shutterstock_123603859In all businesses there are risks; from the small service delay to the major catastrophe!!

Unfortunately most of us think of risk in terms of the major disaster and by the way its a professional risk managers responsibility to calculate and determine what ‘could’ happen.

This kind of thinking is costing the supply chain a lot of wasted time and resource. For the sake of a few minutes, lifting up our heads and looking beyond current challenges, we can very easily use the concept of risk management in quick and easy ways to avoid future issues in the supply chain or the product..

Identifying a potential hazard for your product, social/ environmental compliance and supply chain operation can be done through various team meetings. Once hazards have been agreed then the following elements in determining the risks are vital to unlocking the potential benefits:

  • How Serious is it (death being the most serious)
  • Frequency ( how many times it could happen)
  • Can it be detected ( Can the hazard be seen)

Formal risk analysis has mainly been the domain of the engineers and number crunchers and has not been used enough in practical ways by operational teams. Its worse in the UK where the above 3 elements have not always been applied, resulting in some poor and very often media ridiculed decisions in governmental departments. (no more conker fights in the schoolyard).. This has resulted in 40% higher costs for UK health and safety management when compared with Germany.

All parts of the supply chain can on a daily basis conduct simple but formal risk analysis. They can easily determine the hazards and then using the above 3 elements calculate the risks and what preventive actions if any, are to be prioritised and implemented!! This need not be complicated, time consuming or costly to do!! The savings and improved service levels will be tremendous in terms of; improved cost management, vendor efficiency, employee job satisfaction and customer service levels.

Find the best, simple and effective method for your organisation to conduct risk analysis; try not to use the engineering and number crunching solutions. Its probably best to avoid the methodology used by UK government departments!!

As part of our Good Business Growth training offers, RVA conducts PRAS – Risk Analysis training. With all our training courses, this is conducted in a very practical and fun way.. Please click here for more details.

Mark K.Astley

Example: How to handle a possible child labour incident..

21 Friday Nov 2014

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shutterstock_198620522When operating and buying in developing countries, companies must be well prepared for various eventualities. One of the most sensitive and extremely urgent to resolve is discovering Child Labour in a factory. Our own experience  in this matter has not been positive; with confusion, delays and extensive disagreements on the evidence discovered and actions to be taken. On two occasions in the past 6 years it became necessary to stop production and hold deliveries until the issue was resolved.

Very often company instructions are available to guide buyers and factory suppliers when a possible incident of child labour is found on the factory floor. However, like most things when these directives are more than two pages, the stakeholders are not familiar enough with the instructions. Valuable hours and days can be lost before all parties become aligned in agreeing and resolving the situation – in some cases this does not even happen if the situation drags on too long!!

The most important point when suspected Child Labour is found is to put the safety and well being of that person at the front of everything. All decisions must be made with this mind-set firmly secured.

RVA have witnessed and has been frustrated at the failure of stakeholders to get to grips with the requirements and the decisions to be made. This has been mainly due to the lack of understanding on how the situation should be handled and processed. To address this, Robert Vernon Associates have produced a one page Process Flow chart to handle a possible Child Labour report. It is based on various existing company instructions and our own experience in capturing all actions and decisions to be made; providing work colleague and suppliers a simple guide to know and understand beforehand what to do, or if an incident does happen then a tool to use and guide everybody in a transparent and efficient way.

We hope below is useful for any international sourcing and factory operations to adapt and utilise. We also hope it proves the power of flow charting as a communications tool. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require further details and assistance in developing robust international sourcing tools and guidelines. The example below is just one part of our Good Business Growth operational tools package.

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The Cost Down Programme – CDP

14 Friday Nov 2014

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Robert Vernon Associates announces a new one day activity to its expanding programme of Good Business Growth training and facilitation courses:

THE COST DOWN PROGRAMME: CDP

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Introduction:  A one day activity programme, conducted on the production floor to identify and reduce article and production costs in a win/win situation for buyers and suppliers.

The Course Objectives: Secure current business and improve potential future volume levels by finding ways to reduce the price for the final customer, improve costs for the retailer and improve profitability in the supply chain.

The CDP is highly activity based, conducted on a client’s nominated production floor.. For more details please take a look at the activity details in this link..One Day on site training course_CDP.

If you and your company are interested to run Cost Down activities in your factories or in your suppliers please complete the contact form.

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Golden Circle of Human Motivation..

08 Saturday Nov 2014

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We are big fans of Simon Sinek’s ‘The Golden Circle’ of Human Motivation. A simple concept on how companies and leaders shall inspire their workforce and their customers.

Golden CircleAll companies know WHAT they have to do – sell a product or provide a service. Most companies will know HOW to do this, through their operating procedures, directives or systems. Not a lot of companies know WHY they do what they do.. Why do they exist, how do they justify their existence? Its not for profit as Sinek’s says, because profit is a result not a why!

From a company where RVA has had a lot of experience with, the Golden Circle can be applied. shutterstock_189696824

The IKEA vision is to create a better everyday life for the many people.’

This is a company that works from the inside to the out. Their values and justification to exist are deeply inscribed in the why. With their vision they inspire customers to have fabulous looking homes filled with affordable well designed/quality products, made and supplied by people who care. This vision then inspires their co-workers to do great things in the store, in the warehouse and at the factory. The many people include the factory operators as well as the customers.

Companies regardless of their size and industry inspire from the inside of the circle to the out – their customers buy Why they do not the What they do. Apple Inc prove this – they are not the cheapest on the market and they are not the most innovative but their vision about doing things differently and challenging the status quo is an inspiring message. MP3 players, tablets and smartphones existed on the shop shelves before Apple delivered their products, but it was Apple that created the markets for these devices – they inspired us to buy and use..

At  Robert Vernon Associates; we recently looked at our offer and compared it against Sinek’s Golden Circle..

Mark K.

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Create a Supply Chain Virtuous Circle..

31 Friday Oct 2014

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Linkedein Circle ed1Securing a competitive offer is getting tougher!

The basis to achieve and a have successful competitive offer are the 4 parts of Good Business Growth:

  • Securing the product to specification – Quality.
  • Delivery on time in the most cost efficient way – Availability.
  • Socially and Environmentally assured – Code of Conduct compliant.
  • A Low Price with a meaning – a functioning, well designed, guilt free product that is available on the shelf for the customer to buy.

All the above are integral – they are linked; if one goes down then the business is at jeopardy and if the buyer/vendor’s are not careful they can quickly go into a vicious circle. However, at the same time if one of the 4 parts performs to a higher level then it will in turn help bring the rest of the business to a level of continuous improvement – a virtuous circle.

From the design, merchandising, production, and compliance teams through to the logistic operations they all need to be aligned. If they work, plan and KPI separately in the above, they will create a vicious circle. Avoid this through the application of Good Business Growth and create a Virtuous Circle.

Mark K.Astley

The brands shall make the world a better place!

24 Friday Oct 2014

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shutterstock_202216336The customers on the high street or online do not want to make the world a better place!! They want the brands to do that for them. The brands need to obliterate guilt in buying their products and services by making visible, meaningful and constructive actions in their products, their processes and the way they sell.

Some recent examples in how the major global brands are trying to obliterate the guilt free buy and develop a better world for their stakeholders.

  • Tesco: The giant UK supermarket chain decided earlier this year that they would remove chocolate and sweets from the sales check out in order to help the customer to make a more informed purchase.
  • Subway: The sandwich retailer removed chemical ingredients from its bread that enhance the shelf life, despite them being legal and being approved by the FDA in the US.
  • Intel: The technology chipmaker has removed all ‘conflict’ minerals from its products.
  • Apple Inc: Have publicly confirmed to the world that they make profit from great products. They do not monetise data and customer information.
  • Tesla: The electronic car maker no longer enforces its patented auto technology, in order to secure faster development of electric cars and the global benefits that this will bring.
  • European cloth retailers eg H&M, ASOS, Topshop etc: no longer allow the use of angora in its products due to the industry practices in its supply.

All the above examples have been implemented this year. They have resulted in extra costs and sacrifices to the above organisation, but they have responded to the stakeholder issues and concerns in their supply chain.. The point about sacrifice is not valid in the medium to long term. There will always be an alternative and most of the time better solutions, its part of the business evolution of change and adaption.

In the supply chain, this evolution and brand responsibility to make the world a better place should be a constant part of the process. Its needs to continually find efficiencies through Product Quality, Social and Environmental compliance, Availability and Price. It has to develop and grow to ensure a guilt free, affordable, product purchase by the customer – GOOD BUSINESS GROWTH..

Robert Vernon Associates looks forward to helping your organisation to achieve Good Business Growth..

Mark K. Astley

 

 

RVA: Training Providers

17 Friday Oct 2014

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RVA Trainers  have over 40 years combined experience working with global retailers and suppliers  operating across the Far East and Europe. Work with them through our series of training courses exploring ways to improve performance and minimise risk in the fast developing and ever demanding world-supply market. These courses are highly activity-based, learning in a fun, informative and interesting way. See the list of training courses below..

 

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The Current Programme of Training Courses Offered by Robert Vernon Associates:

1. PRAS: Risk Management

2. CEPQ: Customer Experienced Product Quality

3.  CofC: Code of Conduct Management

4. Good Business Growth: 1 Day Senior Management course.

5. Good Business Growth: 2 day Training Course Autumn_Winter 14

Please use contact form below for more course details including location and costs..

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The RVA Team – a considerable number of years experience..

10 Friday Oct 2014

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Trevor Bailey  MSc BEd CertEd is an International Consultant, Lecturer & Trainer with 35 years experience.trevor profile picture

Jukka Vasarainen is an experienced Textile Engineer with over  30 years in manufacturing and sourcing.

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Elizabeth Morgan has more than 25 years experience creating successful and profitable brands, and growing markets, through innovation in marketing and product development.6352518[1]

 

 

 

 

0c36c4c[1]Dr Andrew Tempest has over 23 year senior management experience at the Mars Group.

 

 

 

mark solo2Mark K. Astley  has over 30 years of production management  and international sourcing experience. 

 

 

 

 

International Development – The Buyer Led Approach by Robert Vernon Associates

03 Friday Oct 2014

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Foreign aid does an enormous amount for the world’s poor, but many times when projects end, the recipients of aid can still remain poor. With Robert Vernon Associates background and experience working in developing countries, we can provide valuable support for government and NGO programmes using the following principles of a Buyer Led Approach in International Development:

  1. Buying organizations should be recognized as central figures linking local suppliers in the developing world with global market demand.
  2. This can then shift the focus of Development Projects to being a response to market opportunities.
  3. Instead of Development Projects seeking their own Key Performance Indicators, we would work to emphasize and secure a developing business units success, aligning it to the needs and security of its community stakeholders.

Using the concept and tools of Good Business Growth, Robert Vernon Associates provide an international development service that focus on production activities/ value chain management in developing countries; from the urban factory operation, down to the micro level of rural production units – benefiting the Suppliers, their Community and the Buyer.