DST Asks:Does Your Multi-Store Business Management System Capture and Consolidate Operating Information?
It’s the American way. Start your own business. Perfect your methods. Hire good people. Grow your customer base. Perfect the idea at one location, then expand by adding new locations that share the same business model. Thousands of successful retail enterprises have started in exactly this way. It’s a fundamental way to apply the principle we all learned in Economics 101 – economies of scale. Business 101 would call it leverage. Good entrepreneurs call it survival!
Herman Trend Alert: Whither Creativity?
Creativity has been highly valued for centuries. The ability of artists, musicians, writers, explorers, scientists, pioneers and business leaders to create new ideas, approaches, processes and ways of thinking have been admired and honored. The results of these treasured creative people have contributed to the development of new products, art forms, countries, and mankind’s reaching into the mysteries of space beyond our planet.
Herman Trend Alert: Transnational Job Movement
Many Americans are upset about the migration of jobs to countries like India and China. While the perception is that a huge proportion of jobs is permanently leaving the U.S., the reality seems to be considerably different.
NASCAR and Advance: A ‘Win-Win Situation’
There’s a trite phrase used with companies that market with NASCAR, said Karl Barnhart, a managing director at CoreBrand, a New York branding firm. “You win on Sunday, and you sell on Monday,” he said.
DST Asks: What Topics Would You Like to Read About?
Right now, today, perhaps no other industry is as poised and ready to transform itself as the automotive aftermarket parts and service industry to leverage technology usage to dramatically enhance productivity and boost bottom-line performance. That’s why we took the opportunity, after publishing three months worth of weekly columns, to ask our readers what they would like us to discuss in the next three months. The responses were interesting and thought provoking. Here’s a general recap of what we’ve covered so far and, based upon your feedback, topics for the near future.
DST Asks: What Factors Do You Look at When Measuring the Cost of Managing Inventory?
Manufacturers and very large distributors have benefited from the productivity- and efficiency-enhancing features of automated warehouses for years. That technology is now available to virtually any size business. What factors do you take into account in measuring the cost of managing your inventory and do you have the data available to make those measurements?
DST Asks: Do You Sell from Inventory Locations that are Not Your Own or Are You Making Plans To?
The old maxim “You can’t sell from an empty shelf” has become outdated. Why? Because technology can ensure that shelves are never bare, at least from the customer’s standpoint, with the advent of the Virtual Inventory Network (VIN) — a term coined by DST to encompass B2B, B2C, and Peer-to-Peer e-commerce. A VIN, also sometimes referred to as a Virtual Sales Network, can provide leverage and cohesiveness of shared inventory across multiple trading partners both up and down and across the supply chain.
Defining Your Process Model
In our last article we identified seven critical attributes of the process enterprise. Starting today, we’ll spend several weeks exploring some of the practical issues involved in bringing these key attributes to your own organization.
DST Asks: Do You Support Vendor Managed Inventory as a Business Practice?
“The Right Goods at the Right Price in the Right Place at the Right Time…”
Defining The Process Enterprise
In this week’s article we’ll deal with a fundamental question: What is a “process enterprise” and how does it differ from the kind of enterprise most of us are living in today?